I originally grew up in a modest house in a cookie cutter subdivision. Although I barely remember anything, mainly the pastel pink bows stenciled around the top of my room and learning how to climb a tree as my mom nervously looked on, I do recall one very vivid memory from the kitchen.
One random afternoon, Mom decided to bake chocolate chip cookies, a rare occasion because she normally bought all of our treats for our brown bag lunches to save time. My younger brother and I “helped” as much as we could, which mean that we stirred in ingredients after Mom measured and poured them in. Otherwise, every bite of cookie would end up as salty as the ocean with crunchy eggshells throughout!
To transfer the dough to the baking sheets, Mom scooped up a portion with a spoon, and we pointed where it should go. She’s a smart lady and knew we’d end up with more in our mouths than in the oven if we were handed spoons of our own!
Once she set the timer, Mom handed over the big metal mixing bowl and made us promise to share. She always left a few “stray” chocolate chips inside to complement all of that “extra” cookie dough stuck to the sides.
I drew a line down the center with my pointer finger, trying to leave an equal number of chocolate chips on each side, and my younger brother and I went to town scraping up that cookie dough with our fingers and popping it into our mouths. Plus it guaranteed that Mom would have a few minutes of peach and quiet to wash the rest of the dishes!
So after making my own chocolate chips, that memory resurfaced, and I knew I had to test them out in cookies of my own. But these aren’t just any cookies… They’re Clean Eating Chocolate Chip Cookies! They’re just as soft and chewy as the ones you grew up with, but they contain NO refined flour or sugar!
To create this recipe, I tweaked a few things in my ultimate healthy soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies. Have you tried them yet? They’re one of the most popular recipes on my blog! Hundreds of readers have made those cookies, and nobody they shared them with could tell the cookies were healthy.
However, I came up with that recipe before I had heard of “clean eating,” so to make these cookies even healthier, I made 3 main swaps.
1) White whole wheat flour. Instead of all-purpose, I used white whole wheat flour. It has a finer texture than regular whole wheat and isn’t quite as dark, so it works really well in baking chewy cookies that still look and taste similar to the classic ones. If you don’t have white whole wheat flour, check out the recipe notes where I list acceptable substitutions.
2) Coconut sugar. I skipped the brown sugar and mixed in coconut sugar instead. Coconut sugar is much less refined, but it’s still just as moist as brown sugar. This means your cookies will still be as soft and chewy as the originals! And no, it does not impart any hint of coconut flavor whatsoever—just pure sweetness.
3) Homemade dark chocolate chips. My two-ingredient chocolate chips are really rich and add an extra indulgent taste. I topped a few cookies with store-bought mini chocolate chips and the rest with mine, then compared the two in the picture below.
In the store-bought chip cookie on the top, the chips held their shape and barely melted, whereas with my homemade chip cookie on the bottom, the chips turned irresistibly melty and gooey while baking in the oven. This is because my homemade chocolate chips do not contain the stabilizers that are in store-bought ones. Plus I love them because they’re really dark—my favorite!
Are there any other cookie monsters out there? Besides me?
These Clean Eating Chocolate Chip Cookies barely lasted two days! I snuck a couple as soon as I finished the photo shoot and made every excuse I could to slip into the kitchen and grab another one. Morning snacks, afternoon chocolate breaks, dessert, before bed treats…
How long will they last in your cookie jar?
| Clean Eating Chocolate Chip Cookies | | Print |
- 2 c (240g) white whole wheat flour (measured correctly)
- 1 ½ tsp (2g) cornstarch
- 1 ½ tsp (4g) baking powder
- ¼ tsp (2g) salt
- 4 tbsp (56g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 4 tsp (20mL) vanilla extract
- 1 c (192g) coconut sugar
- 4 tbsp (56g) regular chocolate chips (preferably homemade)
- 2 tbsp (28g) miniature chocolate chips (preferably homemade)
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and coat two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the coconut sugar. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in all of the regular chocolate chips and half of the miniatures. Optional: If the dough is very wet, chill for 10-30 minutes.
- Drop the cookie dough into 24 rounded scoops onto the prepared baking sheets, and press the remaining miniature chocolate chips into the tops. Bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Regular whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, or all-purpose flour may be substituted in place of the white whole wheat. If using regular whole wheat, then chill for a maximum of 10 minutes or skip the chilling altogether.
Brown sugar may be substituted in place of the coconut sugar. I do not recommend using a liquid sweetener (such as agave, maple syrup, or honey) because they will add too much moisture to the cookies. The cookie dough will be nearly impossible to shape and will flatten to be as thin as a pancake when baked in the oven.
Good-quality chopped dark chocolate may be substituted in place of the chocolate chips if you prefer truly clean-eating cookies and would rather not make your own chocolate chips. I recommend Ghirardelli, Godiva, or Trader Joe’s.
If the cookie dough is chilled for longer than 30 minutes, you may want to flatten the rounded scoops slightly. The longer it chills, the less the cookie dough spreads while baking.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
More clean eating cookie recipes from other food bloggers…
♥ Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies by iFoodreal
♥ Clean Eating Samoas by My Whole Food Life
♥ Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies by Bless This Mess
My local grocery store does not have vanilla extract.
I only have vanilla powder how much should i use?
And can i use food coloring?
Because my daughter wants pink cookies.
I haven’t worked with vanilla powder before, so I don’t know what the proper substitution would be. Adding food coloring should be fine! 🙂 I’m excited to hear what you and your daughter think of the cookies!
Thank you so much my daughter loves the cookies she said they’re like princess cookies
I’m so glad your daughter loved the cookies Ashley! That’s such a sweet comment from her — thank you for sharing that with me! 🙂
Even though this recipe was from January last year, I saw it on Pinterest and just thought “Oh my goodness, I NEED to make these!” I have made quite a few healthy cookie recipes before, but they often are very soft and cakey, but these cookies look super delicious – in fact, they look even better than ‘normal’ cookies! I love how you’ve used homemade chocolate chips for these! I often make my own healthy chocolate chips, because they are so melty and dark, like you said!?
I can’t believe I haven’t found this recipe before, but I’m SO glad I have now! Definitely a fellow cookie monster over here; I’ll be making these very soon! ?
Exactly!! Store-bought dark chocolate chips still taste milky to me, but then again, I prefer 85% and above when it comes to dark chocolate. (My mom calls anything darker than 75% “dirt!” 😉 ) I can’t wait to hear what you think of the cookies Katie!! ♥
I have just made this cookie sought and it is refrigerating until later when we decorate our tree. It is tradition to make cookies while decorating but I’ve started clean eating so I was going with out until I cam across your site!
I am a little nervous as I followed this eecipe exact except for replacing wheat flour with a gluten free blend.
Also nervous as the mix was super sticky and dark in color. I hope they bake up perfectly and not flat.
Thank you Amy.
I’m so honored that you decided to try my recipe for during your Christmas tree decorating! That means a lot to me. I can’t wait to hear how your cookies turned out! 🙂 (And if you’re trying to stay gluten-free, then I actually have a gluten-free version of this recipe here!)
They turned out great. i will admit the gluten free recipe you have better suited the gluten free flour.
I actually followed that as close as I could but had to substitute a bit. I will send a comment on that recipe!
Love your site saved it to my desktop!
Thank you.
Oh my goodness Robin, that means SO much that you’ve saved my site to your desktop! I’m truly honored — thank you so much!! 🙂