The Best Cookies I've Made

My husband LOVES chocolate chip cookies.  They are one of the few cookies we do make.  Once my husband thought I had perfected the traditional chocolate cookie recipe I started experimenting with whole grains.  My skillet cookie recipe is good, but this is even better (for cookies that is).  And my husband would likely agree that these are even better than my non-whole grain version. In fact, he usually prefers frozen dough to baked cookies, but he said the baked version actually rivals the dough - that means they are darn good!  Okay, okay enough about how good they are.  I promised a recipe using coconut oil today and this does.  My plan, however, had been to share my soaked granola recipe, but since this was only the second time I've made it and I did not write down what I did the first time, I still need to tweak it a bit to get the same results as the first batch.

Even though we LOVE these cookies and sweets in general, we try to keep our sweet intake to about once a week.  Unfortunately the month of December often messes with this plan and lingers through January.  At the moment our goal is Sweet Treats only on Sundays, not after every dinner (or meal if the kids had their way).  Once sugar enters our lives it is so hard to get it out again.

This recipe was somewhat of a fluke.  We didn't have any oat flour on hand and I know the key to good chocolate chip cookies is the sweetness of the oat flour.  I did, however, have oats and decided to throw them in my food processor until fine.  The result, a deliciously oaty crisp cookie that was not quite what I expected.  Normally we prefer somewhat chewy, but I was shocked to discover that they were even better the next day than they were hot out of the oven.

Best Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup Rolled Oats, chopped until fine in food processor/blender
• 1 cup Spelt Flour
• 1/4 cup All-purpose Flour (could probably use spelt or other wheat flour)
• 1/2 Rolled Oats not processed
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup Turbinado/Demerra Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Molasses
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup palm shortening
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk (save white for another purpose)
• 1 + teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips (Callebaut are my favorite)
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine dry ingredients in small bowl and set aside.
3. Place Turbinado and Molasses in bowl of standing mixer and mix until fully combined.
4. Add butter, coconut oil and palm shortening, mix until creamed.
5. Add egg, yolk, and vanilla mixing after each addition.
6. Add dry ingredients and mix until fully combined.
7. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using).
8. Line baking sheets with a silpat or parchment paper for easy clean up. Use a cookie scoop or a spoon to place small balls on cookie sheets. Provide space for cookies to spread. Should make about 3 dozen cookies or more, depending on how much of the dough you eat.
9. Bake for 8 minutes, rotating from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to cooling rack. These cookies actually taste best when fully cooled and allowed to crisp up a bit. Pour a glass of milk and enjoy!

Prep Time: 30 min Cook Time: 30 min Ready in: 1 h

Best Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies courtesy of Jamie Del Balso.