When it comes to making a dessert healthy, I have mixed emotions. I am totally on board with making small changes to improve a dish’s nutrition. However, you shouldn’t mess with dessert too much. I have found that “healthy” desserts often don’t satisfy my cravings. Unsatisfied, I either eat more or eat something else in addition to the original dessert, completely negating my “good” choice.
These cookies hit a good balance. A few ingredient tweaks make them a little healthier, but they still satisfy my cookie craving. Remember, though: these are still cookies. Compared to my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe, I saved 15 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, and 42 mg of sodium. Not life altering savings, but enough that it adds up after several cookies. And let’s be honest, you eat more than one cookie.
“Healthier” Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 3 1/2 dozen cookies)
1/2 cup unsalted butter or coconut oil, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large egg whites
2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash cinnamon (optional)
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cream butter/coconut oil and sugars together on medium speed of mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and egg whites.
3. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon (optional), mixing until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Scoop rounded tablespoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Allow cookies to cool briefly on sheet before cooling completely on wire rack.
Nutritional Information (Amount per cookie)
Calories: 90
Protein: 1 g
Fat: 3.3 g
Saturated Fat: 1.9 g
Cholesterol: 6 mg
Carbohydrates: 15 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 49 mg
Recipe Notes: The nutritional analysis uses butter rather than coconut oil. I have tried using coconut oil in this recipe. As I mentioned in my previous post about coconut oil, my cookies were darker, flatter, and crisper. I also found I needed to add a little bit of water to the coconut oil cookies to get the dough to come together. I have not tried this recipe with traditional whole wheat flour, but I’m guessing the results would be tolerable but less similar to a regular cookie. I like to add cinnamon to my chocolate chip cookies, because it gives them an extra flavor that reminds me of Mexican hot chocolate. That is entirely optional. I use milk chocolate chips, but you can easily use whatever flavor you prefer.
Coconut oil cookie (left) compared to butter cookie (right)
Source: slightly adapted from Cooking Light