Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies

I've toyed with the idea of a chocolate chip breakfast cookie for a long time, but I haven't done it. Around here you don't mess with a good chocolate chip cookie. I knew that any kind of healthier version just wouldn't compare to a good old fashioned fully figured buttery sugary chocolatey chipetty cookie. I knew they wouldn't even look as pretty--that they wouldn't be as golden with less butter/sugar and that they wouldn't spread as well and might even have to be flattened with a spatula. So I left our breakfast cookies to oatmeal and peanut butter and even cocoa--things that stand on their own so well, they can stand to have their butter cut way back.

And then one day when I was making whole wheat pancakes I noticed a recipe on the bag of the bag of the wheat for whole wheat chocolate chip cookies and I thought, "Ah, what the heck."

The next morning I whipped up a batch of my low-sugar, low-butter adaptation of those whole wheat cookies, and I waited for my children--eternally grateful and gracious children of high manners and exquisite adaptableness--to cheer. Mark took a bite and pushed his away. Then he went to get the box of corn squares (really? corn squares? over a chocolate chip--however imperfect--cookie?). Elizabeth took three little bites. And by 'little' I do mean little. So little, in fact, that I could not see them. She had to point them out to me one by one: "See, Mommy, I tried here and here and here." Oh, well, now I do see that a crumb or two has been removed. Glad you gave them the old college try, dear. But Mark had already led the way and it was corn squares for Elizabeth too. Seeing her older brother and sister, Savannah declared that she also did not like them. But she wouldn't let me take hers away and ate it. Emma also approved of cookies above corn squares. Thank goodness. If the 2-year-old had voted for corn squares above cookies, I really might have had to throw in the towel.

Spoiled children aside, however, I did have to admit that my first try (not this recipe, which is re-done and much improved if I do say so myself) weren't my best. Don't get me wrong. They were better, to my mind at least, than corn squares. But they were a little bland. And a wee bit dry. And too...too wheat-y and earnest and boring.

Though truth be told, I sometimes even feel that normal chocolate chip cookies err on that side. Which is why I sometimes like to throw in a bit of oat flour. Which I thought would be just the thing for these.

And they were. These still aren't a perfect cookie. They're a bit too pale and lack buttery crispiness for obvious reasons. They're still a bit earnest, though not so much you wouldn't consider a second date. In fact their earnestness is what kind of makes them interesting. The wheat and oats allow them a lot of flavor without all the glamour of a buttery chocolatey chippety caramelized-sugar-at-the-edges-y cookie. It's a solid recipe with a bit of sweet. Sometimes we can really use that in our lives.

And how do my older kids feel about all that sturdy character and what not? Well, I haven't had a chance to ask them. After their corn squares experience yesterday, I didn't bother myself to get up ten minutes early today to whip up some gooey-chipped cookies before they had to catch the bus. They got more corn squares and then I made these cookies. The little girls and I thought they were grand.

Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies--Whole grain, low sugar, low fat
Makes 12
Prep time: 5 minutes
Bake time: 10 minutes
Cost: $1.22
(butter: .30, sugars: .12, egg: .10, whole wheat flour: .10, oats: .10, chocolate chips: .50)

1/4 C butter, melted
3 Tbsp white sugar
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C white whole wheat flour (brown would probably work too)
1/2 C oat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash salt if using unsalted butter
1/4-1/2 C chocolate chips

Note: If you don't have oat flour (I never do), then you can blend oats in a blender to make it; it's got a bit more texture than a store-bought flour, but I kind of like it that way.

Melt butter. Add sugars and stir. Add egg and vanilla and stir until thoroughly combined. Add whole wheat flour, oat flour, baking soda, and dash of salt. Add chocolate chips.

Drop by spoonfuls onto lightly greased pan.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until just turning a bit golden.

PRINTABLE RECIPE