Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Is it possible to make healthy and low-fat chocolate chip cookies that taste good?

The answer is yes and we have three delicious recipes for healthy chocolate chip cookies here to prove it.

Many low-fat cookies taste awful and just aren't worth eating.

After a lifetime of weight struggles, I've learned that I would rather have one small truly delicious cookie than a box full of tasteless cookies, even if they are low fat!

But, I am all for trimming fat and boosting nutrition where I can, provided the results still taste good.

I say bring on the low fat chocolate chip cookies and healthy chocolate chip cookies. I love when I can indulge in tasty treats with less guilt!

Two of these healthy cookie recipes come from Canyon Ranch Spa in Tucson, Arizona. Evidently they have changed their famous recipe for low fat chocolate chip cookies through the years.

Both recipes use less butter than traditional chocolate chip cookies. One recipe uses low-fat cream cheese as a substitute, the other yogurt and applesauce.

The third recipe, from one of my favorite healthy living magazines, Body & Soul, uses canola oil and replaces some of the sugar with brown-rice syrup.

So you have several choices here for healthy low fat chocolate chip cookies. You may need to try more than one recipe or play around with them a bit to find one that makes you happiest.

Healthy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe with Cream Cheese

These cookies puff up while baking so the instructions have you lightly flatten them with your finger part way through their baking time to deflate them. Be careful not to burn yourself!

Canola oil (for greasing the cookie sheets)
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup low-fat cream cheese
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 egg yolks
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips, about 6 ounces

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet with canola oil. Alternatively, line your baking sheet with parchment paper and skip the oil.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, cream cheese, and brown sugar with an electric mixer on low speed until well blended.
Add egg yolks and vanilla and mix on low until just combined.
In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips.
Add the flour mixture to butter mixture and mix with a large spoon until combined.
Place heaping teaspoonfuls (or use a 3/4 ounce scoop) onto baking sheet spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart.
Bake for 7 minutes. Lightly flatten cookies with finger. Rotate baking sheet (front to back) and bake an additional 3 minutes.
Remove from the oven and transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

This recipe yields about 3 dozen Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Healthy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe with Yogurt

This chocolate chip cookie dough needs to be chilled before baking, so plan accordingly.

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup non-fat plain yogurt
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate morsels

In a large bowl beat butter with granulated sugar and brown sugar until well blended.
Add egg and beat until combined.
Add yogurt, applesauce and vanilla and mix well.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
Add flour mixture to butter-sugar mixture and stir to blend.
Add chocolate morsels and stir until distributed through the dough.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate dough until chilled (for crispier cookies, freeze dough for at least 2 hours before baking).
When you are ready to bake your cookies, preheat your oven to 350F degrees and lightly grease cookie sheets.
Place level tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.
Bake 8-10 minutes or until cookies begin to turn golden around the edges.
Remove from the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes and then transfer the cookies with a spatula to wire racks to cool completely.

This recipe yields about 3 1/2 dozen Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Healthy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe with Almonds

This healthy chocolate chip cookies recipe uses canola oil instead of butter and only 1 egg, which reduces saturated fat by 75 percent. Other nutritional boosts include using whole grain flour in place of half of the all-purpose flour, adding almonds, using brown rice syrup for part of the sugar because it causes less of a blood sugar spike.

The cookies will be tastier and more tender if the dough is allowed to chill for several hours, but an hour of chilling time will suffice if you can't wait longer.

1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips or 6 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup natural almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

In a medium bowl, stir together the flours, baking soda and salt until well blended.
In a large bowl stir together the oil, rice syrup, sugar, egg, water, and vanilla until well blended.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
Cover the healthy chocolate chip cookies dough and refrigerate for at least one hour or as long as overnight.
When you are ready to bake your cookies, preheat the oven to 375F degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Scoop the dough by rounded tablespoons and place onto the baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart.
Bake until light golden brown, about 10 to 13 minutes. (If the cookies appear to be baking unevenly, rotate the cookie sheets from front to back halfway through the baking time.)
Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer the cookies to a rack to cool completely.

This recipe yields about 4 dozen Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies with Almonds.