Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookies

Over the years I've been looking for ways to make things I love better for me. And like just about everyone else in the US I love chocolate chip cookies.

Now, let's pause a moment before I get into the recipe. These are healthIER chocolate chip cookies, not HEALTHY chocolate chip cookies. They've got lots of fat and calories. They are still real cookies, not cardboard tasting diet things.

But, they also have anti-oxidants, calcium, and iron, things not usually found in chocolate chip cookies.

2 Sticks of Butter
1 1/2 cups of sugar (or if you really want to up the "healthy" aspect 3/4 cups sugar and 3/4 cups Splenda.)
1 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract (use the good stuff, it's worth it!)

Cream the first three ingredients together until light and fluffy.

1 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Almond Flour/Almond Meal
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

Mix dry ingredients together.

2 Eggs

Once butter mixture is creamed add the first egg. Mix until fully incorporated. Add second egg, mix until fully incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients a half cup or so at a time.

3 Cups of Chocolate Chips. (I use a mix of half Nestle Chocolate Chips and half bits of Ghirdelli dark chocolate. The more dark chocolate the more anti-oxidants.)

Blend in the chips.

Drop onto a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake at 375 until you can smell the cookies (about seven minutes).

This dough freezes very well, so I portion out the cookies when I make the dough, cook some of them and freeze the rest. When I want cookies I grab some from the freezer stick them on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet, and bake at 350 until I can smell them. Ten minutes give or take. Only making two or three cookies at a time also helps keep these healthy, you don't feel the need to eat six or seven of them because they're just sitting on the counter waiting for you.

The addition of Almond flour to the recipe adds Iron, Calcium, and Protein to the cookies. The dark chocolate adds anti-oxidants. (If you like some of the chocolate chips can be replaced with dried cherries, which would also increase the anti-oxidants, and make these more of a 'grown-up' cookie.)

These are thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies. Very crispy. Don't try to sneak one near the kids because they'll hear you crunching it even if they can't see you eating it.