Back when I did a makeover on Melissa’s Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies, I had a request for a makeover on everyone’s all-time favorite: chocolate chip cookies. I accepted the challenge and got to work studying my favorite recipes. My go-to, no-fail recipe has always been the one from the Betty Crocker Cookbook. I have experimented with whole wheat flour in the past, but have never made any other adjustments. One of my new favorite cookies, Lisa’s Maple Pecan Breakfast Cookies (which showed up on this month’s menu) provided added inspiration, especially when it came to sweeteners. I will warn you that there is a small amount of sugar and some white flour, but this is a treat right? Self-control, self-control, self-control….

I’ll take you through my process incase you are looking to “make over” one of your favorite recipes. I chose 100% maple syrup over honey because I felt that the flavor would be complimentary to the chocolate instead of competing with the chocolate. Honey has a tendency to leave a strong flavor, which is sometimes desirable (for instance it played so well with the peanut butter in the above mentioned cookies!) and sometimes not. This is also the first time that I’ve experimented with coconut oil in a cookie. The old Betty Crocker Cookbook called for shortening (big whole food no-no) and butter. You could definitely substitute softened butter here if desired, but I felt that the coconut oil added a little bit of natural sweetness and softness of flavor instead of the salty, strong flavor of butter. Last step, I evened out my wet and dry ingredients for the right consistency and increased the rising agent (baking soda) just slightly to account for the density of the whole wheat flour. The result was a soft, cakey cookie full of quality ingredients. They were sweet enough to be a treat, but not overwhelming.

I’m engaged in a life long struggle with my sweet tooth. Even though I don’t think I will ever totally defeat it, I think that is ok. I believe we are created to enjoy good things in this life – even sweets! But one of my goals on my whole food journey is to adjust my tastes so that much smaller amounts of sweetener are still satisfying. Fasting from sugar, natural sweeteners, and “makeovers” of my favorite foods have been key steps in reaching this goal. How do you assuage your sweet tooth and still stay within your whole foods guidelines?

Whole Food Chocolate Chip Cookies

Author/Source:

Kim @ Onceamonthmom.com

Ingredients:

• .25 cup brown sugar or sucanat
• .25 cup maple syrup
• .5 cup coconut oil, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• .5 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• .75 cup whole wheat flour
• .75 teaspoon baking soda
• .25 teaspoon salt
• .5 cups high quality chocolate chips
• .5 cup nuts (optional)

Directions:

In a medium bowl beat together sugar, syrup, oil, vanilla, and egg until smooth. In another medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, and salt. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 12 minutes or until just lightly browned.

Freezing Directions:

Cool completely and store in freezer bags. Thaw to serve. Reheat for 15-30 seconds in the microwave if desired.

Servings: 18 cookies

**conversion chart image provided by Erik Spiekermann

This Post will be linked at:

• Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage
• These Chicks Cooked Weekly Recipe Collection at This Chick Cooks
• Pennywise Platter at The Nourishing Gormet
• Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS

I while back, I pinned Melissa’s Chewy Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies on my “Recipes to Try” pinboard. But I have this problem. I’m addicted to cookies! So if I make a batch of cookies, I will end up eating them all in about 2 days. I confess that I have eaten cookies for breakfast {blush}. So, to keep myself from totally overloading on sugar, I have to give my baked goods a whole food makeover. Because really, who wouldn’t want to eat oatmeal and peanut butter cookies for breakfast?

Note: If you’re like me and you don’t keep quick cooking oats in your pantry, you can just take a cup of rolled oats and pulse them in your food processor or blender for a minute or two so that you get the right consistency. 

Whole Foods Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Author/Source:

Kim @ Onceamonthmom.com, inspired by Melissa @ onceamonthmom.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup honey
• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 2 cups white wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup quick cooking oats

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat together butter, honey, peanut butter, and egg. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and oats. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Spoon out onto an ungreased baking sheet (about 1 tablespoon per cookie). Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Freezing Directions:

Cool cookies completely and store in freezer bag. Thaw to serve.

Servings: 3 dozen cookies

**conversion chart image provided by Erik Spiekermann

This Post will be linked at:

• Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage
• These Chicks Cooked Weekly Recipe Collection at This Chick Cooks
• Pennywise Platter at The Nourishing Gormet
• Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS

They are already dairy free, but are easily adaptable for gluten free – just make sure you have gluten free oats. And speaking of adaptations, you can swap out cranberries and pecans for your favorite dried fruits and nuts, or just use what you have on hand.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Author/Source:

Kim @ Onceamonthmom.com

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 cups rolled oats
• .33 cup applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• .5 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground flax
• .5 cup dried cranberry
• .5 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Peel bananas and mash with a fork in a large mixing bowl. Stir in oats and remaining ingredients. Drop with a spoon onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Freezing Directions:

Cool and store in freezer bags. Thaw to serve.

Servings: 18 cookies

**conversion chart image provided by Erik Spiekermann

I had a ‘menu’ of six different Christmas cookies and planned to triple each recipe for a grand total of approximately 36 dozen cookies. In reality, it didn’t work out quite that way. You’ll see why.

Like a good OAMC cook, I had done my shopping the day before. My list included 22 cups of flour, 12 cups of sugar, 9 cups of brown sugar, 15 cups of butter, 10 eggs, 6 cups of powdered sugar, 3 cups of pecans, 3 cups of walnuts, and 4 cups of chocolate chips, among other things. Above is my kitchen counter top at 7 am on Baking Day.

I started with my son’s favorite Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies. He helped with the unwrapping (and occasional eating) of Hershey’s kisses. This recipe went very smoothly (because it’s so easy).

I made six dozen, and when the last batch went into the oven, I started on Recipe #2: Gingerbread Men. This recipe makes 3 dozen, so I made three batches and left them in the fridge to chill while I made # 3: Sugar Cookies. They were soon stacked next to the gingerbread dough.

Then I decided to get a bit more daring with Cocoa Wedding Cake Cookies (I’ve always called them Snowball Cookies). Tripling this recipe proved too much for my little Cuisinart. My solution (after a very bad grinding sound persisted from the machine) was to mix only the butter and pecans in the Cuisinart, then transfer to a large mixing bowl, where I used a hand mixer.

These cookies were delicious! (Not that I sampled many.) I made 6 dozen, but took a ten minute break to take my kids over to my neighbor’s house to play and accidentally left the dog inside. I bet you can see where this is going…I came home to only 3 dozen Snowballs cooling on the counter. And the dog wasn’t even sick!

After the dog disaster, I started on the Cinnamon Pinwheels. This recipe was easier to follow than I’d anticipated (remember, I’m not very confident in the kitchen!). It’s basically sugar cookie dough layered with cinnamon-flavored dough, then rolled like you would cinnamon rolls, sliced, and baked. Tip: if your Cuisinart drops the ball like mine did, you can grind the Red Hot candies in a coffee grinder instead. It worked perfectly!

My last cookie of the day (started at 2 pm): Chocolate Chip Blondies. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have included a bar cookie recipe, or at very least, I would have tackled it earlier in the day. The batter was easy to make, but the bars (in three 9×12 pans) took a long time to bake and even longer to cool and cut. It was a bit more time intensive than I would have liked (although the result was certainly yummy).

At about 3 pm (with one hour left before retrieving my kids from the long-suffering neighbor), I pulled the gingerbread and sugar cookie dough back out of the fridge and started rolling each ball out one by one. If I had more counter space, I’d have rolled several out at once, but this is what my kitchen looked like at this point:

Next time, I’m cleaning as I go!

I was only midway through cutting out gingerbread men and sugar cookies at 4 pm, and finally finished baking them all at 6 pm. Nearly 12 hours of almost continuous baking! As each batch cooled, I zip-locked bagged them and put them in the freezer to await frosting, decorating, and gifting (that will be another day!).

How do you tackle your Christmas cookie baking? Do you spread it out throughout the season, or do as I did? If so, how did it go?

For you experts out there, any tips for me for next time?

About Amy

Amy Whitley is learning as she goes when it comes to the domestic arts. You can find her talking about things she does know a little about at her blog The Never-True Tales and her travel review site Pitstops for Kids.
**Don’t forget to enter the Merry Monday’s Bob Evans giveaway going on now through Friday, December 11th.