These healthier oatmeal chocolate chip cookies have NO sugar, NO white flour, and only 2 tablespoons of butter in the whole batch! They are the perfect way to satisfy your mad chocolate cravings when you are supposed to be losing holiday pounds. Originally posted January 12, 2016.
I saw this bumper sticker today: “How’s my driving? Shoot me a text.” HA!
So my best friend Sarah announced on Facebook yesterday that she had just spent 4 hours creating the “Daniel Craig in Casino Royale 6 Week Meal Plan” as requested by her husband, and if anyone wanted a copy they could shoot her an email. (Click HERE if you want to see it! Thanks Sarah!) It is exactly what it sounds like: 40 days of meals similar to what Daniel Craig ate while training to be James Bond.
Eric and I were talking later and he was wondering if he should do it. I said no, I prefer soft bellies actually (mine included, most importantly). And I also said, “Daniel Craig is like 65 and not cute. Like a grandpa. But with abs. It’s disturbing.”
And he said, “You’re just wrong, Karen. Daniel Craig is legitimately hot.”
Well there you go, Daniel Craig. You win today. I think my husband has a man-crush on you.
But really, am I the only one?? Pierce Brosnan made a much sexier James Bond if you ask me.
Are you following a diet or any kind of meal plan this January? I had plans. But I also just ate 2 cookies, so…
Skinny Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
But at least they were healthy-ish ones! My friend Amy from Amy’s Healthy Baking wrote a book all about Healthier Chocolate Treats and this is one of her recipes. How cool is that?? She is so talented. Her blog is all about healthy baking. Definitely check her out!
These Skinny Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are perfect for January! (Or anyone who’s trying to look like Daniel Craig…) They are moist and lightly spiced with cinnamon.
Seriously, you can’t beat a cookie made from scratch and I’m not just talking about taste. These are no store-bought treat made of low-quality carbs and unhealthy fats stripped of nutrients during processing and preservation. No! The first ingredient alone, oats, is considered to be one of the healthiest whole grains out there, chock full of important vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants! And that brings me to a good question.
Is an oatmeal cookie healthy?
Um . . . what even is healthy? Okay, I’m joking, but actually it’s good to step back now and again to think about what healthy means.
“Healthy” basically boils down to two things:
1.Calorie in versus calorie out. Balance. If you are eating fewer calories per day than you use, your body is still getting the daily calories it needs by burning excess fat, assuming you have excess fat. Otherwise, you are starving your body.
Bottom line, if your body isn’t getting your necessary calories somehow, you’re not eating healthy.
2. High-quality nutrients. Food doesn’t just provide energy (calories), it also provides the building blocks of life (nutrients). Variety matters. I don’t care how “healthy” kale is, eat nothing but kale every day and you will not get all your nutrients.
Bottom line, eating a wide variety of foods is the only way to get all those wonderful macro and micro nutrients.
So? The skinny on Skinny Oatmeal Cookies? Are they healthy?
Folks, the good news is homemade oatmeal cookies can be a part of a healthy diet! The bad news is they have to be a small part of a healthy diet. (I hate it when there’s a catch.)
Like I said above, these cookies have nutrients aplenty. But with all those nutrients comes a lot of calories, all inside a little cookie. When big calories come in small packages, you don’t feel full fast and that can lead to excess eating. One of the best things about this better-option cookie recipe is that it only makes 12-15 cookies, which helps to keep portions under control.
Ingredients for Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal
Here’s all you need! (Quantities given in recipe below.) These cookies are built on pantry essentials, win!
- Quick oats. While you can substitute old fashioned oats, I don’t recommend it (see below.)
- Whole wheat flour. Substitute white flour if you want!
- Baking powder
- Cinnamon
- Kosher salt. Substitute table salt if necessary, but use a little less.
- Butter. Salted or unsalted butter is fine.
- Vanilla
- Large eggs
- Honey
- Dark chocolate chips
- Optional: raisins, craisins, or toasted walnuts (yum!)
What’s the difference between quick oats and regular oats?
Oats are one of the healthiest whole grains, and that includes quick oats, one of the ingredients in these cookies. Quick oats are smaller, drier, flakier, and more processed than old fashioned rolled oats. (They are partially cooked and then dried. Good news, quick oats are still a whole grain.) Unless you’re in a pinch, use quick oats for this recipe. They absorb moisture and take on a softer, cookie-er texture than old fashioned rolled oats.
How to Make these Healthier Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Now for the best part: baking! Here’s a simple overview of what to do and what to watch out for. (Step-by-step instructions given in the recipe below.)
1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
2.Mix dry ingredients together: oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Make sure you spoon and level your flour. I always do it with two measuring cups. Scoop with one cup, dump it in the one you need, then level off with the top of the measuring cup.
3.In a separate bowl, melt the butter. Whisk in the vanilla, then the egg. Whisk in the honey.
4.Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until it has just come together. Don’t overdo it, over mixing makes for tough cookies. (Then wipe out the bowl you used for your dry ingredients and toss it back in your cupboard!)
5.Save out about half of the chocolate chips. Use a sharp knife to roughly chop the remaining chocolate, then fold it into the dough.
The chocolate chips are divided: half in the dough, half jammed into the warm cookies after baking for maximum showiness. If showiness isn’t your thing today, own it. Toss all the chips in the dough with reckless abandon.
6.Refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes, or freeze for about 15 minutes. Don’t skip this step! Yes, we’re modern humans. Yes, we’re pressed for time. Yes, Daniel Craig has multiple action scenes as James Bond available on YouTube for you to consume while waiting 30 minutes. Chilling this lower-calorie cookie dough helps mimic the higher-calorie cookie texture and shape.
7.Shape the dough into about 12-15 cookies, depending on how much dough you ate. (What, just me?? I mean who can say no to this goodness??) Place on the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
8.Bake in the preheated oven for 12-13 minutes, or until they have juuust started to brown on the edges.
9.Remove from the oven and immediately press the remaining chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies. They will melt immediately into pools of dark glory.
10.Let cool on the pan for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
Before we move on to the recipe, here are some common issues with oatmeal chocolate chip cookies you might need answers about!
Why are my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies flat?
Traditional oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are made with a heck ton of butter. If you put a stick of butter in the oven, it’s going to bake flat, right? Same thing will happen to your cookies if you don’t have the right balance of ingredients. If you are looking for some amazing (traditional, full-fat) oatmeal cookies that don’t bake flat, check out my Chewy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies or these Very Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!
For today’s skinny cookie recipe, this is not going to be a problem for you at all! These are low fat cookies. There are only 2 tablespoons of butter in the whole batch. You are not going to have a problem with these cookies baking flat! Just make sure you follow the instructions to chill the dough before baking.
How to store Skinny Oatmeal Cookies (Do they freeze well?)
Yes! In fact, try freezing single-serve portions before you let this buttery softness hit your tastebuds to better manage your waistline. Just let the cookies cool completely and toss them single-layered inside a ziplock. Squeeze out extra air. Viola, tomorrow’s treat, done today!
Another option is to freeze the dough itself. Spoon the dough balls onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet (or a plate) and put in the freezer for 30 minutes. Place frozen dough balls into a labeled, freezer-safe storage bag. No need to thaw! Bake them straight from frozen, tacking on a couple minutes to the bake time. Freshly baked cookies, anytime you want!
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Skinny Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup quick oats
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (scant)
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
- Pull out 2 medium bowls, one for dry ingredients, one for wet.
- In one bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
- Melt the butter in the other bowl. You don’t have to melt it all the way, if there are a couple lumps it’s okay. Let cool slightly.
- Whisk in the vanilla, then the egg. Whisk in the honey.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a wooden spoon to stir until it has just come together (don’t overdo it).
- Save out about half of the chocolate chips. Use a sharp knife to roughly chop the remaining chocolate, then fold it into the dough.
- Refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes, or freeze for about 15 minutes.
- Use your hands to shape the dough into roughly 15 cookies (or 12 if you eat a lot of dough like me…)
- Place on the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 12-13 minutes, or until they have just started to brown on the edges.
- Once you remove them from the oven, immediately press the remaining chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies.
- Let cool on the pan for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
- Drink with lots of milk!
Good taste but they were really really REALLY dry and mine didn’t expand outwards so they were thick cookies.
These were not good at all. I followed the recipe very carefully, but they came out smelling eggy. They were dry and tasted funny. Dumped the whole batch. Would not recommend.
Loved these! Added 1/2 cup raisins. I had to bake mine about 18 minutes at 325 degrees.
Health choice for a cookie recipe and yummy.
I made a batch using almond gluten free flour and followed the recipe 13min in oven. Moist as ever with lots of milk ! So good
Have been making these since 2016. We always freeze and eat them that way – they are so delicious.
These cookies are amazing and healthier than regular store bought CC cookies! I believe the mistake ppl are making causing them to be dry, is the same mistake I made…it will be much more moist then cookie dough ,but do not add more flour or oats (this will dry them out)plus do not skip the freezer or refrigerator step!! It’s very important to firm them up a bit! The second time I followed directions 100% and they came out delicious and moist! Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!! My Family and I love them!!
I haven’t made the cookies so can’t speak to flavor but have to comment on the no sugar claim. While it’s true that these cookies have no white sugar, they definitely do have sugar. Honey is sugar. Maple syrup is sugar. Rice syrup is sugar. They simply come from different sources. To our bodies, they are all simple carbohydrates.
I’m the process of making these now. Hoping they are great! I would suggest revising your recipe to include preheating after the chilling of the dough. Most ovens don’t take that long to preheat. I made the mistake of not reading ahead and also mixed in all chips since that was also listed after mixing the ingredients together. Thank you!
They turned out ok but I don’t see the point. Same sugar and carbs as a toll house cookie and barely less calories. Wouldn’t make again.
These cookies are good if you are trying to eat healthier and still have treats…i like that the ingredients don’t include sugar etc. I used white flour and forgot to add vanilla but they still came out pretty tasty. These cookies won’t flatten, so you have to pop them in the oven in the thickness and shape you want. I froze a batch in somewhat large balls, when i take them out of the freezer i slice them into thin, round discs, i like the oatmeal to get toasted, so they’re actually somewhat crispy. not the chewy cookies i love BUT these do taste good and i love toasted oats so I recommend trying out this recipe if you’re looking for healthier treats.
Worst cookie recipe I have ever made. I ate 1/2 of one and tossed the batch. They never spread on the pan and were dry as dust. Just awful.
I made a batch of these cookies yesterday, and they are delicious. No, they are not the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had, but they taste good while being healthier than packaged cookies or other cookie recipes. I followed the recipe to the letter, with one exception: Instead of making 12 cookies, I measured out the refrigerated dough with a tablespoon. That resulted in 24 dough balls. I baked nine of them and froze the other 15. Before baking or freezing, I flattened each dough ball slightly and put about 5 more chocolate chips on top. I baked each one for 13 minutes at 325 and allowed them to cool for about 10 minutes.
Thank you, Karen, for sharing this great recipe. To those who critique the recipe for its ingredients or carb content, please remember that these are a treat! Karen did point out that these cookies are meant to be a *small* part of a healthy diet. For me, they satisfy a craving, and the whole wheat flour and oats make them more filling than a regular chocolate chip cookie.