Healthy cookies take just 10 minutes to make - quicker than going to the shop

Cookies are one of life's simple pleasures. Unfortunately, they are also usually packed with sugar and other industrial ingredients that you simply wouldn't have in your kitchen at home.

But you really can recreate both the sweetness and satisfying texture of a good cookie without all the synthetic ingredients that make it ultra-processed. Which means you can eat them, and give them to your kids, with no guilt at all.

These Zoe almond cookies are a perfect example of this. They do contain sugar, but they contain no ingredients like emulsifiers and maltodextrin which food producers add to food to make them last longer and more profitable (and may be doing more harm to your health than you realise).

I found this recipe on the Zoe app, which I signed up to in a bid to improve my health and the quality of what I eat (you can read about my Zoe experience here) after quitting ultra-processed food altogether, which you can read about here.

I couldn't believe how simple it was - nor how satisfying the results were. I have made other healthy cookies which were, frankly, unpleasant.

You will need

• A couple of bowls for mixing
• A tray for baking

Ingredients (makes eight cookies)

• Brown sugar, 2 tbsp
• Flaxseeds or Linseeds, 1.5 tbsp
• Water, 2.5 tbsp
• Pecans, 35g
• Dark chocolate, 55g
• Ground almonds, 130g
• Salt, pinch
• Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

In a bowl, put the flaxseeds/linseeds in the water and set aside.

In a different bowl, combine the brown sugar and olive oil.

Add in the ground almonds and stir to combine well.

Add the flaxseeds/linseeds and stir again.

Sprinkle in the salt, chocolate and pecans and stir again.

Roll the cookie dough into 8 balls and flatten down with the palm of your hand, then put in the oven for just 10 minutes.