I try to live by Michael Pollan’s three simple rules for
eating, “Eat food, Not too much, mostly plants.” Adam and I have a yearly CSA and at least
five nights of the week our meals feature vegetables and lots of leafy greens. We eat meat infrequently, mainly because of
the cost of quality meat. And we try to
buy real unprocessed food as much as possible. But Michael Pollan did not take into account rules
for baking. So I have tried to adapt his rules to baking as much as possible. I
try to use only butter in my recipes in place of margarine. I also try to keep away from corn syrup and
anything too processed. But at the end
of the day, bake goods require butter, sugar and other unhealthy ingredients because that's why they taste so good.
That being said I have never been one to shy away from the unhealthy. I bake to make things taste good, not to have
them be healthy. Last week when I went
shopping for cream cheese to use in an icing recipe I went straight to the
regular cream cheese, none of the non-fat for me… because at the end of the
day, what if the non-fat doesn’t taste as good?
I think this is the reason why I shy from any “healthy” desserts. Healthy bake goods sounds like an oxymoron to
me. Can they actually taste as good? But after having an interesting conversation
with my friend Meg about baking and health, I thought I would give healthy
cookies a try.
I searched on the internet looking for something that would
fit my taste… nothing with loads of nuts or too crazy of
ingredients. That’s when I came upon
this recipe from the website www.eatingwell.com
It was simple, yet cut the butter in
half by substituting oil. It used whole
wheat and oats in place of white processed flour, and it cut down on the sugar,
plus it still had chocolate chips! Win
win for all!
I knew I had made a good choice after tasting the
batter. I couldn’t stop myself,
and the cookies taste just as good. I
guess I may have to give healthy cookies a second chance if they are
anything like these yummy chocolate chip cookies! These are definitely going to be a part of
the rotation to keep my freezer stocked… plus I don’t have to feel guilty after
eating 4!
Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(makes 2 dozen)
¾ cup rolled oats
1 cup whole-wheat flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt (I used ¼ tsp table salt and ¼ tsp kosher because
I like the saltiness in my cookie)
¼ cup butter, softened
¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor grind the oats until they are almost powder. In a bowl stir together ground oats, flour,
baking soda, and salt. In another bowl
beat the butter until fluffy. Add the
oil, white sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla and beat until smooth and
creamy. Add the dry ingredients to the
wet ingredients and beat on low speed until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
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