These cookies are seriously the best “healthy” cookie I have made so far, and let me tell you I have made my fair share!  The last recipe I tried I was sure I had a winner and excitedly watched my husband as he tried one and replies, “good thing these have chocolate chips in them or else there would be no taste”…ummmm ok maybe I hadn’t found “the” recipe.  Bummer.

Then a woman named Jessica over at bintrhodaskitchen commented on one of my posts.  I was delighted to see a comment that wasn’t spam!!  I checked out her blog and the most recent post was these cookies. One thing I love that she did, which I didn’t because I was too impatient was to soak her oats, pecans and flour before adding them to the cookie dough.  Soaking grains, nuts and seeds can provide many health benefits.  It takes a bit of forethought and I have personally soaked whole raw almonds overnight in salted water and then dehydrated them for 24 hours and it really changes the consistency of the nut.  They are much easier to chew, they have a nice crunch and are supposed to be easier to digest.

I could just tell by looking at the recipe that these were going to be awesome and I was right!!!  I had everything on hand and made them right away.   I changed a few things about the recipe, the original calls for all butter but I used half butter half coconut oil which I think works nicely in this recipe since there’s already coconut in them.  You can leave out the almond extract but I personally love it so I kept it.

I put the butter, coconut oil, and sugars in a small pot on the stove to break down the sugars before mixing it with the other ingredients.  Sucanat or “natural cane sugar” is very granular and takes a bit to dissolve, I didn’t want crunchy pieces in the cookies so this worked nicely.  The coconut sugar I just found in the baking aisle of my grocery store.  Coconut sugar is nice because it has a lower glycemic index (35) than regular sugar or even honey (55-60) so it has less effect on your blood sugar it’s also not processed like white sugar.  I’ve also reduced the amount of chocolate chips and pecans by just a bit because by the bottom of the bowl I had extras with not enough dough for them to stick to.  And one more thing…if you don’t have all these fancy sugars on hand I say no big deal I would just use white sugar for the coconut sugar and brown sugar for the sucanat, these cookies still have whole wheat flour and oats so regardless they are still a healthy upgrade from your average chocolate chip cookie.

Without further ado, here is my latest favorite healthy cookie recipe.

Coconut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

*adapted from bintrhodaskitchen.blogspot.com

Ingredients:

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. coconut oil

1/2 c. Sucanat (cane sugar)

1 c. coconut sugar

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

1/2 t. almond extract

2 c. white whole wheat flour

1/2 t. salt

2 t. baking powder

2 c. oats

1 c. unsweetened coconut

3/4 c. chocolate chips

3/4 c. pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Melt butter and coconut oil in a small saucepan and add sugars, stir until dissolved.  (it won’t really blend but more form a caramel-like blob but that’s ok)

3. Beat eggs, vanilla and almond extract with the butter and sugar mixture in a large bowl.

4. Add flour, baking powder, salt, coconut and oats.

5. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.

6. Shape in to balls and flatten slightly with hand, will make about 2 dozen.

7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, let cool a bit and enjoy!

 

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