Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies: Slow Food Swaps

Sharing is caring!

Homemade chocolate chip cookies. You can’t get much better than that. That is why baking chocolate chip cookies is a regular occurrence at our house even when we are tired and unmotivated. Unfortunately, our stand by recipe wasn’t hitting the mark on nutrition so I decided to create some healthy chocolate chip cookies that we can make a regular “treat”.

First a Bit of History

I wish I didn’t have to admit this, but our diet at home has taken a swan dive from fairly healthy to incredibly SAD in the past year or two. I used to take pride in what I cooked for my family, trying our different healthy recipes in the search for food our family could adopt into our weekly rotation. But, with the busyness of building our house and my bout of depression that followed, I had barely enough energy to pop a pan of frozen fish sticks in the oven, let alone cook anything from scratch.

Thanks to some lifestyle changes, medication, therapy, and mindset shifting, my motivation and energy is coming back. It is time for me to get creative in the kitchen again. Rather than toss all the family favorites in one swoop and say no more cookies, chips, or frozen dinners from this point forward, I am going to take the slow approach. One go-to family staple at a time, I will analyze it’s impact on our heath, the environment, and/or budget and find do-able swaps that we can feel good about.

On the chopping block today: our go-to chocolate chip cookies recipe.

I analyzed our usual recipe and searched for inspiration from other healthier recipes to create this new chocolate chip cookie recipe that would be a healthier choice for our family. One that the kids will enjoy and I do not have to feel guilty about letting them eat one for breakfast. In fact, this one checks so many of my boxes for what healthy food should be, it is practically medicinal.

First, let’s look at the standard chocolate chip recipe. This recipe is the original Tollhouse recipe that I used all the time and is the one I used as the starting point for the changes I made.

Now for the Swaps to Make Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

First Swap: All purpose flour

In the past, I have had very little luck with swapping all purpose flour with whole wheat flour. It always smelled and tasted off to me. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. I suspect it is because I don’t use it often enough and it ends up going rancid on me faster than white flour. Next time, I will keep it in the freezer and see if that helps. For now though, I have all purpose flour on hand so I am simply going to swap about 1/2 the flour for rolled oats in my recipe.

Second Swap: Butter

“They” seem to go back and forth on whether butter is a villain or not so I have planted myself on the pro-butter side. Many recipes I came across subbed butter for coconut oil but with them both being saturated fats, for the sake of this experiment, I decided butter gets to stay. I did however sub 1/2 the butter for nut and seed butter to amp of the nutritional factor of these cookies. Half the fat in nut butter is the healthy monosaturated fat which makes it a win over the butter and wins again in the protein department.

Third Swap: Sugar

All the refined sugar was removed from my new recipe. I opted to replace the 3/4 cup of brown sugar with 1 cup of chopped dates. Dates are high in fiber and B vitamins and iron, a few things I am always looking to add to our diet. The white sugar was replaced with maple syrup.

Nuts

I opted to add nuts to this recipe rather than remove them as I normally do. Nuts are high in fiber, protein and healthy fats which keep you feeling satisfied. I opted for slivered almonds to match the texture of the rolled oats. My youngest is not the biggest fan of nuts and these almonds are nearly unnoticeable in texture and taste.

Now on to the good stuff…

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

First…

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. I use compostable parchment paper because my silicone mats got commandeered for crafting purposes. The used parchment paper acts as a good liner for our kitchen compost bin.

Next…

In a blender or food processor, pulse together 1 cup of chopped dates and 1 cup of all purpose flour until a crumbly mixture is formed. I was worried about whether my blender could do it but it went surprisingly well.

Then…

In medium bow[, mix flour and date mixture with 1 cup of rolled oats and 1 tsp baking soda, set aside.

With a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat 1/2 cup butter with 1/2 cup of nut butter until well combined. Add 1/4 cup of maple syrup and 1 tsp vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Those black bits in the mixture are chia seeds that were in the nut butter I used.

Add flour/oat/date mixture to butter mixture, mixing in 1/3 at a time, scaping sides of the bowl as needed. Fold in 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of nuts.

Lastly…

Drop by heaping spoonful onto prepared pans, spacing 1-2 inches apart. These cookies do not spread much. Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes until the edges are brown. Cool on pan for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Notes

Store left over cookies in the refrigerator (they taste best cold).

Tell me what you think?

Read More

Related Articles

Sharing is caring!