I’m going to be honest. For a while, in pursuit of a completely “healthy” lifestyle — one misguided by a lack of education, media and diet industries — I told myself I wasn’t a huge dessert person, let alone chocolate fanatic. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved chocolate. Chocolate banana bread, chocolate chip cookies and brownies — seriously, brownies — don’t get me started. But for a few years, I thought being healthy meant not allowing myself to eat some of the things I loved most.
I have come a long way since then and have learned a lot through my rocky relationship with food. One of the more important things I learned is to embrace my love for dessert. And chocolate. I can happily say now that, if chocolate or dessert is not involved, I don’t want it.
While it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, I truly believe the healthiest lifestyle you can have is one that is balanced. If I want a cookie, I think it is important to honor that and bake a cookie recipe. That being said, one of my favorite hobbies is taking traditional recipes I love and attempting to make a version with wholesome ingredients. Eating whole foods filled with real ingredients is something I love because what a lot of people often don’t realize is that simple recipes are often the best. And they are easier to make half the time. While I love a delicious and complex cookie recipe, we are college students. We don’t always have time for that when the hunger clock strikes.
What makes this recipe healthier is that I substituted refined sugar for maple syrup, a natural alternative with important antioxidants and minerals like zinc and potassium. The lower glycemic index compared to refined sugars means it has a less drastic impact on your blood sugar. The recipe also uses tahini instead in place of butter, which while grass-fed butter is not bad in moderation, the tahini is a great source of heart healthy fatty acids such omega-3 and omega-6.
Almond flour is also used in this recipe as opposed to white flour of traditional recipes and lends its own rich, buttery flavor. This makes the recipe gluten-free, filled with more protein and fewer carbohydrates.
I want to note that just because a recipe is healthy does not mean it has fewer calories. While these recipes often end up having a lesser total because of the shorter ingredient list, this is not the focus. Instead, I prefer to eat based on real, whole ingredients. This recipe is filled with better ingredients, which is more important than looking for the lowest-calorie option.
I believe college students who are not always as educated on nutrition get caught up in trying to find the lowest-calorie option, but these options can be filled with artificial ingredients that are no better for your body and can sometimes even be worse. In this sense, a traditional recipe made with grass-fed butter and real sugar can actually be better than a low-calorie alternative.
I love this recipe because there are only a few ingredients, and it takes under an hour to whip together — 30 minutes of which is just chilling the batter.
Healthy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
3/4-1 cup tahini
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder — I like the Trader Joe’s brand
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup chocolate chips
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix all the ingredients, except the egg and baking soda, in a large bowl. Then refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. The batter should be relatively thick, but refrigerating is key to keeping the pillowy shape of these cookies.
- After 30 minutes, take the dough out and mix in the egg and baking soda.
- Place cookies on parchment lined baking sheet — they should scoop out to make 10-12 cookies — and bake for about 13-14 minutes or until you start to see them get golden on top.
- Make sure you enjoy a couple while they are still warm!
I should mention that these aren’t just shot-in-the-dark cookies. Every time I make them, I feel warm and fuzzy inside because of how silky and smooth they are. Last week, one of my favorite fitness instructors made my recipe on Facebook Live as a part of a Cookie Club he does — he tries recipes people send him over the course of a month, live streams the cooking process and, finally, rates the dish. He gave this recipe a 10 out of 10! These cookies really are that good.
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