Healthy Decadence – Chocolate Chip Cookies

In the hopes of finding a cookie that my kids would think a treat, yet that would sneak in extra protein and not be a sugar rush, I’ve been experimenting lately.  In this recipe I went on the “spoonful of sugar” philosophy.  I’d eventually like to make a much higher percentage of protein.

I have experimented with adding other gluten-free (GF) flours, like light rye flour.  It works but I have yet to get a decent crumble without adding real flour in so I have kept that.

Another take on this is my pumpkin version – Healthy and Tasty Pumpkin Nut Chocolate Cookies, which might be my new favorite.  🙂

Ingredients:

4 c. Flour (I like unbleached whole wheat)

1/2 c. hemp seed protein (I used Natera dark chocolate flavor)

1/2 c. ground nuts and seeds (see explanation below)

2 t. salt

2 t. baking soda

3 c. sugar (1 each: white, brown, and coco palm)

1/3 c. coconut oil or lard

3/4 c. butter

up to 1/3 c. whipping cream

2 eggs

Chocolate chips and nuts (optional)

Directions:

The directions are the same as what you’d do for a normal cookie, bake at 350, 9-12 min.  Cookies spread less if the dough is refrigerated first.

I have taken some pics of the process with my latest batch.  Hope it helps!

Blend the flours and dry ingredients together.

Here is the hemp seed protein mix:

  Mix the wet ingredients together.  You’ll notice that there are brown flecks in the mix – that is because the coconut sugar doesn’t dissolve very quickly.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet:

And add chocolate chips:

This dough looks wet but because of the coconut oil (or lard if you use that), it will firm up in the fridge.  The cookies do well in in muffin tins too.  If the dough is firmer the cookies retain their shape pretty well, if they went like this they’d spread more.  Sorry I don’t have a picture of them baked…they didn’t last long.  I’ll try next time!  I especially like making this amount and freezing half for a quick cookie solution to afternoon snack emergencies.

Nut mix:

For this recipe this is what I used for the nut mix.  I took the bag of mixed nuts and an equal amount of pecans, threw in some of the leftover shreds of Mini Wheat cereal (what else do you do with that??), and used a Vita-mix to grind it all up.  Here are the pics:

(I removed the raisins)

This is what it looked like in the end.  In another recipe, I used this mix 50/50 with flour for a cake.  It worked great!