A recipe for healthy chocolate chip cookies that you can eat every day without feeling guilty and just as easily give to your toddler.
How much do you love chocolate chip cookies? I absolutely love them! But they are so often full of sugar and white flour and with barely any decent nutritional content.
Meanwhile the first time I ever offered my son cookies, he started drooling just at the suggestion. Seriously. He hadn't even tasted them before, so I have to assume that loving cookies is some sort of in built human response.
So, as per usual, I decided to make my own version. Something with a greater nutritional profile that I wouldn't feel guilty having as a regular snack for myself and my son.
With a couple test batches, my husband was saying they are better than the store-bought alternative.
And, added bonus – they're easy and fun to make with a toddler as well.
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Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
To make these Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies, you will need the following ingredients:
Eggs. Try to choose organic or free-range eggs.
Oats. Tiny, rolled oats are the best option here as they will blend perfectly with the flour to provide a nice cookie texture.
Peanut butter. The nut butter is really the key to the chewiness of these healthy chocolate chip cookies. Just make sure it is 100% nut butter and with no added salt or oil.
Flour. Just a little flour is sufficient to give these healthy chocolate chip cookies their texture.
Agave syrup. Our sweetener of choice in almost any baking recipe. You can easily substitute for any other natural sweetener like date syrup or maple syrup.
Coconut sugar. Just a bit of a solid sweetener is required here to support the cookie texture while still providing a sweet taste from natural, healthy ingredients.
Baking soda. Helps the cookies rise a bit in the oven.
Dark chocolate. If you really want to go all-healthy here you will use dark chocolate (70%+ cocoa) but you can easily go with regular cooking chocolate which has about 50% cocoa or milk chocolate. I prefer to buy chocolate and chop it up but store-bought chocolate chips are a good choice also. Sometimes I make it with chopped up chocolate and sometimes with a mix of dark and milk chocolate chip cookies, like in the photos here.
Nutritional Information
Eggs. A great protein source as well as certain B vitamins.
Oats. Great source of complex carbs and fiber as well as minerals like potassium and magnesium.
Peanut Butter. A source of protein, calories and healthy fats.
Agave syrup. A great substitute for regular sugar because it doesn't spike the blood sugar like regular table sugar does.
Coconut sugar. A healthier option than regular sugar because it contains more nutrients and healthy compounds.
Dark chocolate. The benefit of dark chocolate in comparison with milk chocolate is the high cocoa content and comparatively lower sugar content.
How To Make Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prepare the oven. Preheat the oven to 170°C / 340°F.
Make the batter. Put the egg, agave, coconut sugar and hazelnut butter into a mixing bowl and mix. Add the flour, oats and baking powder and mix until a firm batter is formed. Stir in the chopped dark chocolate bits. The batter will be very very sticky.
Shape the cookies. Line a baking tin with parchment paper. Use about 1 tablespoon to scoop the batter from the mixing bowl and form round, cookie-like pieces on the baking tin (should make about 16 cookies).
Bake. Bake for about 10 - 12 minutes. The cookies should be soft and chewy inside and melt in your mouth. Yum!
Possible Variations
Make them vegan. Instead of using an egg, simply substitute it with a flax or chia based alternative. Also check your chocolate is vegan!
Mix up the nut butters. As I mentioned before, you don't really need to use peanut butter. Almond, cashew or hazelnut butter will work. Just make sure it is 100% nut butter with nothing added to truly receive all the healthy benefits it has to offer.
Choose your chocolate. I'd always go for dark chocolate here because of it's health benefits and because it really blends nicely with the sweet taste of the agave syrup and coconut sugar. But really any chocolate you choose is ok. All the other ingredients are healthy-ish so that you can go crazy with this part.
More healthy cookies?
Looking for more healthy cookies? Check these out.
Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
EQUIPMENT
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup plain flour
- ½ cup peanut butter or any other nut butter
- ¼ cup agave syrup
- 2 tablespoon coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup dark chocolate chopped (or chocolate chips)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170°C / 340°F.
- Put the egg, agave syrup, coconut sugar and hazelnut butter into a mixing bowl and mix.
- Add the flour, oats and baking powder and mix until a firm batter is formed.
- Stir in the chopped dark chocolate bits and mix thoroughly. The batter will be super sticky.
- Line a baking tin with parchment paper.
- Use 1 tablespoon to scoop the batter from the mixing bowl and form round, cookie-like pieces on the baking tin (should make about 16 cookies).
- Bake for about 10 - 12 minutes. The cookies should be soft and chewy inside.
Hamna Anwar
Great recipe. Can’t wait to try it for my toddler! One question..can I substitute honey for the agave syrup? And also just regular brown sugar for coconut sugar?
Dora
Hi Hamna!
Thanks for your comment! And to answer your question - yes, you can absolutely use regular brown sugar and honey 🙂