Healthy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here was my dilemma: my children wanted cookies…chocolate chip cookies. They insisted we run by the grocery store to pick up butter, because they know there is none in the house! What does a mother do? I attempt to make some with out butter. I explain that if we make cookies with butter then we can only eat a few and put them away, but if we make them healthy with out butter… we can eat the whole batch! They are all about that! That’s my little troupers!

I resisted the temptation to search google and headed straight for my Nestle recipe. It called for 1 cup of butter!!! Three-fourths cup, oh my, white sugar, oh no, eggs (well, I don’t have any at the moment)… I start getting creative and this is what I came up with.

I halved the recipe and this one makes 14 tiny ‘tea-sized’ cookies (so eating the whole batch was not so bad). The cookies stayed plump and did not run all over the pan (what I was afraid might happen). They were moist and had a sweet yummy flavor. My flour was ground in my blender, so I will grind the next batch of flour using a grain mill, that will help with the ‘grainy texture’. My family liked it! My sister said they were good and only ate one claiming she was still stuffed from lunch. Okay – we’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.  She gets an “A” for effort for being there to try my experiments.

Let me know how this recipe works for you and how you liked it (or didn’t like it).  And, by the way, I did use Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsels. I guess one could get the organic chips or carob chips for a healthier treat, but I had none.

Healthy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

• • 1 1/8 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup apple sauce (I used one snack cup)
  • 1/3 cup pure cane sugar
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 2 Tblsp ground flax
  • 4 Tblsp water
  • splash of vanilla (1/2 tsp for those who need a measure)
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, soda and salt in a bowl.
2. In a tiny cup (I used a measuring cup) stir the flax and water together. Set aside. In another mixing, bowl combine apple sauce, sugar, honey, flax mixture and vanilla. Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir well. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Spray cookie pan (I use stone ware ) and scoop cookie mixture onto pan. Cook 12-14 minutes. Makes 14 ‘tea-sized’ cookies. Double the recipe for more.
4. These cookies are moist and stay their shape. They were simple to remove from the pan, no sticking involved.

I think I will experiment with oat flour or rolled oats in my next batch. Stay tuned and I’d love to hear how these worked for you.

Happy healthy baking!