These chunky, cheerful, vegan, gluten-free Happy Monkey Cookies are totally worth messing up your clean kitchen over. Yup, baking can be a flour-splattering, dishwasher-filling job, but in the end homemade cookies are sooooo worth it.

Especially these cuties.

Each plump, rounded cookie is studded with vegan chocolate chips, walnuts and Brazil nuts. With a hint of tropical banana, vanilla bean and coconut in every dunkable bite. As you will see in my video for this recipe, these cookies are perfect for dunking into a tall glass of almond milk. They are sturdy and chewy, and do not crumble apart.

And I love that they kinda look like giant balls of cookie dough. Loved these!

Get the recipe + watch me make them in a video!..

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

These are my spin on a "Chunky Monkey" flavored cookie. With chunky walnuts and Brazil nuts, chocolate chips and a hint of banana, coconut and vanilla bean.

...speaking of chunky monkey.. I am still endlessly searching for the vegan Ben & Jerry's flavors. Hope they come to my part of Los Angeles soon. Has anyone tried them yet? Fave flavor?

Giant chunks of my two fave nuts.. walnut and selenium-rich Brazil nuts.

Happy Monkey Cookies

By Kathy Patalsky
Published 03/06/2016

These are my spin on a "chunky monkey" flavor. With walnuts, Brazil nuts, banana, chocolate, cinnamon and vanilla bean. Vegan, gluten-free and soy-free too!

Ingredients

dry:
1 ½ cups gluten-free flour (all purpose baking blend -- I used Arrowhead Mills)
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ cup coconut sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
wet:
1 tablespoon flax seeds, freshly ground*
1 banana
½ cup warm water
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or one vanilla bean, seeds)
½ cup virgin coconut oil, softened
fold-ins:
½ cup chopped Brazil nuts and walnuts - raw
½ - ¾ cup vegan chocolate chips
⅓ cup shredded coconut, optional
* freshly ground, powder-fine flax seed is so much better that store bought 'ground flax seed' -- I blend mine in my Vitamix

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. (Tip: I like to leave out ½ cup flour and fold it in towards the end just in case I want to add a little less or a little more based on how my dough feels. The banana size variability can make the moisture vary a tiny bit.)
In a blender, combine all the wet ingredients.
Stir the wet into the dry. Then fold in the remaining ½ cup of flour. Add a little more of less if you think your dough needs it.
Fold in nuts and chocolate.
Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Serve warm. Store leftovers on counter for up to a day -- then store in fridge or freezer.

Yield: 16 cookies
Prep Time: 00 hrs. 10 mins.
Cook time: 00 hrs. 15 mins.
Total time: 25 mins.
Tags: dessert,cookies,chocolate,chunky monkey,glutenfree,soyfree,vegan,banana

Curious questions of the day:

- What amazing cookie flavor have you baked lately?
- Have you been watching Fuller House on Netflix? I seriously love it. These cookies + Fuller House = flashback to every day after school as a kid!

ps. Do not forget to enter my $500 cash giveaway going on now! Excited to award one of you guys this fantastic prize!