For those who crave the timeless comfort of chocolate chip cookies but want a healthier option, this article provides a comprehensive guide to creating delicious and guilt-free treats. These recipes focus on using wholesome ingredients and smart substitutions to reduce sugar, fat, and calories without sacrificing flavor or texture.
The Allure of Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
The perfect chocolate chip cookie should be soft, chewy, and crispy, all at the same time, with just the right amount of chocolate chips. These healthy chocolate chip cookies are so soft, chewy, and ooey-gooey. Plus, they're super quick and easy to make and have everything you'd want in a perfect cookie. They are quick and easy to make and just everything you'd want in a perfect cookie. They are soft, chewy, and loaded with chocolate chips in every bite.
Key Ingredients and Their Benefits
Several recipes replace traditional ingredients with healthier alternatives. These cookies can be whole grain, gluten free, vegan, and much lower in sugar, fat, and calories than packaged or homemade traditional chocolate chip cookies. Here's a breakdown of some common substitutions:
- Flour: Instead of relying on white flour, which loses fiber and nutrients in the processing, experiment with whole-wheat flour. You can reliably swap out at least half the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour in most cookies. Almond flour gives the chocolate chip cookies a light texture, is gluten-free, grain-free, have no refined sugars, are dairy-free. Technically, you can substitute spelt flour or loosely packed white flour in the cookies.
- Sugar: For a refined sugar free option, choose coconut sugar, evaporated cane juice, or date sugar. As you may have noticed from the ingredients list, Granular Swerve is used in place of white sugar, and Brown Swerve in place of brown sugar. Both of these sweeteners have 0 calories and are just as sweet as sugar. One option is to use monk fruit, and I suggest using Lakanto's Monk Fruit Sweetener in place of the sugar and Lakanto's Golden Sweetener in place of the brown sugar. And another option is to use allulose as a substitute for sugar. Maple syrup adds sweetness to the cookies without being overpowering. These lighter cookies are sweetened with honey instead of white sugar.
- Fat: Butter is part of what makes cookies so rich and satisfying, but you can often get away with less than a recipe calls for. You can also use extra-virgin olive oil or another healthier fat to replace some of the butter. Extra virgin coconut oil is made from fresh, raw coconut flesh that is cold-pressed to extract the oil. Refined coconut oil is bleached, and deodorized to remove impurities and improve its color, texture, and shelf life.
- Chocolate Chips: The darker the chocolate, the higher the antioxidants and the lower the sugar. Some brands now make chips with upwards of 60 percent cacao. I like semi sweet or dark chocolate chips for extra antioxidants. Lily’s sugar-free chocolate chips here to further reduce the sugar.
Recipe 1: Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
These healthy chocolate chip cookies made with almond flour are gluten-free, grain-free, have no refined sugars, are dairy-free, and taste amazing! They have six simple ingredients and can be made in fifteen minutes!
Ingredients:
- Almond flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Egg
- Maple syrup
- Vanilla
- Chocolate chips
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Mix in the egg, maple syrup, and vanilla.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and scoop 3 tablespoon-sized doughballs onto the parchment paper two inches apart.
- Roll the dough into a ball and press them flat to form a cookie shape. They won't spread much since they're almond flour and not regular all-purpose flour.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden.
- Allow them to cool on the baking sheet.
Recipe 2: Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal
With a soft and chewy texture, they are a perfect combination of a chocolate chip cookie and an oatmeal cookie. Plus, they are flourless, making them a great option for those following a gluten-free diet.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
Ingredients:
- Rolled oats
- Almond flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Honey
- Egg
- Melted coconut oil
- Vanilla extract
- Dark chocolate chips
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the rolled oats, almond flour, baking powder and salt and mix.
- Add the honey, egg, melted coconut oil, vanilla extract and egg and mix well until the ingredients are well combined.
- Stir in the dark chocolate chips.
- Drop the dough by level tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until they are lightly golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe 3: Toll House Classic with a Healthy Twist
The Toll House classic gets a healthier chocolate chip cookie makeover here by calling for whole grain and nut flour in place of white flour. It cuts the amount of total fat and replaces some of the butter with olive oil. It also uses antioxidant-rich dark chocolate in place of semi-sweet chocolate.
Ingredients:
- Butter
- Olive oil
- Brown sugar
- Almond flour
- Whole-wheat pastry flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Dark chocolate
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream the butter, olive oil, and brown sugar with an electric mixture until creamy and blended, 1 minute.
- Add the almond flour, whole-wheat pastry flour, baking soda, and salt to the bowl.
- Beat the ingredients together until creamy, 1 minute.
- Arrange tablespoon-size balls of dough on 1 baking sheet and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
- Distribute half the dough balls on the 2nd baking sheet. Be sure to leave space between the dough balls.
- Add a tiny crumble of flaky salt on top of each cookie, if desired.
- Bake until the cookies flatten and are just begining to show a hint of brown, 12-13 minutes.
- Remove from the oven. Let cool long enough that the cookies are firm and chewy, about 20 minutes.
Tips for Baking the Perfect Healthy Cookies
- Measure flour correctly: I can’t stress enough, how important it is! Spoon flour into a measuring cup and level with a butter knife. Be sure to measure your flour correctly by lightly spooning it into the measuring cup, then leveling it off. If you pack the flour too tightly by scooping it from the bag or container, the cookies will come out dry.
- Use softened butter: Softened butter means a dent appears when you touch it with a finger. To soften butter, just leave it at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
- Don’t skip chilling the dough: Because this cookie dough contains butter and sugar, it has to be firmed up before baking. While it does take some planning, chilling is necessary for the best-tasting cookies. One hour of chill time allows the fat to solidify and the wet and dry ingredients to incorporate so that your cookies come out chewy and tender. Chilling cookie dough also ensures the cookies don’t spread too much on the baking sheet. For soft chocolate chip cookies, refrigerate until chilled or overnight.
- Do not over bake cookies: With most cookies you want to remove them from the oven before they start browning and finish settling during cooling off period. DO NOT overbake the cookies! Bake for 10 minutes and remove while cookies appear underbaked, puffy and light in color.
- Use cold baking sheets: Make sure your baking sheets are cold. If you baked other cookies right before, cool them off.
- Storage: If you like chewy cookies, store in a cool dry place in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Store in an airtight container - or a plastic bag - for up to a week. For softer cookies, store in a lidded plastic container.
Variations and Add-Ins
- Nuts: You can also stir in a sprinkle of cinnamon or a handful of shredded coconut or crushed peanuts to add both flavor and texture. Feel free to add 1/2 cup chopped nuts if you like.
- Fancy cookies: For fancy chocolate chip cookies, replace the chocolate chips with chopped chocolate bars or chocolate chunks. Chop up dark chocolate bar into chunks and add instead of chocolate chips.
- Peanut butter cookies: Want peanut butter cookies? Add in the pure vanilla extract, vegetable or coconut oil, and milk of choice (dairy free if desired).
Serving and Enjoying
These cookies are perfect for little gifts during the holiday season or just perfect to make when attending a get together. The initial plan had been to pack them up and take the entire batch of the cookies to a friend’s outdoor annual summer party. Kids will love when you turn these healthy chocolate chip cookies into dinky doozies!
Freezing and Shipping
- Freeze: Bake and cool cookies completely. Then place in a resealable plastic bag or airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. You can also freeze chocolate chip cookie dough itself or roll into balls, freeze on a baking sheet and and then transfer into the container. Thaw in the fridge overnight before baking. To Freeze Cookie Dough: Prepare the dough as directed, and lay the cookie dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the freezer until the cookie dough is frozen solid. Freeze the frozen cookie balls in a freezer-safe ziptop bag or storage container for up to 3 months.
- Ship: A batch of chocolate chip cookies is perfect for shipping to family and friends. Bake and cool. Place 2 cookies back to back and wrap with plastic wrap.
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