Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the latest healthy and tasty chocolate chip cookie recipe I use that can be made dairy and gluten free as well. 

Ingredients

1 cup minus 2 tbsp - Granulated or Demerara or Turbinado sugar

1-2 tbsp - Molasses (this combined with the sugar above makes brown sugar)

EITHER 1 cup softened butter OR 1 cup minus 2 tbsp  Olive Oil + 2 tbsp water

2 tsp - Vanilla Extract (natural or artificial)

2 - Large Eggs

2 cups - Rolled Oats (may use gluten free ones)

1 1/2 cups - Whole Wheat Flour (or your choice of gluten free flour)

1 tsp - Baking Powder, Double-acting (OPTIONAL)

1 tsp - Ground Cinnamon  (OPTIONAL)

1/2 tsp - Salt (OPTIONAL)

12 ounces (0.75 lbs) - Chocolate Chips, Semi-Sweet

Optional: Also add some pecans or walnuts, up to 1 cup.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

A stand mixer is easiest. Otherwise this is rigorous exercise for your arm. In a large bowl mix sugar and molasses until well blended (this turns it into brown sugar, it takes quite a lot of mixing to evenly distribute the molasses). 

Add oil and water OR softened butter and mix. 

Add vanilla and eggs and mix. 

Add flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, salt. Baking powder is optional, you will get chewier cookie without it and puffier cookies with it. Mix until well blended. 

Add chocolate chips (and optionally nuts) and mix until evenly distributed.

Drop tablespoons of cookie dough about 1.5 inches apart onto baking sheets. Use a silicone or rubber spatula to get all the cookie dough and minimize waste.

Bake for 10-14 minutes or until golden brown or your preference of soft and chewy vs crispy.

Let stand on baking sheets for 5-10 minutes before carefully scraping cookies off baking sheet with metal spatula. Cool on baking sheet (fewer crumbs) or racks. Move to suitable storage containers.

Makes 40-48 cookies.

Notes

The sugar, flour, oats, chocolate chips, pecans, salt, and cinnamon can be purchased in bulk (bring your own container if possible to eliminate disposable packaging) (at least flour, sugar, and salt are typically sold in paper that can be recycled). Many supermarkets sell molasses in glass containers. 

I choose to make my own brown sugar as needed using molasses rather than buying it in plastic bags. 

Many virgin olive oils can be purchased in recyclable metal containers. Double check to make sure the olive oil you are buying is really olive oil as some commercial brands have mixed in cheaper oils. 

Choosing organic versions of the above is excellent but can be expensive and/or hard to find. 

I prefer aluminum baking pans/sheets as they are very durable, easy to clean, and very recyclable.

I used to use some plastic cooking spatulas but now only use stainless steel ones to reduce plastic in our food. When using steel spatulas to remove cookies from aluminum pans, just be careful.

Copyright 2017-2024 Tim Oey. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.