Words by Paige

This week I baked cookies and not just any cookies but delicious, soft, moist chocolate chip cookies.  My husband and kids loved them!  I have to agree that they were tasty.  They were full of ingredients that make any cookie good - lots of butter and sugar. 

I learned about the recipe last weekend when I received an weekly subscription email from my favorite author, Emily P. Freeman.  Each week she shares great resources of things to listen to, read and discover.  The "I Want Them Now" chocolate chip cookie recipe, which actually originated on The Lazy Genius's blog, was listed as things to read.  

As some of you may know I am not a big reader; however I am actually apart of a book club.  This month's meeting, currently held via zoom, we had a fun and unique experience that I will share in another blog post soon!  Anyways, I digress.  I share this tid bit of info because it was in this month's meeting that I realized that I actually AM a reader, just not one of much fiction.  I tend to gravitate to reading spiritual growth books and recipes.  I say all this to say this is how the recipe caught my eye.  I mean, unless you have an exceptionally good reason, I don't know ANYONE who would skip over reading this type of recipe but I'm not here to judge because that may be you.  If so, I'd love to have you comment on this post as you why you wouldn't read it.  For me, I clicked on the link immediately!  

It was a pretty traditional baking recipe.  As I read through it a few unique things stuck out.  The first was if it would be possible to make this recipe any healthier and still taste good.  I know, why would anyone want to eat a healthy chocolate chip cookie?!  Well, because it would still taste good.  :)  Bare with me people. 

More than a few years back I had to make some serious dietary changes as a result of some health issues I was having.  Side note - if you'd like to read more about that please comment on this post so I can consider writing about it.  It would be a long one!  During this time period I learned a lot about the wide array of substitutes specifically for baking.  One thing I told the health coach I worked with was, "I still want to be able to eat dessert!"  Recalling some of the info I had learned and trusty Google for the rest, I substituted specific things in the recipe and make a second batch of "healthy chocolate chip cookies". 

Here's the list -

350 GRAMS or 2 1/2 C. ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR - I used fresh milled whole wheat white flour

1 TSP. BAKING SODA - kept that

1 TSP. BAKING POWDER - I used a ratio of baking soda and cream of tartar

1 TSP. CORNSTARCH - I used arrowroot powder

2 1/4 TSP. SALT - I kept that

2 STICKS UNSALTED BUTTER - I used organic apple sauce.  By the way, thanks to my boys for letting me steal a few squeezies ;)

150 GRAMS or 3/4 C. WHITE SUGAR - I used an equivalent amount of stevia

200 GRAMS or 1 C. BROWN SUGAR - I left this out.  I know, crazy!  Right?!

2 T. VANILLA - I kept this

2 EGGS - I kept this

1 BAG CHOCOLATE CHIPS - I used dairy free.  BTW - if you haven't tried them AND read "chocolate chips" and "dairy free" in the same line and thought that it was a travesty, trust me, they are just as yummy!  The dark chocolate ones are actually my fav! :)

The verdict - I would say it met one of the two goals I was aiming for.  It was healthier but it didn't taste that great.  I honestly think it was the flour.  The texture of the cookie was soft but not in a way that would make me choose it over the traditional cookie.  I may remake them with another type of healthy flour to see what the results are.  I'd love to know if you would be interested to read about that experience too! 

The other thing that I unique thing that stood out to me was a tip for mixing the flour.  Kendra, also known as The Lazy Genius, said she uses an extra piece of parchment paper to mix her dry ingredients.  I wasn't sure how this would work because I imagined the surface area being insufficient.  Still, her note about "loathing dirty dishes" hit home with me so I gave it a shot.  I was also intrigued to try it since I was making two different types of cookies at once, therefore potentially creating twice as many dirty dishes. 

The verdict - a win!!  I WILL be doing this from now on as much as I can for two reasons.  One, like I just said, I, too, loath dirty dishes.  Two, my kitchen cannot seem to be empty of dirty dishes these days.  Depending on when you're reading this post, the world is in the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.  We have orders to stay at home so we are eating at home a lot more and getting a lot more dishes dirty.  If I'm going to be baking and can save a dish, I'm gonna do it! 

If you'd like to try to make the cookies yourself you can find them here - http://www.thelazygeniuscollective.com/blog/nowcookies.  I'd love to hear about your baking experience!  Please come back and comment below to share how it went for you.