Almost every family has its own chocolate chip cookie recipe scratched on a piece of paper, smudged and smeared by flour, eggs, and butter, handed down through generations. But what’s that delicious baked-good doing to your insides?
My grandmother always added a pudding flour mix to her batch, which gave her chocolate chip cookies a special flavor I still dream about. While there are many variations, most chocolate chip recipes have one thing in common: they aren’t good for your physical health.
Not that a cookie has to be good for you in order to enjoy it fully, but if you are the kind of person who loves cookies and would like to eat them as a regular treat, making a few ingredient tweaks could be the difference between a cookie every week or a cookie every day. I’m all about the latter. Before we get into the chocolate chip cookie recipe that will make this dream come true, let’s breakdown the nutrition of this timeless treat.
What’s In A Traditional Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe?
One medium-sized traditional chocolate chip cookie has about 60 calories, 2.7 grams of fat, 3 milligrams of cholesterol, 8 grams of carbohydrates (with only .2 grams in the form of dietary fiber), and not much else going for it, nutritionally speaking. Sure, there it’s got eggs and milk, which have their host of health benefits, but their positive contribution ultimately drowns in the empty nutritional value of white flour, sugar, and chocolate – to say nothing of the detrimental effects of low-quality eggs and milk.
On the whole, a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe isn’t the end of the world. Even with all those calories a chocolate chip cookie isn’t going to ruin your dietary goals if eaten every once in awhile. And the comfort of warm chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven is such a source of calm and happiness for the soul, the gratification almost outweighs the health setback.
If only we could bring the two together – to get the warm, bubbly feeling of chocolate chip cookies without that looming sense of having to hold back after one bite? Well, I’m here to tell you that we can.
This chocolate chip cookie recipe is vegan and replaces white flour with whole-wheat flour and white sugar with turbinado sugar, which is a minimally-processed with more texture and a taste akin to brown sugar. The result will surprise you, as the cookies are firm but soft on the inside and give you all the satisfaction of having had a cookie, but all in good conscience. Enjoy!
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Makes 15-20
Ingredients:
- 2 cups whole-wheat flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2-3/4 cup carob chips
- 1 cup turbinado sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 cup water
Directions: Mix the dry ingredients with the carob chips. Add the oil and vanilla and then mix until evenly combined. Roll into tablespoon-sized balls and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes. Dip in almond milk!
Related on EcoSalon:
Vegan This: Gluten-Free Raspberry-Filled Butter Cookies
Sunday Recipe: Peanut Butter Cookies
EcoSalon Recipes: Oatmeal Harvest Recipes
Image Credit: GlowKitchen