Will doom takes us all or is there still time to survive? Let’s make these zucchini cookies quickly and enjoy life!

It seems like nature already knows and prepares the wildlife for the future on Earth. Well, it’s not really big of a news, given that evolution of species has never been stopped, only we live too short period of time to notice it.

What’s the heat about?

Science may have caught nature in the act though. If such thing is even possible. It seems that animals adopt to a warmer climate by growing bigger ears, tails, legs and most notably beaks over generations.

It may seem a weird response for increased temperature, but most animals have no sweat glands that they could use to cool themselves nor nicely air-conditioned homes and cars to hide from the heat.

So, they have to exchange heat at places where there is no fur which makes us understand why some tropical birds sport extraordinary big beaks and what uses long tails have.

Change or not to change?

What’s interesting though is not that nature evolves but rather that we could catch it in action. Sure, it helped that scientists try to keep track of spices and their various aspects, otherwise a growth of 4-10% over the past 50 years would have caught no one’s attention.

It’s a short time in evolutionary terms but changes were more dramatic and sudden in Earths history. A stray comet or volcanic eruptions caused yearlong havocs in a blink of an eye and species had much shorter time to adopt to it than to a slowly warming planet.

The sad fact is that every living being is made for the environment that allowed its ancestors to live. If the environment changes and the individuals die before capable of setting their offspring onto their feet, the species as a whole is doomed.

In case of humans that’s a pretty long time, given how long we nurture our offspring, once they see the light of Sun. Growing bigger feet, hands, ears, or simply more sweat glands takes way longer for us than for other spices who pack up the whole thing from the beginning of spring to the end of summer.

It seems that short lifecycle has an advantage when it comes to long term species survival, not to mention when we try to cultivate vegetables to our liking.

How zucchini changed?

Zucchini descends from squashes that were domesticated in Meso-America over 7000 years ago but zucchini itself was bred in Milan in the late 19^th century. It took quite a journey to get from one continent to the other but through discipline and resilience it seems everything is possible. Given that there is enough time, of course.

Making zucchini into cakes and cookies isn’t really a phenomenon with deep traditions in any cultures but rather a new custom. It must have something to do with the fact that zucchini isn’t really on the sweet side of squashes.

How have zucchini cookies changed?

None the less, since we have table sugar readily and cheaply available, we can make anything sweet, even our meals which is why many of us try to quit sugar and live a healthier life.

Luckily, we can make zucchini cookies with natural sweeteners, like fruits or not so natural ones but low in carbs so they can snugly fit into any diet. The only thing we need is enough zucchini and time on our hand to enjoy them!

Ingredients

Type 1 – Refined Sugar Free

(25 cookies)

1 cup / 150g Zucchini (shredded)
4 tablespoons / 50g Butter
1 piece / 60g Egg
1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
½ teaspoon / 2.5ml Vanilla
½ teaspoon / 1g Cinnamon
1 piece / 120g Banana or sweetener of choice (mashed)
2 cups / 180g Rolled oat
Optional
- 1 cup / 120g Flour
- 1 oz / 20g Chocolate (sugar free)
- 1 oz / 25g Raisin
- 1 tablespoon / 8g Cocoa powder

Type 2 – Dairy Free

3 cups / 450g Zucchini (shredded)
4 tablespoons / 50g Peanut butter
1 medium / 50g Egg
1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
½ teaspoon / 2.5ml Vanilla
½ teaspoon / 1g Cinnamon
¼ cup / 25g Raisin or 1 – 2 mashed Banana
2 cups / 180g Rolled oat
Optional
- 1 cup / 120g Flour
- 1 oz / 20g Chocolate (sugar free)
- 1 tablespoon / 8g Cocoa powder

Type 3 – Low carb – Keto

(20 cookies)

1 cup / 150g Zucchini
4 tablespoons / 50g Butter
1 piece / 60g Egg
1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
½ teaspoon / 2.5ml Vanilla
½ teaspoon / 1g Cinnamon
1 piece / 120g Banana or sweetener of choice
1 cup / 100g Almond flour
1 cup / 100g Coconut flour
Optional
- 1 oz / 20g Chocolate (sugar free)

How to make Zucchini cookies

Old school – Refined Sugar Free

With an electric whisk beat shredded zucchini, butter, eggs, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, mashed banana.
Add the oat and any other optional ingredient, like flour, chocolate chips or raisins.
Prepare a glass with water and a spoon next to our working surface. Spoon out the desired size cookie dollops. Our favorite size are the 1 oz / 1 tablespoon / 25g cookies. Submerge the spoon after every cookie so the dough won’t stick. For nicer looking cookies, wet hands and make balls.
Flatten the dough with a fork, using the same wet method as with the spoon. Flatter cookies will be crunchier while higher ones are softer.
Place the cookies onto the middle rack of a preheated 360°F / 180°C oven until desired color and texture is reached. Softer, paler cookies are ready after about 15 minutes while a golden brown but crunchier ones need 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

New school – Low carb – Keto

Shred the zucchini then squeeze out some of its juice. Don’t discard it yet as we may need it later.
With an electric whisk, cream the butter.
Beat in the egg, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, banana and zucchini too.
Mix in the almond and coconut flour and any other optional ingredient like chocolate chips or raisins too. Try the dough now. It’s surprisingly tasty. Maybe, we don’t even want to bake it and go full paleo from now on.
Make a log out of the dough so it will be easier to measure out the cookies to equal sizes.
Make balls from the pieces so the cookies will have a more uniform appearance.
Wet the balls in the zucchini juice or in water so they won’t stick.
Press them to a disc shape with a wet spatula, flat tool or by hand. If a spatula is not available, work directly on a parchment paper as transferring the dough will be a challenge by hand.
Transfer the cookies onto a parchment lined baking tray then place them into the middle rack of a 360°F / 180°C oven until golden desired color is reached. Paler cookies are ready after about 15 minutes while a golden brown ones need 20 minutes. There isn’t much difference in texture but golden brown ones have a bit of extra flavor.