Baking in BC: Healthy Breakfast Cookies

Healthy Breakfast Cookies in BC

We were still in BC and my baking urges were not yet satisfied. The mocha cake was delicious but pure dessert, and the banana muffins were delicious but routine, so I found something that was new but not terribly decadent and it had been on my list to try for a while: Healthy Breakfast Cookies.

Of course they’re still cookies, and they still have chocolate chips, and sugar, and butter, all the things that makes cookies into cookies. But they also have wheat germ, and whole wheat flour, and oats, and honey, and I even found a way to lighten them up a bit. And when I bake in Mom’s kitchen, I’m using local eggs and organic flour, so that helps too.

I started by gathering the ingredients.

ingredients gathered

By the way, I don’t know what’s up with mini chocolate chips in Canada, but even when the package says mini, they are clearly NOT mini. (Maybe their regular chips are ginormous.)

The first thing I did was eliminate half the butter. The recipe called for half a cup, so I used a quarter cup of butter and one eighth of a cup of yogurt.

butter and yogurt

I was also excited to use the Kitchen Aid mixer again, and this time I took Mom’s advice and used the blade with the scraper on it. First to get mixed together: butter, yogurt, peanut butter, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla.

first mixture

I added eggs and water.

eggs added

Everything got nice and smooth.

smoothness

Then I found a gorgeous set of clear glass bowls, my favorite kind of baking bowls, and used one to whisk together the dry ingredients: flours, oats, wheat germ, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. I also did a little iPad research on wheat germ to find out just how healthy it is. Folic acid, vitamin E, antioxidants, and I have seen it described as a “powerhouse of nutrients”. It improves metabolism and balances hormones. It has immunity-boosting vitamin B. It helps provide energy & stamina. All that and you can’t even taste it! Remind me to look for more baking recipes with wheat germ.

But back to the dry ingredients in the glorious glass bowl.

dry ingredients in big glass bowl

I whisked, then slowly added to the butter mixture until everything was well combined. Again, thanks to the Kitchen Aid, a breeze.

combining

combining

I folded in the chocolate chips, with a bonus visit from Juliet, back from her latest excursion.

chocolate chips added

Once she found out that Mom didn’t have a cookie scoop, she scurried away. Ah well.

I started out making small cookies, but by the end I was getting weary of tray after tray going in & out of the oven, so I started making them bigger. They ALL smelled and looked great though. I baked them for 13 minutes for the small ones, 15 for the big ones.

cookies on tray raw

cookies baked

big cookies going in

big and small cookies together

And just for fun, here’s a shot of Whiffen Spit, with the kids. They spent a lot of time throwing rocks into the water.

kids at Whiffen Spit

I should post some other pictures too, we went whale-watching! Haven’t gone through those yet but I will.

Bottom line on the cookies: big hit. They don’t taste like dessert cookies, they’re hearty, but in a good, flavorful, delicious way and they even traveled to Toronto and were gobbled up there as well. Are they low in fat? Not really. But there’s a lot of good stuff in there and I will definitely be making them again.

HEALTHY BREAKFAST COOKIES RECIPE

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