These are absolutely the best Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies that are soft, chewy, and loaded with dark chocolate chips. I have perfected my healthier cookie recipe and kids call it “Classic”!
For more healthy cookies with chocolate chips, try these oat flour chocolate chip cookies and almond flour chocolate chip cookies.
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I am extremely picky when it comes to healthy cookies. Cookies gotta be worth their calories!
When I think of healthy chocolate chip cookies, I envision a layer of soft buttery dough covering chocolate chips like a blanket, and when you bite in, the cookies are chewy.
And that’s this recipe!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Tried and true recipe: This is a very old recipe of mine that I have changed and perfected over the years. The toughest critics, kids, approved!
- Wholesome ingredients: We use organic cane or coconut sugar, whole wheat or spelt flour with bran and germ attached, and better for you dark chocolate chips.
- No sacrificing the taste: Unlike many traditional recipes online, our recipe uses twice less sugar and butter, resulting in yet soft and chewy healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe. Plus no banana, applesauce, flax seeds or avocado are involved.
- Quick and easy: Cookie dough comes together in one bowl and we chill it only for 20 minutes.
Ingredients for Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
You will need only 8 simple ingredients to make these healthy chocolate chip cookies.
- Butter: I used organic salted butter and omitted salt. Unsalted butter works perfectly too.
- Sugar: I used organic cane sugar. Coconut sugar works too. You can also use all or parts of organic brown sugar as it goes well in chocolate chip cookies. I do not recommend to use liquid sweetener as recipe will not work.
- Whole wheat flour or spelt flour: This time I used whole grain spelt flour. Please don’t use all-purpose flour, recipe will need adjustment.
- Baking essentials: Pure vanilla extract, baking soda and salt, if using unsalted butter. No need for baking powder as we do not want cookies to have fluffy texture.
- Chocolate chips: I use dark chocolate chips because sweetness in a cookie dough is enough already. You can use semi-sweet chocolate chips or Lily’s sugar free chocolate chips and more of, if you like.
How to Make Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Here is a rundown with a few tips how to make healthy chocolate chip cookies. You can find full printable recipe card with ingredients amounts and instructions down below.
- Make the cookie dough: In a large bowl, beat softened butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Then add egg and vanilla extract, and then dry ingredients – baking soda, salt and flour. Fold in 1/4 cup chocolate chips and your cookie dough is formed.
- Chill the dough: Place cookie dough in the freezer to chill for 20 minutes. This is a must to prevent cookies from spreading.
- Roll and bake: Scoop dough with a regular cookie scoop, roll into balls and place on prepared baking sheets 3 inches apart. Cookies spread, plan for 6 per sheet. Bake cookies for 10 minutes and remove while cookies appear underbaked, puffy and light in color. Dough will settle during cooling.
- Add more chips: Strategically place remaining 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips into cookies while they are still hot. Also you can skip this step and just add all chips into the dough.
- Cool: Let cookies cool on a baking sheet for 15 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack to cool more. As cookies cool, you will see delicious grooves covering chocolate chips like a blanket appearing.
Tips for Best Results
Here are my well-tested tips for the best healthy chocolate chip cookies results!
- Use cold baking sheets: Make sure your baking sheets are cold. If you baked other cookies right before, cool them off. I stick mine in the fridge for 5 minutes.
- Measure flour correctly: I can’t stress enough, how important it is! Spoon flour into a measuring cup and level with a butter knife. Do not dip measuring cup into a bag with flour!
- Use softened butter: Softened butter means a dent appears when you touch it with a finger. To soften butter, just leave it at room temperature for 3-4 hours. To speed up softening, cut up in cubes and let warm up.
- Do not overmix the cookie dough: Overmixing will make the cookies more prone to falling apart.
- Don’t skip chilling the dough: Because this cookie dough contains butter and sugar, it has to be firmed up before baking. If you don’t chill the dough, your cookies will spread like crazy!
- Do not over bake cookies: With most cookies you want to remove them from the oven before they start browning and finish settling during cooling off period. It’s a golden cookie baking rule!
Variations
- A cookie sandwich: Kids will love when you turn these healthy chocolate chip cookies into dinky doozies! Just sandwich two cookies with healthy buttercream or healthy chocolate frosting.
- Coconut oil: You may use coconut oil but it results in more crispy rather than chewy cookies, with less grooves and more cake like looking cookies.
- Brown sugar: Some love a hint of molasses brown sugar provides. You can sub half the amount of white sugar.
- Naturally sweetened: Add instead of chocolate chips add raisins or cacao nibs (but less).
- Coconut flakes: Stir in a few tablespoons of fresh or toasted unsweetened coconut flakes into the cookie dough before chilling it.
- Nuts: A few tablespoons of chopped peanuts, macadamia nuts, pecans or walnuts will add texture and flavor.
- Fancy cookies: Chop up dark chocolate bar into chunks and add instead of chocolate chips. Once freshly baked, sprinkle cookie with flaky sea salt while still hot and after intentionally placing the extra chips in.
How to Store
Store: If you like chewy cookies, store in a cool dry place in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you like crispy cookies, store them in a ventilated container.
Freeze: Bake and cool cookies completely. Then place in a resealable plastic bag or airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw on a counter for a few hours.
You can also freeze chocolate chip cookie dough itself or roll into balls, freeze on a baking sheet and and then transfer into the container. Thaw in the fridge overnight before baking. If you decide to defrost them on a counter, you will have to place the balls to chill in the freezer for 20 minutes before baking.
Ship: A batch of chocolate chip cookies is perfect for shipping to family and friends. Bake and cool. Place 2 cookies back to back and wrap with plastic wrap. Then place in a plastic container with a lid, stuffed with tissue, inside the shipping box and voila.
FAQs
Unfortunately not. Baking is a science and all flours act differently. Recipe has been tested only with whole wheat flour and spelt flour.
If you use maple syrup or honey instead of sugar, cookies will come out very cakey. I do not recommend. Sugar and butter melt during baking and create a real cookie experience.
Most likely because you haven’t measured flour correctly, so cookies end up more dry as butter absorbs higher amount of flour. Be sure to scoop flour with a spoon into a measuring cup and then level the top with a butter knife.
More Healthy Cookies Recipes to Try
- Healthy oatmeal cookies
- Healthy edible cookie dough
- Sugar free oatmeal cookies
- Healthy skillet cookie
- Protein cookies
Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened at room temperature and packed
- 1/2 cup cane or coconut sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups whole wheat or spelt flour
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips divided
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add butter and sugar; beat with a mixer until creamy.
- Add egg and vanilla extract, beat until combined. Add baking soda, salt and flour; beat until cookie dough is formed. Add 1/4 cup chocolate chips and stir with spatula.
- Place cookie dough in the freezer to chill for 20 minutes. In the meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 cookie sheets with unbleached parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Scoop dough with a regular scoop, roll into balls and place on prepared baking sheets 3 inches apart. Cookies spread.
- Bake for 10 minutes and remove while cookies appear underbaked, puffy and light in color. Strategically place remaining 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips into cookies while they are still hot.
- Let cookies cool on a baking sheet for 15 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack to cool more. As cookies cool, you will see delicious grooves covering chocolate chips like a blanket appearing.
Video
Notes
- Store: If you like chewy cookies, store in a cool dry place in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you like crispy cookies, store them in a ventilated container.
- Freeze: Bake, cool cookies completely, place in a resealable plastic bag or container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw on a counter for a few hours.
- Softened butter: Softened butter means a dent appears when you touch it with a finger. To soften butter, just leave it at room temperature for 2-3 hours. To speed up softening, cut up in cubes.
- Salted butter: If you use salted butter, omit salt.
- Don’t skip dough chilling: Otherwise your cookies will spread.
- Flour: Don’t use any other flour except the one instructed in this recipe. Measure flour correctly by scooping it with a spoon into a measuring cup and then leveling with a knife.
I just made these cookies and they are SO GOOD. They melt in your mouth when you take a bite!! I used brown sugar instead of white sugar because I ran out of white, but the end result was still delicious. Highly recommend.
Thanks for sharing Anna!
Was there a different recipe that you had posted here? Using maple syrup instead of the refined sugar? I believe I made the previous one using maple syrup and it was delcious!
Old recipe, yes. I will email you.
Can I please have the old recipe as well?
Thank you!!
Hey Olena! It’s Cathy, your old neighbor! I was just online trying to find a new good organic chocolate chip cookie recipe and your blog came up…what a coincidence. I made your recipe but used light spelt flour, half organic butter and raw coconut oil, unpasteurized honey instead of maple syrup, and added about a 1/4 cup organic coconut sugar, with the addtion of some organic walnuts and pecans! Turned out great. Adding the coconut sugar just gave the edges a bit of crispness when cooked but not overly sweet as the coconut sugar is mild. These also flattened quite a bit so I recommend not flattening them before baking!
Hope you and Alex are doing great in your new home! Congratulations on a new chapter in your life. (we also have moved out to the country on an acre overlooking Lake Okanagan – raising chickens, building permaculture food gardens, and living back to the basics!)
Hi Cathy! What a nice surprise. So happy to hear you guys are doing just fine and living your dream.:) Internet is a small world indeed.
Yes, baking cookies with sugar makes them more crunchy. More like a real cookie. This is very old recipe of mine when I was scared of any sugar haha. Now my favorite recipe is almond flour chocolate chip cookies. The yare crunchy like a real cookie. I always make a double batch and they are all gone by next day.
Anyways, very nice of you to say “HI”. Alex says Hi to you and Adam too! Chat soon! xoxo
Yes the honey and coconut sugar mixture worked great…still soft in the center but a little crispy on edges! Next time I will double recipe, as they are already half gone! haha
If my email address comes up on your end, email me anytime to keep in touch! (We don’t have any social media)
Will do!
I also noticed from the comments that there was an old recipe for this using maple syrup, would love if you can e-mail it to me. I know it might turn out a little cakey but that’s fine. Thanks you so much.
Sure, will send that over. Enjoy!
These were wonderful an so easy to make. I ended up using whole wheat pastry flour and the texture was perfect… thanks for the great recipe!
Love these cookies. The texture and flavour are superb! Love, love the healthy ingredients. Thank you!
Big hit! BIG BIG BIG, So funny Olena! I doubled and took about 20ish of your cookies. They brought out store ice cream cake, with bright red and dark blue frosting. Really! So is there anything in nature that even grows in those colors? So I also offered your cookies and didn’t say a word about the ingredients. I did make them smallish. It’s funny, everyone took one! Not one person said they weren’t good! Most said they good, many said excellent, wanted to know what is in there to make them so flavorful… Coconut or something? When I made this batch I had only whole wheat pastry flour left. I used up all my spelt the first time. After they’d eaten them I said they were all organic and practically sugar free, whole wheat, blah blah blah. I thought, well, that’s it. They won’t eat more. They finished them! I had one tiny cookie! I doubt I changed any lives. But I showed them that you can well and enjoy food!
Wow, awesome! I hear you about “doubt I changed lives”. People want a change themselves. I will try them with nuts. xoxo
All set for the party! I added lots of toasted walnuts and made extra to bring. Thank you SO MUCH!! These are the best! I’ll have to leave them behind or my husband and I have too many tomorrow. That is if there are any left! Tried to attach photo… I don’t know couldn’t figure it out… They DO look like yours though, but for the nuts!
Hi Kit! Sounds lovely! I imagine how good they look with a bunch of extra nuts! I don’t think you can attach image so you are not missing anything. You can post it on any social media you have and tag me @ifoodreal. Enjoy your party! We are going skiing today!:)
Great recipe! I’ve been looking for a cookie recipe like this. Thanks for sharing.
Glad to hear that.:)
Thank you! Where has this recipe been all my life?