I realized a few days ago that I just couldn’t let January end without sharing a healthy cookie recipe. I know I already shared some cookies today but you can always use more right?

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Firstly, can I just say that all I wanna do sometimes is take pictures of chocolate chip cookies all day! Okay, if you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, something along the lines of “how can you have anything close to a chocolate chip cookie if you cut out the butter, eggs, and wheat flour????”, well you’re not alone.

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To be honest, I was thinking the same exact thing until batch no. 4729474 of these cookies came out of the oven (okay not really, more like batch no. 8)

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Anyway, for my family it’s pretty hard to beat a classic chocolate chip cookie. I think if I had to guess-timate how many chocolate chip cookies I’ve made to date I’d be pretty challenged to come up with any kind of number. Although, I do know that I’ve probably made more of them than any other one single thing or recipe.

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In fact, I’m fairly sure they were the first recipe I ever learned how to make. I can still remember our excitement as little kids when we’d hear my mom turn on her mixer to make them and we’d hurry in to see if the dough was ready for “poison checking”. I know not everyone is a fan of raw cookie dough in case of health risks and I totally get that, but um…..me and my sibs are still around to eat it so, yeah…..

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She would also let me sit on the counter and watch sometimes (something I look back at and admire now because I know having a kid sitting on my workspace would personally make me a little nuts.) When she first taught me how to make them I remember thinking I could never make them as good as hers, and while I still don’t think I ever have, I’ve always used her basic recipe with very little changes. It’s drilled in my head actually and I even use it as a starting point for an adaptation like this one.

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I may not have have made as many batches as I exaggerated before but I did go through quite a few not so glamorous variations. My main goal was to find a recipe that could fit both the gluten free category AND the vegan category. At the end of the day there are two versions that I’d say were keepers. One does include eggs but still no dairy or wheat flour.

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Thankfully I have a team of wonderful taste control helpers around for projects like these, especially when they involve chocolate in any form, so I can always count on second opinions, and third, and fourth….. What really surprised me is that with all the different flours I tried for these recipes the best ones were when I used exclusively almond flour. Even the kiddos that don’t like nuts agreed on that.

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So here it is, a cookie that you can love and still feel good about if you’re trying to keep things nutritious this month. I’m sharing the version without eggs but I’ve added in the swaps with details on how to make the version that does use eggs. I think either version might even be acceptable enough for the breakfast menu, or at the very least a fun treat to snack on.

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ALL CONTENT IS MINE AND ORIGINAL! All of these food photos were taken with my Nikon D750 and my favorite Lens, the Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G. You can find out more in my INTRO POST.

And, by the way, to all the minnows out there, my intro post did a huge $0.21. The key to success on Steemit is to be consistent and persistent.