Looking for a delicious whole wheat recipe for chocolate chip cookies? Give this one a try! These cookies are the perfect balance of sweetness with an ideal ratio of chocolate chips. Their chewy texture is just what you’re looking for when you bite into that soft, sweet treat.

This recipe makes about 48 medium to large size chocolate chip cookies. It has slightly less sugar than your typical cookie recipe and uses coconut oil and butter in place of shortening to get that desired nestle cookie texture. Finally, the best part is: it is made with whole wheat flour which boasts greater nutrition and substance than the traditional refined flour cookie.

So! While cookies aren’t really healthy…and there is still plenty of sugar, these cookies definitely give you a healthier option for addressing that sweet treat craving!

The ingredients and swaps

The coconut oil and butter

I find that making cookies with only butter tends to cause them to spread out more than I would like to while they are baking. However, when you combine coconut oil as a supplemental fat, this mimics the texture advantages that vegetable oil or shortening gives you in your final product. If you like your cookies to have a flatter texture, then you can lessen the coconut oil and proportionally increase the butter.

The sweeteners

This is the ratio of sweeteners that seems to lend me the best results. However, if you wanted to mix and match the proportions on these, you will likely only notice slight differences in the texture and flavor. You can increase the honey and decrease either of the other sugars, and you can use refined sugar in place of natural cane sugar if that is what you use.

You can also substitue maple syrup for the honey on a 1 to 1 basis. Just expect to see slight flavor differences.

If you have a certain kind of sweetener that you like to use, you can swap this for any of the listed sweetener options. As long as the ratios are the same, you can use liquid or solid sweeteners interchangeably, and you will still get good results. If you want the results to be reliable, just follow the given ratios.

The eggs

These are the binding agents in the cookies, and also help to give them a golden brown appearance. You can swap 1/4 of a cup of applesauce for 1 egg if you have an egg allergy, and it will function very similarly.

The vanilla

This is actually optional. I love the flavor that adding vanilla extract gives to cookies. However, I left it out one time since I had run out of extract, and discovered that they still came out delicious, and it was not really missed. Therefore, do not panic! Go ahead and bake some cookies even if you ran out of vanilla.

The flour

You can use store bought flour or fresh milled. Follow the same process for either kind of flour, and you will get great results! The most important part is chilling the dough in the fridge–especially with the fresh milled flour.

Primarily, I use hard red whole wheat flour for making these cookies. However, you can swap this for soft white wheat varieties, as well, for a fluffier cookie. Just add an extra 1/4 to 1/2 of a cup of flour to the batter.

The leavener and salt

Use both baking powder and baking soda to give the optimal leavening results. The baking soda helps to give the cookies a chewier texture and enhances the browning. Adversely, the baking powder helps the cookies to rise up and spread less. Working together, they produce beautiful and tasty cookies with the ideal texture.

The salt enhances the flavor and balances the sweetness of the cookie. It contributes more than you would expect to the final flavor and texture results by reacting with the other ingredients in the cookies.

The chocolate chips

You wouldn’t have a chocolate chip cookie without just the right amount of chocolate chips!

The process

The process for making these cookies is very simple! There are only a few basic steps: combine the wet ingredients, add the dry ingredients, add the chips, chill the batter, and bake!

The chilling process

Chilling the cookies helps to keep them from spreading excessively in the pan. I find that it is a necessary step to get the results I want. You can do this two ways. First, you can either refrigerate the batter, before shaping the cookies for up to 2 days. Alternatively, you can shape the cookie dough into balls and flash freeze them. If you utilize the freezer, you can store them there for months. Then, if you want to pull them out a few at a time to bake, they are already mixed up. Your family can enjoy homemade whole wheat chocolate chip cookies for a sweet treat on a whim!

The recipe

If you tried this recipe and it delivered the results you were hoping, tell me! I love to hear from fellow bakers experimenting in the kitchen! Share this with a friend that would appreciate a wholesome homemade treat.