Friday, March 30, 2012

Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookies (Recipe With Whole Wheat and Pure Cane Sugar)

3-29-12 Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s always nice to be in love.  Agreed?  Yes!  I’ve been in love for over 15 years now and I’d have to say it’s pretty darn great!  Fell in love again today—but it’s a different kind of love—it’s these cookies.  I love them.  Plain and simple.  And I know what you’re thinking, “But Katrina, those look like just any other chocolate chip cookie.”  Well, for me, they are almost like my favorite chocolate chip cookies, but I took that same recipe, made a few healthier changes and am SO happy with how they turned out on the first try!

I really am trying to be better at eating healthier things, but especially cutting back on refined sugar and white flour (though I do so love them!) ;)  But being “better” doesn’t mean you can never have delicious things and indulge now and then.  I just feel better when I need a little treat knowing it is just a little better but is still very satisfying.  These cookies have whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour.  Then they have pure cane sugar instead of white granulated (refined) sugar and finally I used Bestlife buttery baking sticks instead of butter.  Besides detecting the slight nuttiness from the whole wheat flour, I would never know they don’t have “real” butter and “real” sugar.  So I am in love!

In the recipe, I am giving all the equivalents for most of the ingredients in ounces, grams or cup/tablespoon measurements.  That is because I want anyone to be able to make these cookies, but I really prefer to do most of my baking by weighing ingredients on my kitchen scale.  I have found that doing so gives the best results.  If you don’t have a kitchen scale, I highly recommend you get one!  This is a smaller recipe, because I was trying it out for the first time.  You could easily double it.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip CookiesHealthier Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (8  1/2 ounces) whole wheat pastry flour

heaping 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

scant 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

scant 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

5 tablespoons (2  1/2 ounces) Bestlife Buttery Baking Sticks (or any trans fat free butter substitute—not margarine!), softened

1/2 cup plus 1  1/2 tablespoons pure cane sugar (120 grams)

1 teaspoon molasses

1/2 a large egg (25 grams or 2 tablespoons of beaten egg)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 to 1 cup good quality chocolate chips (I used 60% cacao chips) (5 ounces)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk together, set aside.

Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Add the cane sugar and molasses and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat another minute or so.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the dry ingredients and beat just until combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Scoop out cookie dough balls onto baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes (longer if you want them crispier).  Remove from oven** and let sit on baking sheet 5-10 minutes.  Remove to wire racks to cool completely.  Makes about 18 cookies.

**If any cookies are not nicely rounded, I like to push them into shape with the edge of a metal spatula as soon as they come out of the oven.  Just gently push around any edges that are sticking out.  I do this with pretty much any cookies that are funny shaped or not rounded.  You just need to do it before they start to harden up right out of the oven.  I don’t like what I call “amoeba” cookies. ;)

Whole Wheat, No Refined Sugar Chocolate Chip CookiesLove this guy---

KevinBigBoy      KevinKinder   T

Bah, cute—who is that?  It’s Kevin when he was a baby and in kindergarten (and that’s an engagement picture of us from 15 years ago)!

Love these cookies, too!  Okay, I love a lot of other people and things, but you get the idea.  Make these cookies, try them out!

14 comments:

Sue @ Cakeballs, cookies and more said...

aw, so cute, and yummy cookies, healthy means you can eat more!

Kayte said...

Cute photos! Now, let's see, if we replaced those chocolate chips with dried cranberries or raisins, I think we could up that healthy factor even more...tee hee.

Fallon said...

Awww cute! Gives me hope in the love department. ;)

The cookies look so delicious. Usually whole wheat flour changes the look of a cookie but you'd never suspect it with these. Love how big they turned out as well!

Judy said...

They do look yummy, Katrina.
congrats on your successful experiment!

Flourchild said...

Yum..the cookies look great!
I love your husbands pictures!

Tates said...

Thanks for sharing great information baking cookies recipes. I liked it lot.

Shelby said...

Awww, so cute :) The cookies sound great too...I just need to get the butter you mention and I'll be set to try them!

Lisa Ernst said...

This looks great. I love using whole wheat pastry flour as it really subs well for white flour in so many recipes.

Iva said...

I love these healty versions of yummy foods...

Emily said...

Aww you guys are so cute! You seem like the happiest couple. :)

These cookies look delicious! They're so pretty!

Katherine Martinelli said...

What a sweet post!! Love your engagement photo :-) And these cookies look wonderful! I am also trying to be healthier lately so must try these.

wendy (pinkstripes) said...

Amoeba cookies! But those are the ones Paul gets to eat. I give the pretty ones away. ;) Great tip about making them rounded though.

Food Safety Course said...

Who can't resist this recipe? It really looks delish! Thanks for sharing, Katrina! I'll probably make this this holy week.

Making Vanilla said...

What's your favorite vanilla extract to use in your baking? Have you ever tried making homemade vanilla?

You'll never go back to store-bought vanilla! Thanks for the recipe.