“Healthy” Chocolate Chip Cookies

A couple of summers ago I took the kids to the US to visit our friends, Karen, Chris, Abby and Bridget. When we arrived, thankfully Karen had baked. It had been quite a long trip and we needed sustenance. One of the Tupperware containers sitting on the counter had her Mom’s tea biscuits in it – yummy and not at all good for you because they are baked with white flour and other bad things.I will share this delicious recipe later with Karen's (and Pat's!) permission.

The other container had these cookies in it. I immediately grabbed one because I have a serious problem with chocolate and I simply cannot pass it up. These cookies looked like regular cookies, but when I took my first bite I realized that there was something different. I thought I detected a hint of maple, but just to be sure, I took another cookie. In the second cookie I confirmed to myself that there was definitely maple in there, but I still could not put my finger on what else was different. So I thought I had better try just one more, just to be certain. I still could not put my finger on it, but knew I could not possibly have a fourth. Instead, I asked Karen for the recipe.

The title was Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I immediately objected to. Who’s fooling who, I thought to myself. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the cookies were made with spelt flour. OK, that’s fine, but that doesn’t make them “healthy”. Then I noticed no eggs – OK, that makes them have low cholesterol, but “healthy”? The recipe also contains oatmeal – so they had extra fibre, maybe that’s a little big healthy. Finally I noticed that instead of sugar, they used maple syrup. So in summary, there is no refined sugar or flour, no eggs, and oatmeal to give extra fibre.

I am still not sure if that is enough to make these cookies “healthy”, but one thing I can tell you for sure is that they are delicious. So here is the recipe, with props to Karen.

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups whole spelt flour

1 cup chocolate chips (the recipe calls for non-dairy chocolate chips; I use regular semi sweet)

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional; I don’t use them because my kids don’t like nuts in cookies)

¾ cup rolled oats

½ tsp sea salt

¾ tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:

2/3 cup maple syrup

2/3 cup grapeseed oil (or safflower, or olive)

2 tbsp filtered water (I use tap water, let’s get real here people)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

Place dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Combine wet ingredients in another large bowl. Add to dry and mix well. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. (Note: I put it all in one bowl because I don’t like to clean too many dishes. And try not to refrigerate for longer than 15 minutes because the dough gets crumbly.)

Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen.