Healthy Tasty Chowcleaner recipes, reviews, toddler mom stuff and food chatter

I’m in love.  Seriously, I’ve turned into the cookie monster.  I’m not sure why this is, but every winter I turn into a chocolate and mint fanatic.  My friend Chris made the yummy Nestle seasonal chocolate and mint chip chocolate cookies a couple of weeks ago and I about died and went to heaven when I tasted them.  On the other hand, knowing the ingredients that went into them and also reading the label on the chips tells me that they’re pretty awful for you.  I basically needed a healthy alternative and I’m happy to say I succeeded!  This is going to be a go-to cookie for me all winter.  My whole family likes them- my husband wants to eat them with ice cream!   I decided to develop my own recipe when I was meandering on Goop.com and saw the gluten-free chocolate chip mint cookies on there made by Erin McKenna of Baby Cakes - but they didn’t look how I wanted them to look.  So, I took to the pen and paper and wrote my own recipe like I always do when I bake….and then crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Through Healthy Yum and Musselmans, I received two jars of applesauce, one regular and one chunky.  The regular version is what I used for this recipe - and it worked perfectly!  This way, the cookie is lightened up a tad and has a little healthy boost as well.  Not to mention the applesauce is yummy.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and couldn’t sleep at night.  My dad was always up reading and so when he saw me he’d pop two slices of heavy whole grain seedy bread in the toaster and top it off with applesauce.  He sometimes used prune or poppy seed pie filling as well.  Though my son loves his applesauce- he hasn’t quite gotten used to it on toast yet! 

I used real organic sugars in this recipe rather than agave, honey or fruit syrup because my husband can always detect it and usually doesn’t like the end result.  The perfect cookie would’ve used alternative sweeteners - but this is pretty close:)  In the close-up picture of the cookies- they appear a little grainy - they’re not!  They’re very smooth!  They’re not as thick as the Nestle flour version though - but still have a nice chewy thickness hard to find in many gluten-free cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cup applesauce (I used Musselman’s)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup sugar (I use organic white)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar (I use organic brown)
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 1/2 cup oat flour (for gluten-free, you have to grind your own GF oats)
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp xantham gum
• 10 oz chocolate chips (I mixed minis with regulars, but next time will stick with regular)

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 350
• Warm coconut oil and butter until coconut oil is almost liquid and butter is softened, blend using mixer
• Add applesauce, blend, add eggs, blend
• Add sugars, vanilla and peppermint extract, mix
• In a separate bowl, combine remaining dry ingredients except chips
• Slowly add dry to wet, then add chocolate chips
• Using a small cookie scoop, scoop dough onto cookie sheet
• Bake about 9 minutes - allow to cool on sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. 

I think these make about 7 dozen when using a small cookie scoop.  I always forget to count but 7 dozen sounds about right!

We all know Alton Brown is the man.  So, when I realized he had a gluten free chocolate chip cookie out there- I thought, “that’s the perfect recipe to tweak!”  I really set out to add some chopped hazelnuts to them but my hazelnuts were bad so I threw in some optional walnuts instead.  Hazelnuts would have been perfect with these though.  The cookies turned out great and I’m really excited to now use my base recipe and keep playing with it.  You can’t tell they’re gluten free and I like them better than the Betty Crocker mix - they’re not as dry and they don’t fall apart easily.   I sort of feel bad making something sugary on Halloween, but I’d rather eat these than candy.  I’m finally growing up!!!  Kind of…look below for some pictures from last night’s Halloween party at a friend’s house!

Ingredients: (recipe adapted from here)

• 2 sticks butter (I was going to experiment with applesauce but I’m out, I imagine less butter would have been fine - 6oz?)
• 1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup oat flour (make sure to buy gluten free oats for gluten free cookies)
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 TB arrowroot powder
• 1 tsp ground flax seed (for gumming agent reasons)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup concentrated fruit juice blend
• 1 cup light brown sugar (used organic to make myself feel better that I’m using this much sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 12 oz chocolate chips (I only had minis this time)
• 2/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional, I’d rather have had hazelnuts)

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 350
• Soften butter, then mix with sugars, eggs, and vanilla
• In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients (except chocolate chips) with a fork
• Slowly mix dry into wet ingredients - add chocolate chips and nuts
• Chill at least 1/2 hour
• Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and by small cookie scoop full, drop batter on parchment paper- no need to press down, refrigerate unused dough while baking
• Bake 9-10 minutes or until edges turn golden brown - top will appear slighlty uncooked but remove, let sit 2 minutes and it will cook all the way through and stick together.
• Cool on wire rack
• Note: Alton had oven temp for his recipe at 375 - this cooked the edges too fast for my version so 350 works better.

On a side note…Happy Halloween!  Halloween parties are so much fun!  I think it would be nice to go to a costume party every few months.  At the party last night, I met some of the same people I met last year at the same party - however, I don’t remember any of them because nobody looks the same.  Everyone goes all out and it’s so fun to see the creativity.  As a girl, you have to get creative if you don’t want to be the “sexy” version of anything you can think of.  It’s practically impossible to find a costume that isn’t a sexy version!  I think men must be making all these clothes thinking women like it or something.  What do you think?   By the way, that’s my husband with me up there- it makes it so much more challenging to think of a “couple” costume.  Some great couples costumes from last night: Biggest loser before and after (husband padded with cotton wearing a wig and makeup as before), wife is after, Ghostbuster and Stay Puft Marshmallow, Octo Mom and Sperm Donor, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, and  Richard Simmons and Suzanne Somers.  Tonight, our little man is going to be a cowboy and say, “Tiii or Teeeee” to get his candy - I’m pretty excited to see how he does!  However, I’m hoping I can hide it from him after tonight but we’ll see how that goes.  Some of the candy out there is pure fakeness so I’m hoping to weed through it and throw most of it back in our bowl to hand out..  Shhhh.

I made this cookie recipe because I really wanted to use coconut oil in cookies for the heavier consistency factor - like back when our moms used to throw butter flavored Crisco in cookies and they always tasted the best with the chewy heartier texture?  With what I know now, I would never buy shortening to use in my foods and feed to my family.  We are coconut lovers and the added coconut flavor from the coconut oil is a welcome change.  If you don’t like coconut or if you have coconut allergies - you can just buy some organic shortening which is made of palm oil and is trans-fat free.  These cookies are flourless!  By using coconut oil, spelt flour, ground flaxseed, and oats, you’re getting a much healthier version and a  tasty treat.  If you really wanted a cleaner eating version of the cookie, you can always substitute agave nectar for the sugar.  If you wanted a lighter version, you could also substitute applesauce for the butter.  However, I like using at least a few traditional ingredients in baking because it usually lends to a better flavor!

• 1/4 cup organic butter, softened
• 1/8 cup extra virgin coconut oil
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 cup spelt flour
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat butter and coconut oil together with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add brown sugar and beat well. Add egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, combine spelt flour, flaxseed, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture, then stir in oats and chocolate chips.

Drop a heaping teaspoon of dough onto cookie sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

This makes a small batch of around 35 little cookies.  I prefer these cookies cooled because the coconut flavor comes out!  Also, these are toddler and husband approved!  My husband is fairly picky on healthy versions of cookies but lately I’ve gotten much better at it that he doesn’t know he’s eating a healthy version… except he knows I made them so he does know deep down:)