Healthy-ish Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the many things that I seem to do at the beginning of each year is to give my family's eating habits a bit of a kick up the a***. I start to freak out that we are not healthy enough and then I give our whole pantry/fridge a make-over.

    Anyone familiar with my obsession with food would be aware that I love creating, making and baking sweet treats. I would bake up a storm at least three times a week and then we would eat it all. Of course our meals were always quite healthy, but these were also put under the microscope and given a bit of a shake up.

I really went to town on the sweets though. I haven't stopped baking, it is one of my favourite hobbies after all, I'm just giving our treats a bit of a healthy kick.
This recipe was tested out on friends only last week and was given the big 'thumbs up'. Now they are not 100% healthy, but I have substituted several ingredients to make them healthy-ish.

Healthy-ish Choc-Chip Cookies

3/4 cup rolled oats

1 cup SR wholemeal flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¼ cup butter, softened

¼ cup canola oil

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

I tsp vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Grease and line two baking sheets.

Process oats in the food processor until fine. Transfer to a bowl and add flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add oil, sugars, egg and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy. Add dry ingredients and beat together on low until combined. Fold through the choc chips.

Drop a teaspoonful of dough onto the baking sheets one at a time, 2 Cm's apart. Bake for 15 minutes or so. Cool before transferring to wire racks.

Snickerdoodles!

Mouth-sized pieces of perfection!

There is something about the name of this biscuit that sends me spiralling into an Enid Blyton book. I feel that I should be sitting alongside Moon-Face and Silky eating toffee shocks, pop-biscuits and Snickerdoodles. The name conjures up flights of fancy, whimsy and imagination...or that could just be me, with my head firmly planted in the clouds.

My children find the title hilarious..'We're eating Snickerdoodles!' They giggle, 'Snickerdoodles!' It's often a competition to see who can yell it the loudest....joy!

The biscuit lives up to it's fantastic name, it is really quite delicious. Perfect for popping into your mouth. They have a thin, crunchy, exterior with a cake-like crumbly centre.....mmmmm!

Ingredients;
3/4 cup of butter (some recipes call for shortening, but I'm a butter fan through & through)
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups of plain flour
2 tsps cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

1/2 cup of caster sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon, combined on a plate for rolling the dough balls into.

Preheat oven to 200C.
Line 2x biscuit trays with baking paper.

Using a handheld mixer ( or a kitchen aid if you are lucky enough to own one.....soooo jealous!) beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well between each one.
Add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt and mix until combined.
Roll the dough into small balls, then roll into the sugar mixture. Space out evenly on biscuit trays.
Bake in the preheated oven for 7-8 minutes for a fairly soft biscuit (which is how I like them - almost like cake) or a few minutes longer for a firmer biscuit.

Now see if you can try not to eat them in one go....I have to say, I failed miserably.