How to make chocolate chip cookies healthier

These are the absolute BEST Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies that are soft, perfectly chewy, buttery and loaded with dark chocolate chips. I have perfected my healthy-ier recipe over the years and kids call it “classic” for healthy snacks!

Cookies with chocolate like oat flour cookies, almond flour chocolate chip cookies and protein cookies always disappear fast around here.

Table of contents

• What Makes These Chocolate Chip Cookies Healthy?
• Ingredients for Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
• How to Make Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Tips for Best Cookies
• Storing and Shipping Cookies
• More Healthy Cookies Recipes

I am extremely picky with healthy cookies! When I think of healthy chocolate chip cookies, I envision a layer of soft buttery dough covering chocolate chips like a blanket, and when you bite in, the cookies are chewy. Perfection!

Like gluten free snickerdoodles have to have a soft inside and chewy outside. And healthy oatmeal cookie gotta have a chew as well. Healthy pumpkin cookies with prominent pumpkin flavor. Cookies gotta be worth their calories!

What Makes These Chocolate Chip Cookies Healthy?

• Tried and true tested recipe: This is a very old recipe of mine that I have changed and perfected over the years. No more maple syrup and applesauce because a real cookie must be made with butter and sugar. The toughest critics, kids, approved!
• Wholesome ingredients: We use organic cane or coconut sugar which is unrefined sugar that retains a lot of its nutrients minus the pesticides. Whole wheat or (sprouted) spelt flour with bran and germ attached. And organic or grass fed butter. All real food quality ingredients.
• Less of “bad stuff” without sacrificing the taste: Unlike many traditional recipes online, our recipe uses twice less sugar and butter, resulting in yet soft and chewy cookie. Like a cookie should be!
• Balance and moderation: Healthy eating is all about maintaining clean taste buds with healthy lifestyle and without diets. So, when you indulge you can really taste the food, get satisfied with a just a few treats and not overeat.

Try this healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe and you will be amazed!!!

Ingredients for Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Butter: I used organic salted butter and omitted salt. Unsalted butter works perfectly too. You may use coconut oil but it results in more crispy rather than chewy cookies, with less grooves and more cake like looking cookies.
• Sugar: I used organic cane sugar. Coconut sugar works too. You can also use all or parts of organic brown sugar as it goes well in CC cookies. I do not recommend to use liquid sweetener as recipe will not work. For sugar free cookie, try erythritol – it tastes good and I have even used it in healthy sugar cookies!
• Whole wheat flour or spelt flour: This time I used whole grain spelt flour. Please don’t use white flour, recipe will need adjustment.

Gluten free cookies? Check out almond flour chocolate chip cookies for gluten free version. Don’t use any other flour like oat flour or coconut flour – recipe will not work.

• Baking needs: Pure vanilla extract, baking soda and salt if using unsalted butter. No need for baking powder as we do not want cookies to have fluffy texture of chocolate chip muffins.
• Chocolate chips: I use dark chocolate chips because sweetness in a cookie dough is enough already. You can use semi-sweet and more of, if you like.

What is softened butter? Softened butter means a dent appears when you touch it with a finger. To soften butter, just leave it at room temperature for 3-4 hours. To speed up softening, cut up in cubes and let warm up.

How to Make Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Make cookie dough: In a large bowl, beat softened butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Then add egg and vanilla, and then dry ingredients – baking soda, salt and flour. Fold in 1/4 cup chocolate chips and your cookie dough is formed.

Want to eat cookie dough right away? Try my recipe for gluten free, egg free edible cookie dough!

• Chill dough and prep: Place cookie dough in the freezer to chill for 20 minutes. This is a must to prevent cookies from spreading. Now is a good time to preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 cookie sheets with unbleached parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

• Roll and bake: Scoop dough with a regular scoop, roll into balls and place on prepared baking sheets 3 inches apart. Cookies spread, plan for 6 per sheet. Bake cookies for 10 minutes and remove while cookies appear underbaked, puffy and light in color. Dough will settle during cooling.
• Add more chips and cool: Strategically place remaining 2 tbsp of chocolate chips into cookies while they are still hot. Also you can skip this step and just add all chips into the dough. Let cookies cool on a baking sheet for 15 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack to cool more.
• Perfection: As cookies cool, you will see delicious grooves covering chocolate chips like a blanket appearing.

Kids will love when you turn these healthy cookies into dinky doozies! Just sandwich two cookies with healthy buttercream or chocolate frosting.

Tips for Best Cookies

• Use cold baking sheets: Make sure your baking sheets are cold. If you baked other cookies in them right before, cool them off. I stick mine in the fridge for 5 minutes.
• Do not overmix the cookie dough: Overmixing will make the cookies more prone to falling apart.
• Don’t skip chilling the dough: Because this cookie dough contains butter and sugar, it has to be firmed up before baking. If you don’t chill the dough, your cookies will spread like crazy!
• Do not over bake cookies: With most cookies you want to remove them before they start browning and finish settling during cooling off period. It’s a golden cookie baking rule!

Storing and Shipping Cookies

Storing: Store in a cool dry place in a ventilated container for up to 5 days.

Freezing: Bake, cool cookies completely, place in a resealable plastic bag or airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw on a counter for a few hours.

Shipping: A batch of chocolate chip treats are perfect healthy Christmas cookies for shipping to family and friends. Bake and cool. Place 2 cookies back to back and wrap with plastic wrap. Then place in a plastic container with a lid, stuffed with tissue so no empty space, inside shipping box and voila.

More Healthy Cookies Recipes

• Healthy gingerbread cookies
• Sugar free oatmeal cookies
• Cranberry oatmeal cookies
• Healthy skillet cookie
• Chocolate protein cookies

And may I also suggest not a cookie but this healthy pumpkin chocolate chip bread that is irresistible year round for healthy snacks!

Soft and Chewy Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are the absolute BEST Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies that are soft, perfectly chewy, buttery and loaded with dark chocolate chips. I have perfected my healthy-ier recipe over the years and kids called it Classic!

5 from 26 votes

Servings 12 cookies

Calories 166

Prep Time 12 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Chilling Time 20 minutes

Total Time 42 minutes

Print Recipe Save RecipeSaved Recipe Rate Recipe

Equipment

• Glass bowls

• Measuring tools

• Mixer

• Baking sheet

• Silicone baking mat

Ingredients US CustomaryMetric 1x2x3x (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

• ▢1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature packed
• ▢1/2 cup cane or coconut sugar
• ▢1 large egg
• ▢1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• ▢1/2 tsp baking soda
• ▢1/4 tsp salt
• ▢1 1/4 cups whole wheat or spelt flour
• ▢1/3 cup dark chocolate chips divided

Instructions 

• In a large bowl, add butter and sugar; beat with a mixer until creamy.

• Add egg and vanilla extract, beat until combined. Add baking soda, salt and flour; beat until cookie dough is formed. Add 1/4 cup chocolate chips and stir with spatula.

• Place cookie dough in the freezer to chill for 20 minutes. In the meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 cookie sheets with unbleached parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

• Scoop dough with a regular scoop, roll into balls and place on prepared baking sheets 3 inches apart. Cookies spread.

• Bake for 10 minutes and remove while cookies appear underbaked, puffy and light in color. Strategically place remaining 2 tbsp of chocolate chips into cookies while they are still hot.

• Let cookies cool on a baking sheet for 15 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack to cool more. As cookies cool, you will see delicious grooves covering chocolate chips like a blanket appearing.

Video

Notes

• Store: Store in a cool dry place in a ventilated container for up to 5 days.
• Freeze: Bake, cool cookies completely, place in a resealable plastic bag or container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw on a counter for a few hours.

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  Whole-Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies. These whole-grain cookies are only 110 calories each!.

  Can homemade cookies be healthy?

  If made correctly, homemade cookies contain high-quality components, including healthy fats, natural sugar, and real chocolate. On the other hand, store-bought cookies contain fewer calories and sugar content than their handmade equivalents.

  Are chocolate chip cookies healthy for you?

  Chocolate chip cookies made with whole wheat or oats are a rich source of B-complex vitamins and dietary fibre. However, you should exercise moderation in their intake because most chocolate chip cookies are made with refined flour and contain lots of sugar and hydrogenated fats.

  What makes cookies unhealthy?

  The health issue for homemade cookies is that they're generally made with refined white flour, butter, and sugar. That's the recipe for shortbread, and the basis for almost all cookies. None of those three ingredients provides any nutritional value.