These cookies freeze well, can be eaten as a breakfast meal and are a great healthy treat for any time of day.
I have always been a bit of a health nut, but also have a strong weakness for a delicious homemade chocolate chip cookie. My weakness is not aided by the fact that my wife bakes incredibly delicious batches of this wonderful little dessert. In fact, because we simply cannot eat them all, when she bakes a batch we normally give half of them away. Hence amongst our friends, family, & coworkers her recipe is quite famous…though not healthy in the least!
We always gave half away, until one day we had the frugal idea to freeze them. We ended up freezing around half of her last batch and found that around 20 – 30 seconds in the microwave gives us a cookie that taste like it is fresh out of the oven. Although I LOVE her cookies, the health nut in me has always wanted to find that perfect & ultimate chocolate chip cookie that is not only delicious but also healthy. I knew that making a healthy cookie was not going to give us the same type of taste, but still wanted to create something that would satisfy our sweet tooth!
I am happy to report that due to the rainy dreary day we had, I committed myself to creating the recipe and have accomplished what my wife & I believe to be a healthy dessert masterpiece! My wife & I are going to eat these as breakfast cookies (bars) and as dessert. They are actually quite a healthy creation that we are very happy to share with you.
Here is our recipe for The Ultimate Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Click here to for a Printable Version
Ingredients
Wet
- 3/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/2 stick butter (we use salted butter)
- 3/4 cup raw honey (pick up at your local health food store, substitute regular honey if that is all you have)
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (I advise against using imitation vanilla)
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white
Dry
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 cup whole grain rolled oats (I do not use quick oats, so I roughly chop these oats in my food processors before adding to other ingredients)
- 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. fine sea salt
Finishing touches
- 12 oz. package of Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup chopped craisins (a.k.a. dried cranberries)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Now just mix and bake them like a batch of normal chocolate chip cookies. In a mixing bowl, combine all the wet ingredients (I partially soften the butter in the microwave, just be careful not to melt it too much). Stir them together with a spoon. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Now carefully stir in the dry ingredients in with the wet. Now stir in the finishing touches.
Place cookies on baking sheet and bake at 350 for 10 – 14 minutes (Mrs. Jabs & I do 12 minutes), depending on your oven and how well done you like your cookies. Enjoy fresh out of the oven, or frozen then warmed in the microwave for 20 seconds.
Alternate/additional finishing touches (add whatever you have a taste for here and substitute it for the finishing touches above, here are some ideas for additional )
- 2 mashed banana (If you use banana’s only use 1/2 cup of applesauce)
- 1 cup shredded & toasted coconut
- 1 cup Rice Krispies
- 1/2 cup chopped raisins
**Remember…these cookies freeze well, can be eaten as a breakfast meal and are a great healthy treat for any time of day.
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{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
Those cookies sound like a serious dose of fiber! Love the organization of the site as well as the content. Thanks for all the info on debt elimination. Some of it is stuff I’ve heard repeatedly from multiple sources, but it never hurts to be reminded because we can all get caught up in the fast and furious pace of this modern life thereby causing us to neglect or forget the most basic of biblical principles. Keep the faith and keep up the good work.
Heath
Thanks for the compliments!
These cookies are soooo good. My wife & I could not believe how much we liked them. This next time I’m going to try the banana substitution! Yummy.
Hey! I have been meaning to try these yummy cookies. thanks for the effort to put them together and I see that you used a couple of my recommendations! You are a good boy!
These cookies are so good! We make batches & just stick most of them in the freezer (like Tante Benita did) so we have them at all times!
You should definitely try them!
hey i really wanna try these cookies .they are exactly what i was searching for . i was just wondering if i could substitute something for the apple sauce
thanks so much !
Love your website. Thanks for time.
These sound like yummy cookies. I am thinking of adding some ground up flax seed too.
We make our own vanilla extract. Use 2 vanilla beans cut length wise and 2 cups vodka, let it sit in your cupboard for 2-3 months. Rotate two bottles and just add more vodka.
I made these and they were delish! I think it will be a permanent swap in chocolate chip cookie recipe. Extra tips I found, After I put the batter in zip-lock bags I scored them with a chopstick into 12 squares. It made them real easy to break off and since they were stored flat it saves freezer space.
Also, about 8 min @ 350 in a toaster oven works perfectly with the frozen dough.
Miriam, thanks for that smart tip! What a good plan. Then you have fresh cookies anytime you want them quick! Love it!
These cookies are soooo good. My wife & I could not believe how much we liked them. This next time I’m going to try the banana substitution! Yummy.
How many cookies do you get from the batch?
I ran this through my Mastercook software to check nutritionals and here are the results:
Adding only choc chips and craisins to the regular recipe, making 24 cookies, per cookie:
172 calories, 7g fat, 3g protein, 29 carbs, 2g fiber, 158mg sodium.
These cookies are the best healthy ones I’ve ever tasted and baked! They are absolutely awesome. I love baking . . . what else have you perfected?
Thanks Gail. We also make homemade Kefir (yogurt like) every day and are crazy about our granola recipe.
Just made these cookies! Really loved them. We added ground flaxseed to boost the “healthy”. This recipe is a keeper! Tip for next batch: add 1/2 or less of the Ghirardelli chocolate chips. A full bag is too much for my little princesses! Thank you for sharing! We made your granola recipe too! EXCELLENT! Looking forward to trying your other recipes!
I love how you take the recipe and make it your own… you have captured the spirit of diyNatural! Keep it up, and keep coming back for more.
WOWZA! These are like a bread cookie! Amazing! I sub’d pecans in place of walnuts and ground them extra fine
I’m not a fan of a nut crunch…I love ‘em! I made 18 bars for my hubby to take w him-he is gone w school then work from 630am-8pm…so these should work great!!!
Yum Jamie, you’re making me hungry.
My second batch is in the oven now! Thanks for taking the time to maintain such a fun and helpful website – more recipes and DIY products please!
Hey Matt….getting ready to make these delicious cookies at the Garrett household…hope mine come out as good as yours and Betsy’s! I went to the store and specifically bought the dark chocolate ghiradelli chips…yummy! Thanks for the recipe
No problem Bridgit, you’ll love having these cookies around – the keep great in the freezer. Great to see you and Pete last weekend.
Great to see you guys too!!! I absolutely love this website…so much great information…great job Matt!
Thanks Bridgit. Now that I’m stepping down from my 9-5 job, you can expect to see the posts coming in at a higher frequency too.
I am also planning the release of a homemade cleaning products eBook soon as well, so stick around. 
Hey, i was wondering what you mean by stick butter, where i live butter comes in blocks of cubes in certain grams; could you please let me know how much is 1/2 stick butter in ounces or grams? Also, is the unsweetened apple sauce homemade or commercial? whats more, i cant find the bittersweet chocolate chip cookies by ghirardelli
..could you please let me know some other substitute to that brand? i really want to bake these cookies, would really appreciate a response 
thanks!
Hi Tayyaba. Just use whatever dark chocolate chips you can find (the Ghirardelli are 60% cacao.) A 1/2 stick of butter is 4 ounces. We now have homemade applesauce, but have also used store-bought, so either is fine. Go for it!
I don’t have whole wheat flour at the moment. Can I use rye flour? (I have buckwheat and cornmeal on hand, too.)
Since I’m lacking applesauce at the moment, I’m going to put part of an apple and two bananas in the blender and see what happens before creaming them with the butter.
Question – why do you add an extra egg white? Can I just use a teaspoon or so of water?
Hi Dayna, you can do whatever you’d like w/the recipe… don’t be afraid to make it your own. I can tell you that banana will make the cookies much softer, spongier, and more moist… kind of more like cake than cookies, but it tastes great. You could use any type of flour you’d like, but the cookies would of course take on the flavor of the flour used.
These were super yummy cookies. I was surprised when all my children except one loved them too. Thanks for the great recipe.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe, they taste great! I subbed half of the oatmeal with Flaxseed Meal to give an extra boost. Didn’t have dark chocolate so I used milk chocolate so not as healthy but I am hoping my kids like them. I love that there is no sugar other than what is in the chocolate in these cookies. Thanks again!
AMAZING! I read your recipe and the comments and knew I had to try them. Absolutely delicious. Even my brothers, who hate me trying to make all their favorite desserts healthy, are begging me to make more. Definitely a keeper!!
Thanks for sharing this! I’ve been looking for a healthy substitute for my sweet tooth. Plan on using these to make healthy ice cream sandwiches with froyo!!
We’re glad to share the info Ash, glad you like it!
I’m excited! I have tried modifing my fav cookie recipie to use WW, but found they were harder than i like…
Will have to try!!!
I wish that your website listed the fat, saturated fat, trans, and calories these sound good but i wish there was a nutrition label posted.
Since this info is important to you (it’s not to us) we suggest learning the USDA nutritional values of the ingredients. That research will arm you with the ability to DIY for future recipes that do not list the info. God bless.
My girlfriend and I found this recipe and thought to do a video of baking a batch. Wow, how delicous! Even with 10 times the amount of salt and nutmeg (ya gotta see the vid) the cookies came out awesome!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=156ov6f6QCY
I tried making these last night and wow! Very good, and what’s more, they’re satisfying! You’re not going to sit down and eat 6 of these without even thinking about it. Thanks for the recipe!
Exactly Muriel, and they’re healthy… can you believe it??!! Glad you like the recipe, God bless.
Our family LOVES these cookies!!!! My children are actually starting to prefer them over the old way now! YAY!!! However, I can’t compute the freezer thing – we eat them too quickly!
There are only 2 of us.
Just made these. They’re awesome! I can’t understand how they can taste as good as or better than normal chocolate chip cookies. And I don’t have to feel guilty or sick after eating them! We’re already thinking about ways to change the recipe, adding peanut butter maybe. We also added the flax seeds since I saw someone say that. Thanks so much for sharing, We’ll probably be making these for our family for life.
Yeah, those cookies are like bread or milk on our house – when we run out it’s a bit of an emergency to hurry up and make another batch!
That’s a great idea I hadn’t thought of! I will have to do that with my frozen yogurt. It’s been really tough trying to go healthy but so worth it, especially when you find great alternatives like this.
Hey by any chance do you know how many calories are in one cookie? We made 2 dozen out of the batter.
No idea Ashley.