Healthier Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies

I am trying to eat healthier and make substitutions whenever I can.

The substitutions I made for this recipe were:

• Becel margarine for butter

• whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour

• Agave syrup  for corn syrup

• 1/2 c Splenda Brown Sugar for   1 c. brown sugar  

• Sea Salt for regular salt

• Powdered Skim milk and water for liquid milk   

                                        

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup Splenda brown sugar
1/2 cup Agave syrup
2 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 cups oats
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk  ( I used 4 tbsp milk powder to 1 cup cold water; we don't drink a lot of milk in the house so I know I can always make milk if I am baking.)    
1 bag mini chocolate chips - a little less than 2 cups.

TIP: I slide the sheet of cookies off the pan and let them cool on the counter. They cool down much quicker this way

 

I love watching them in the oven

How I did it:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and prepare your baking sheets with a non-stick spray, butter, or parchment paper.

Using a blender or mixer, combine margarine with Splenda brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Mix till blended. Add your eggs and mix till creamy. Add vanilla.
Now in a separate bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder and salt.

Slowly add the dry flour mixture and milk to your mixing bowl, but not all at once. Alternate 1/4 dry with 1/3 milk until everything is nicely blended. If you dump all the flour mixture in at once it will be too dry and very hard to mix. Then I stirred in my mini chocolate chips.  I find the minis are MUCH easier to mix in especially when I use my mixer.

Dropping the dough: 

I use a tablespoon from my cutlery drawer ( not a measuring tablespoon). I scoop out a generous portion and plop it on the parchment paper leaving 1-2 inches between cookies to allow for spread. I don't bother flattening them, either.
If you are a generous dropper like me you will wind up with 3 dozen or so cookies.
Let them bake for  18 minutes or until nicely brown edges appear.  The cookies will still look soft, but don't worry.  Just enjoy!