Chocolate chips cookies are not healthy! We all know... These high fat high sugar high carbs treats are made with butter, sugar, flour and chocolate. And these ingredient are not healthy!!!
Yet, when I do a Google search for “healthy chocolate chip cookies”, I can still find many recipes! I asked myself... Are these recipes really healthy?
I would say that they are less-sinful rather than "healthy" as I have noticed something about these recipes...
Instead of butter, these “healthy” cookies are baked with coconut oil which is high in saturated fat. Hmmm.... definitely not healthy! Some recipes use vegetable oil or olive oil. These ingredients might seems healthier because they contains less saturated fat than butter but do you know that the calories of 100g butter is actually lower than 100g of oil? Unless if you are a vegan or allergy to dairy, I don't really think that we should bake your treats with no butter.
Instead of white flour, some “healthy” recipes use the more nutritious wholemeal flour, oat flour or almond meal but these cookies still contain butter and sugar! Not so healthy anyway!
Instead of cane sugar, some use sugar substitutes such as Stevia, Xylitol, Sorbitol and etc. Think carefully. Are these sugar substitutes really suitable for children?
Whether healthy or not, these ingredients can never be comparable to the real sugar and flour because there is no way that these ingredients can replicate the texture of a delicious cookie!
No coconut oil. No gluten free. No wholemeal. No paleo or low carb keto... Here I am, the clueless-me is back to my square one, looking my perfect healthy cookies recipe. Then, I realize...
How about if I just want to bake delicious chocolate chip cookies (CCC) with the least amount of sugar? Can this be even possible?
My answer is YES!!!
Each of these YUMMY Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies contains about 4g added sugar!
Not so bad, huh?
4g added sugar in one medium crispy cookie. That’s about a teaspoon of sugar added to bake one yummy cookie. It can be bad but still not too bad. Agree?
Sugar is an essential ingredient to make cookies soft moist chewy or crispy and crunchy. Based on my baking experience, it requires about 200g sugar per 100g butter to make good chewy cookies, and about 100g sugar per 100g butter to make real crunchy cookies.Based on what I read here and here, I realised that we can reduce the amount of sugar added to 50g per 120g butter which is 75% LESS than the amount needed to bake the chewy cookies and 50% LESS than the crunchy cookies!!! That’s a significant reduction of sugar but will it affect the cookies texture?Unfortunately yes! ... but but but please don’t be sad! Look here! These crispy CCC with 50g added sugar per 120g fat used are actually yummy. Plus, they can stay nice and crispy for up to a week. The only thing is they can never be crunchy!
Oh! I like these crispy less sugar CCC!!!
Buttery and crispy, not crunchy.
It's ok because they are still very yummy!!!
Don't like crispy CCC? Can we use the same amount of sugar to bake soft CCC?
My answer is YES!!!
Look!!!
I can bake these delicious soft cookies with 50g added sugar with every 120g butter used!
Watch my video to see how I baked these soft chocolate chip cookies with the least sugar, showing that the chilling step is essential.
Are these cookies same to the ones with the full amount of sugar?
Truthfully Logically Obviously NO!!! LOL!!!
These soft cookies are moist and yummy even after a week but they are not chewy!
My sugar-conscious yet fussy son told me that these soft less sugar CCC are actually nice too!
They are soft and cakey, not chewy!Yet, still very comforting to enjoy!
So now you know... We can bake delicious crispy or soft chocolate chip cookies with minimal amount of sugar but we can’t make them crunchy or chewy!I know some of you might want to stretch your luck further and ask... Can we bake delicious chocolate chip cookies with less fat and less sugar? I'm sorry that my answer is NO NO NO. In fact, a firm NO with sufficient evidence! LOL!!!There is this healthy honey chocolate chip cookies at here that claimed that these cookies are chewy. So I tried baking the cookies with no liquid Stevia and added a little more chocolate chip... The cookies are cakey, 100% NOT CHEWY!!! And they taste errr... kind of cardboard-ish! LOL!!!
These cookies are soft and cakey, NOT CHEWY!!!
Here's a video showing how I baked these healthy cookies if you are interested but I won't sharing the recipe in this post because the cookies are just ok, not chewy, kind of cardboard-ish. Nothing spectacular... Sorry!
I hope that you like my less sugar chocolate chip cookies analysis. If you like my family-friendly recipes, please stay tune for more as I will be sharing many interesting chocolate chip cookies recipes soon in these coming months. Some are naughty yet some are made with less sugar as well. Most importantly, all of these cookies are delicious!!!
So please LIKE, SHARE and FOLLOW my Facebook at here or here or my Instagram @zoebakeforhappykids or SUBCRIBE my YouTube channel at here. Your support means a lot to me. Your LIKE, SHARE, FOLLOW and SUBSCRIBE will tell me that I'm on a right track and will keep a busy full-time working mom like me motivated and share more of my tried-and-tested recipes in the future. Thank you!
Here are the recipes.
Less sugar Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 11 medium cookies
105g unsalted or salted butter, softened at room temperature
15g preferably trans fat free Cisco* shortening
50g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 large egg yolk at room temperature, 17g each
150g (1 cup) plain / all purpose flour
20g cornflour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
100g (1/2 cup) dark or milk chocolate chips, plus extra to top if desired - I used Callebaut dark chocolate callets with 54% cocoa
*Please do not use Copha shortening but you can substitute this with the same amount of butter, 15g but please be aware that this ingredient is essential to make these cookies crispy. For people who are living in Australia, you can buy this item via USA foods, online or in the shop at Moorabbin, Victoria.
Preheat oven to 190°C / 375°F. Line baking trays with baking papers.
Add butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Use a wooden spoon or an electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat until combined.
Add vanilla and egg yolk and beat well after each addition.
Sift flour, cornflour, baking soda and salt into the butter mixture and mix until combined. Then, stir in chocolate chips. No chilling is required for crispy cookies.
Divide dough by weight, 40g each. Roll into balls. Flatten slightly and arrange on the prepared tray with about 5cm apart. Top with extra chocolate chips if desired.
Bake for 8 mins, then lower the oven temperature to 150°C / 300°F and continue to bake for 15-20 mins or until the rim turn golden brown. I prefer to bake one tray at a time for optimised oven heat distribution.
Allow cookies to cool slightly on the trays for about 10 mins. Transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Store cookies in an airtight container for up to one week at room temperature.Less sugar Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 12 medium cookies
125g unsalted or salted butter, softened at room temperature
50g (1/4 cup) dark muscovado sugar or dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 large egg, at room temperature
150g (1 cup) plain / all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
100g (1/2 cup) dark or milk chocolate chips, plus extra to top if desired - I used Callebaut dark chocolate callets with 54% cocoa
Preheat oven to 190°C / 375°F. Line baking trays with baking papers.
Add butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Use a wooden spoon or an electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat until combined.
Add vanilla and egg bit by bit and beat well after each addition.
Sift flour, baking soda and salt into the butter mixture and mix until combined. Then, stir in chocolate chips. Wrap and chill dough for about 1 hr or until firm.
Divide dough equally by weight, 40g each. Roll into balls. Arrange on the prepared tray with about 5cm apart. Top with extra chocolate chips if desired.
Bake for 8 mins or until the edges are golden brown. swapping the trays around halfway through baking. Do not over-bake cookies.
Allow cookies to cool slightly on the trays for about 10 mins. Transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Store cookies in an airtight container for up to one week at room temperature.