Sunday, February 5, 2012

Healthy Cookies

Well, healthier anyway. 

I felt the need to bake this weekend. I wanted to bake for me, not for anyone else. I haven't made anything since before the holidays. Christmas cookies wore me out a little bit. I did, however, win my work's bake-off. Now I can say "My award-winning peanut butter cookies". And I do.

Anyway. I had bought dark chocolate chips and wanted to do something with them because yum. I've had this recipe for a while. It was good to start with, but I modified it a bit. (Originally they were called Bev's Chocolate Chip Cookies from cooks.com or somewhere.)

I got 2 dozen out of this recipe, but they were pretty big.


Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup rolled oats (I have 5 min oats that were ground in a food processor, but one minute oats work, too).
  • 1 cup whole-wheat flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 cup salted butter, softened (I don't use extra salt if the butter's salted)
  • 1/4 cup plain applesauce (Bev used canola oil, but I like applesauce or fruit butters)
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1ish cup dark chocolate chips-I always throw a little extra in there
Preparation
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add applesauce, granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy. Add the dry ingredients, beating on low speed until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
  3. Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls, at least 1 inch apart, onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake cookies about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies for 2 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

I want to try some variations on this. Maybe add in some kind of spice, they seemed a touch flat. I'd also like to sub pumpkin or pumpkin butter for the applesauce and throw in some pumpkin seeds as well. I'd even take out the applesauce and add some peanut butter. The dark chocolate is delicious though, so I'd leave them in.

Sorry for the lack of photos. I'll try to remember to take some next time.