We keep sugar on the low at our place, we don't have a candy jar, and we hardly indulge in a container of ice cream, but chocolate chip cookies?
I make them almost weekly.
I justify it several ways.
For one, I want to teach my kids that indulgence is necessary to a well lived life, and everything about a homemade batch of chocolate cookies is indulgent.
In fact, I have managed to make cookies into a weekly rhythm in our home-school with poetry hour (inspired by Julie Bogart from The Brave Writer #poetrytea), and it is something we look forward to every week.
A feast on smells, sweets and words, what's not to love?
This recipe is an adaptation I have made from a typical 'back of the package' recipe.
First change I made is I halved it. No one needs to make 48 cookies to feed 6 people on a Friday afternoon. My batch yields about 20. Often I'll make this batch and only cook 10 (freeze the rest for next week), this way we don't eat more than we need.
Second, I subbed out the refined sugars for coconut sugar, a product that has more nutrition and is half the sweetness of regular sugar. After making cookies for so many years with coconut sugar, I find regular cookies far too sweet.
Third, I use sprouted grain flour. It is super dense and hardy, almost has a nutty finish. It is easier to digest and because the spelt is sprouted before it is ground into flour, it doesn't contain phytic-acid, an anti-nutrient that blocks mineral absorption.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!
Preheat oven to 350
Yields 20 cookies
Ingredients
1 stick salted butter, softened
3/4 cups coconut sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 cup sprouted spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup organic (soy free) chocolate chips
Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl with a beater, mix the butter and the coconut sugar together for about a minute, until they are creamy. Add the vanilla and egg and beat for another 20 seconds to incorporate.
2. In a separate bowl, add the dry ingredients and mix the baking soda into the flour by stirring it lightly with a spoon. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix with the beater on a slow speed until the flour is incorporated.
3. Pour the chocolate chips into the mixture and stir lightly, to disperse the chocolate throughout the batter.
4. Line a pan with parchment paper and roll 2 tablespoons of the cookie dough into the shape of a ball and press fat onto the pan.
Bake for 12 minutes and cool on the hot sheet so that the edges get crispy and the inside stays soft.
