healthy choc-chip cookie alternative: avocado, banana + chocolate cookie recipe

As you may or may not know, I am trying to eat 'sugar-free' for lent. This is flexible, though, I give myself the weekends off, in that if I want to eat white flour or what have you, I'll do it on these days and it's really just a kick up the bum I needed to get my eating habits way back on track. I've lost about 6lbs since starting! Because of this, I have been trying really hard to keep away from cakes, and sugary things, but occasionally, I crave a sweet, cake-like something. 

I scoured blogs, Pinterest, Instagram and websites for some lower-sugar sweet treats, and I'm building a good repertoire. I've got some excellent oat and apple flapjack bars and some whole-wheat banana bread that I'll be sharing soon, but after posting these on Instagram, I got a few requests to share you, so I'm going with this one first!

Anyway, a few notes on these cookies... They are good. However, I personally only really loved them when they were fresh out of the oven and all melty inside. The original post I adapted this recipe from said she preferred them out of the fridge - and to me this made the cookies too thick and a bit claggy - but my mum loved them like this! So who knows, you should definitely try them and see what you think. I love them hot, with a dollop of creme fraiche or some vanilla ice-cream...

INGREDIENTS:
- 1 medium avocado
- 1 medium sized banana
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp of honey, or more or less, depending on how sweet you like your cookies
- 50g of dark chocolate, chopped into chunks (I used 90% cocoa solids)
- 1/2 cup of cocoa powder (about 60g)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 175C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
2. Mash a ripe avocado and banana in a bowl, then use a hand mixer (or you can do it in a food processor) to make the mixture as smooth as possible, I found a wooden spoon didn't quite cut it.
3. Add the egg and honey, and mix well with hand mixer or processor.
4. Add the cocoa powder and baking soda, and mix in with a spoon.
5. Stir in chocolate chunks with a spoon, and then I put my mixture in the fridge for 10 minutes, as it was a bit sloppy to handle, well.
6. Dollop spoonfuls onto a lined baking tray, I used an ice-cream scoop that I use for cupcakes, etc. The recipe I based this on said it yielded 10 cookies. I managed to get 9 pretty decent sized cookies. You could make them smaller and get more.
7. Bake for 10 minutes, the cookies will go sort of shiny on top, and the aren't as wet looking any more. They are very dark, almost black cookies, so it's hard to tell how they're cooking, so keep an eye on them!
8. Remove, allow to cool and go a bit more solid, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Store in the fridge, and eat with a glass of milk, obviously!

Some notes on the original recipe from The Smoothie Lover: I have no idea where I would even get coconut sugar, so in the notes she says you can use banana instead, so I went with that. After tasting it, though, I found that the mixture was kind of bitter for me, so added the honey as well, and this combination is perfect! I am considering trying them with no avocado next time, and just two bananas.
I also normally wouldn't advocate the use of a hand-mixer, but I found it was hard to get the mixture smooth with just a spoon, so I would recommend it, or a food processor, etc.

I had lots of requests on Instagram for the recipe, so let me know what you think or share with me if you try this out... I'd love to see what you thought of them!