Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

It is so great to get back into cooking, and in a nice, big kitchen! Mark and I are finally settled into our new place in San Francisco, and I thought it only appropriate to post this recipe for Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies (California style!). The recipe is from Bethenny Frankel’s Skinnygirl Dish cookbook. I’ve tried a few of her recipes, but this was my first baking experiment. They turned out to be pretty delicious, and I will definitely be making them again.

Because there is a Whole-Foods-type grocery store nearby, I was able to easily buy non-dairy butter and oat flour (the only ingredients you might not have in your pantry), but you could definitely use regular butter and flour. These chocolatey bursts of goodness are excellent heated up for a few seconds in the microwave with some whipped cream on top- a perfect, guilt-free indulgence!

8 tbsp Non-dairy butter, softened

1 1/2 cups Raw sugar

1 small Banana- mashed

2 tsp Vanilla extract

2 cups Oat flour

2/3 cup Cocoa powder

3/4 tsp Baking soda

1/4 tsp Salt

2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, banana and vanilla extract with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Stir flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by 24 rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.

3. Bake for 8 min. Cool slightly on the baking sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Instead of making the entire batch, I ended up just baking eight cookies, and freezing the rest of the dough. That way, I’ll have pre-made dough ready to drop onto a cookie sheet for a quick chocolate fix!