EatingWell's Best Cookie Recipes and Bar Recipes
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Nut-Free Chocolate-Cherry Snack Bars
These chewy, crunchy and delicious nut-free snack bars boast good-for-you dried fruit, oats and little explosions of chocolate. We like the flavor of dried cherries or cranberries, but any coarsely chopped dried fruit will work.
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Rocky Road Brownies
These super-rich brownies made chocolaty with plenty of cocoa powder have less fat than other brownies, but stay extra gooey and good with marshmallows, nuts and chocolate chunks on top.
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Nana's Creole Pecan Cake Bars
These decadent pecan date bars are a bite-size alternative to holiday pecan pie.
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Stone-Fruit Bars
Try your favorite combination of stone fruit, such as peaches and cherries, in these easy fruit bars.
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Italian Hazelnut Cookies
These crispy cookies are made with Piedmontese staples--hazelnuts and eggs--and called Brutti Ma Buoni: literally, “Ugly But Good.” But they are really more plain-looking than “ugly,” and pack a powerful, sweet, nutty burst of flavor, making them welcome at any table.
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Double Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chewies
These soft chocolate cookies have a big peanut flavor since they use peanut butter and peanut butter chips.
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Mom's Apple Squares
Traditional recipes for apple squares often use plenty of trans fat–laden shortening in the crust. We replaced it with a mixture of canola oil and butter and swapped out half the all-purpose flour for whole-wheat pastry flour for a little fiber. They are best enjoyed slightly warm. Gently reheat any leftovers in the oven or toaster oven to recrisp the crust.
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Outrageous Macaroons
These luxurious macaroons studded with pistachios and dried cranberries hail from food stylist Katie Webster. She made them three years ago when she was a personal chef for a gluten-intolerant client, then began selling them to a grateful crowd at her local farmers' market. Although you can concoct them with either sweetened or unsweetened coconut, we find that the unsweetened packs a more coconutty wallop. For a variation, substitute chopped crystallized ginger and mini chocolate chips for the pistachios and cranberries.
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Almond & Honey-Butter Cookies
This thumbprint cookie uses honey as the only sweetener and tender ground almonds to replace much of the butter found in similar cookies. Just a touch of butter mixed with honey in the filling gives it a rich flavor without too much saturated fat.
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Bev's Chocolate Chip Cookies
EatingWell reader Beverley Sharpe of Santa Barbara, California, contributed this healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe. She gave chocolate chip cookies a healthy update by cutting back on sugar and incorporating whole grains. To increase protein, Sharpe replaces the rolled oats with 1 cup almond meal.