I will tell you the truth. When I first encountered the recipe for Carnival Cookies in the lovely and amazing cookbook Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen by Heidi Swanson, the first thing that captured my attention was the name. Carnivals are fun! But as I scanned the ingredients, I became alarmed: "these sound sort of healthy." But then, the more I lingered on the entire list, I thought "gosh, these sound fairly delicious, in spite of some alarmingly healthy-sounding ingredients!".

And you know what? I was rewarded when I tried them out in my own kitchen. They tasted vaguely granola-y, but not in a bad way. In a decadent way. But...here's the thing. (Duh) I forgot to photograph these beauties before bringing them to an event, but you can find some pretty pictures here.

Carnival Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups well-mashed bananas
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup barely warmed (not solid) extra-virgin coconut oil
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup almond meal
1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
2/3 cup shelled whole peanuts
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups popped corn

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350 with racks in the top and bottom third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine the bananas, vanilla, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the oats, almond meal, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring until combined. Fold in the chocolate, then the peanuts, and lastly the popped corn. The dough is looser than a standard cookie dough, but don't worry.
Firmly shape balls with your hands, about 1 heaping tablespoon each, and place them about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.
Bake 14-17 minutes, swapping the baking sheets from top to bottom once along the way, until the bottoms are deeply golden. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on a wire rack. Makes 24 cookies.