workout wednesday

baking is one of my favorite pastimes... i love to bake! and mr. w loves it when i bake! hopefully one day viv will too. (i've always dreamed of being the 'cool mom who bakes the best cookies EVER' for all my kids and their friends...oh the things i aspire to!)

well, as i said last week, even tho this girl loves herself a yummy baked goody, i always try to find ways to slip in some nutrients in any way possible. i firmly believe that even indulgent treats can still be made with ingredients that will love your body as much as your taste buds love to eat them. 

my go-to whenever i'm in the baking mood is a classic chocolate chip cookie. i've actually gotten to where i can't ask kyle what he wants when i feel like baking if i want to try a different recipe because his response is always "but babe...you're chocolate chip cookies are just sooo good!" *insert mr. w's best puppy dog eyes* (i can hear it now, the same thing coming from tiny children's voices! begging for the best chocolate chip cookies in the world!!!) how pathetic do i seem right now? :)

  

little by little over the years i've gradually made adjustments to the original recipe, most of the time not telling kyle because i want to see his reaction before telling him. nearly every single time i've altered the recipe to make them healthier, he has asked what i did differently this  time because they were his favorite so far! that equals success in my book. impress a chef: check!

so here's my spin on the classic nestle tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe...the same recipe that monica and phoebe tried to recreate without a recipe and after i think 18 different tries they realized her grandma's 'secret' recipe was the classic "nestle' tollhauz" recipe...ha, i love that show!

here's my adapted version as follows:

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup smart balance butter

1/4 cup applesauce

3/4 cup organic evaporated cane juice (aka sugar)

3/4 cup sucanat (brown sugar if desired)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 chia eggs (2 tablespoons chia seeds mixed with 6 tablespoons warm water)

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips 

1) preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment.

2) mix chia seeds with warm water, stir in small bowl and allow to set for five minutes. this allows the fiber to take over and make a gel, which replaces the eggs in this recipe.

3) cream butter, applesauce, both sugars, and vanilla in large bowl. and chia eggs and continue to cream until well blended. and all other dry ingredients except chocolate and blend until well mixed. next, hand stir the chocolate chips . drop by rounded teaspoons onto baking sheets.

4) bake for 8-11 minutes depending on oven and desired cookie density. (i like mine more cooked, mr. w like his gooey. i usually do one pan gooey, one a little more cooked.) remove from baking sheet and allow to cool before inhaling, if you have any amount of self restraint to wait that long!

*a few things i should mention: sucanat is a more natural version of brown sugar. it's organic and not as processed. brown sugar is simply white sugar that has had color added to it, whereas sucanat is color because it hasn't been bleached out.

sometimes i like a few cookies without the chocolate (i have since i was a kid) so a lot of the time i don't use as many chips as the recipes states so that the last few scoops will be chocolate free.

if you're a coconut fan you could also use regular coconut oil rather than the butter. it would add a slight coconut undertone to these. i think it'd be delish as i'm a huge coconut lover, but i've not tried it this way yet.

since this recipe is egg free, there's no need to worry about salmonella if you're a cookie dough lover. and let's face it, who isn't? you could even freeze this dough to have on hand for the occasional cookie dough nibble or to bake a cookie or two when the sweet tooth hankerin' strikes.*

i hope you find these as tasty as we do!

xoxo