Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies + Cookie Dough Tips and Tricks

By Jessica Sanders
Oct 02, 2011

Mmmm, chocolate chip cookies. I grew up making cookies for my family - using the recipe on the back of the Nestle Semi Sweet Morsels bag, of course. Which is a perfectly wonderful recipe, if not the healthiest dessert in the world (because who eats just one of those?!). And I'm not suggesting you throw away your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe - but I am suggesting that you give these cookies a try the next time you're craving some cookie goodness. Eating Well's Bev's Chocolate Chip Cookies are made with whole grains and about half the butter of a conventional cookie - and they're absolutely delicious.

What makes these cookies especially delicious is the use of oats and whole wheat flour - they give the cookies a great hearty, nutty flavor. If you're feeling especially decadent, use dark chocolate chunks instead of regular semi sweet chips. Each cookie has only 99 calories and 40% less saturated fat than a cookie made with all butter. And while they are a healthier option than your average chocolate chip cookie, they are made with butter and sugar, so you'll still want to exercise self-restraint and limit your serving size to one or two cookies (and a glass of nonfat milk for dunking, of course). Following the recipe, I'll share one of my very favorite kitchen tips - how to freeze cookie dough!

Bev's Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Eating Well

makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies (but I always double this so I can freeze some dough)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour*
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup (4 Tbsp) butter, softened
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (or dark chocolate chunks, or a combination of the two)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat.
Put oats in a food processor; pulse until the oats are the texture of coarse meal. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer (or with an electric hand mixer), beat butter until light and fluffy. Add oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy. With the mixer running, add the dry ingredients, beating on low speed until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls, at least one inch apart, onto the prepared baking sheet. I prefer to use a cookie scoop to scoop out the dough, so my cookies are sometimes a bit larger - I also like to lightly smash down the dough to create a flatter cookie. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at at time, until firm around the edges and golden on top, about 11-13 minutes. Cool the cookies for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely (although I think you should eat one while it's still hot, dunked in cold milk). Baked cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 4 months.

*The cookies in these photos were made with regular "white whole wheat flour" - they produce a denser, flatter cookie. If you use whole wheat pastry flour, the cookies will be a bit "fluffier" and not as flat - both taste fantastic, just use what you have on hand.

Nutrition Info (per cookie): 99 calories; 5 g fat (2 g saturated, 2 g mono); 11 mg cholesterol; 12 g carbohydrates; 1 g protein; 1 g fiber; 64 mg sodium

But wait! Don't bake all that cookie dough at once - just make enough for you to enjoy today; tomorrow, when the craving hits, turn on your oven and bake cookies "to order". Freezing cookie dough is one of my all-time favorite baking tricks. Here's what you do.

Freezing Cookie Dough - The Jessica Way

Instructions:

Bake as many cookies as you want for today, and maybe a few extra for lunch tomorrow. The rest of the dough we'll freeze for future cookie cravings.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop the rest of the cookie dough onto the sheet in heaping teaspoonfuls (I actually prefer to use a cookie scoop); you can put them as close together as you like, since these aren't going into the oven.
Slide the entire sheet into the freezer, and freeze until the cookie dough is hard, a few hours.
Remove the frozen dough from the sheet and put in a Ziploc freezer bag; be sure to label the bag with the oven temperature and cooking time.
The next time a cookie craving hits, preheat your oven and line a little baking sheet with parchment paper. Put your frozen cookie dough balls (as many or as few as you want) onto the sheet - no need to thaw - and bake in a preheated oven for 12-15 minutes (sometimes the cookies take an extra minute or two since you're baking them from frozen).
Voila! Cookies on demand! I've found that the cookies last months in the freezer this way, which is why I always double or even triple the recipe.