Choc chip cookies- with a twist!// Healthy Recipes #1

Elanor + Bade// Lili
Aug 6, 2016
6 min read

For what feels like centuries I’ve been scanning through numerous blog posts and recipes in search for a healthy and easy equivalent to the infamous choc chip cookie. Each recipe you find when you search for it has anywhere from 1-4 cups of sugars and lots of other ingredients that I wouldn’t necessarily consider as ‘healthy’ Recently I was on Pinterest searching through thousands of ‘healthy food recipes’ in the hopes of finding something that could quench hunger whilst steering away from unnecessarily unhealthy ingredients in them. Out of the blue I saw what look to be oatmeal and raisin cookies (blegh- I’m not a fan of raisins!) but was happily surprised when I discovered they were oatmeal and choc chips! Now, it might just be me being stupid but I’ve never really thought of making the typical oatmeal biscuit into a healthy equivalent to a choc chip cookie but oh my gosh it is a great idea!

I’m calling this recipe, my ‘choc chip cookies with a twist’ (the twist is the oatmeal, and the little amount of ingredients! -oh and the fact that it is a lot healthier than your average choc chip) I’m not gonna lie, I was sceptical about making these, there’s only 6 ingredients and none of these include any sort of flour, sugar or other ‘normal cookie ingredients’. Not only does the lack of ingredients make you slightly sceptical as to how the cookies will actually bake, but the fact that the recipe doesn’t really mix up into ‘’dough like” consistency. It’s really just sticky oats and doesn’t look like it will particularly work… but just wait till these beauties come out the oven!

Making these were pretty simple, mix the oats, coconut, macadamia nut oil or melted butter, organic maple syrup or honey, and the egg together. Then add chocolate chips. By the time I had mixed everything together I was feelin’ pretty damn chuffed about stumbling upon the recipe… but then came turning the mixture into actual cookie shaped blob. This is where the difficulty steps in! See, when you have normal cookie dough all the ingredients combine and make the normal dough consistency, but when you have coconut and oatmeal, all that’s holiday them together is honey/maple, butter/oil and an egg. Unless you grounded/blended up your coconut and oatmeal, they’re not going to combine like dough. This makes for a very crumbly, difficult to work with, mixture. I approached this placing of the mixture onto the baking tray like anybody normally would, grab some mixture, squish it together into a ball, place it on the tray and flatten. But thus I failed, miserably. You’re probably thinking: ‘Lili, how hard is it to make chocolate chip cookies??!’ and to that I reply with ‘very!’ (For someone like me that is) Im not trying to scare you away from this recipe by saying its difficult, im just saying, don’t make my mistakes...!

The next way I tried was a suggestion from my Nanna when I made cookies with her back when I was a wee old’ gal. (That sounded so lame, I do apologise…) She taught me to use an ice-cream scoop to get the perfect amount of cookie dough and to save time. Mind you, it’s easier than it sounds. ‘scoop, squish place’ turned into ‘scoop, compact, squish, place, flatten, cookie crumbs everywhere’ So this lead to me having semi-circle shaped cookie blobs. Using my ice-cream scoop like the one pictured below, I scoop too much into the scoop and compacted it done so so soo much as to not lose a single oat. Then all I had to do was plop it out onto the tray- NOT FLATTEN IT- and Tadaa! Semi-circle shaped, chocolate chip cookies with a twist!

I repeated my scoop, compact to the extreme, and place routine till I used up all my mixture and ended up with 14 odd looking cookies, ready to be cooked! All they needed was to go into an 150-degree Celsius oven for approximately 20 minutes (checking halfway through to make sure they haven’t completely burnt or failed) I found that my cookies didn’t look too much different from when I put them in, but when you see the oats that have fallen off the cookies onto the tray turn golden-brown you know they’re about finished. I then took them out of the oven, burnt my finger on the tray and made the rookie mistake of trying to transfer them to the cooling rack, utensil—less. This led to me being down one cookie as it crumbled instantly and turned into mush. The best way to transfer them to your cooling rack is to use a cake server or another serving utensil. Just scoop them up, one at a time, and slowly but surely move them onto your cooling rack. Within half an hour- to an hour they’ll be fully cooled, and hardened up so they don’t completely crumble when you pick one up. Now you’re ready to either, eat them all by yourself (they do taste really good!) share them with friends and family (they’ll be amazed at your new found baking talent- and the fact that the cookies are healthy) or store them in an airtight container for up to one week. (For later snacking, of course)

These cookies are not only simple, delicious, healthy and unique (if a cookie can be unique) but they are also the perfect recess/treat for all of you going back to school soon- what’s not to love!!

Choc Chip cookies with a twist!

Makes: 11-14

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 20-30 minutes

Difficulty: deliciously simple

Ingredients

200g (2 cups/ 7 oz) organic rolled oats
50g (1 ¾ oz) flaked or desiccated coconut (I used desiccated)
60g (20 oz) macadamia nut oil, your choice of cold pressed coconut oil or melted butter
60g (2 oz) raw honey, organic maple syrup or rice syrup (I used honey as I felt it might add to the taste but not be as strong as maple)
1 organic egg (medium-large size)
100g (3 ½ oz) cooking choc chips or good quality 70% dark chocolate block

Method

Preheat oven to 150 c or 300 F
COMBINE oats, coconut, oil or melted butter, honey and the egg in a mixing bowl.
MIX through using your hands for a couple of minutes. Squish the ingredients together until the cookie starts to come together
Let the mixture rest for about 5 minutes after mixing, this makes the oats soften a little bit more so they hold together when squished
ADD chocolate chips/chocolate and mix through.
FORM your mixture into even balls (do not flatten out, unless your mixture sticks together really well) Using an ice-cream scoop on your prepared, lined baking tray.
BAKE for approximately 20 minutes or until lightly golden. Check half way through, they need to be closely watched as they can burn easily.
REMOVE from the oven and using a spatula/serving utensil transfer to a cooling rack for them to cool completely.
ENJOY! Your deliciously healthy choc chip cookies!

Notes

The secret to perfecting your oat cookies lies within the mixing. If you do a better job at mixing then I did, your mixture will stick together easier and wont crumble as much. Make sure the ingredients are well combined and gently squish together with your hands, making sure the oats still remain intact. Don’t place the mix into a food processor as the result won’t be the same.

Keeps in an airtight container for 7 days.

!!This recipe is not mine, I did not create it, all credit goes to the original ‘creator’ of the recipe!!

Make sure you all send me your lovely photos of your cookies to my Instagram or twitter. You can use the hashtag #elanorbakes if you would like, or send photos directly to me. I would LOVE to see your creations!

This post (a recipe) was requested by @dash.db and @honeyandalaska- thankyou girls! x

So that’s it for today’s post lovelies! Thank you so much for reading! I do hope you enjoyed it.

If this post wasn’t really your cup of tea make sure you suggest some posts for me to write in the future on my Instagram, twitter or via email (links are below)

Stay beautiful

-Lili x

Instagram: @elanorandbade

Twitter: @elanorandbade

Email: lili.blog22@mail.com