Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

It snowed last weekend.

For some reason, this year I have a new appreciation for the snow. While I hate to drive in it in my little car, I've found that I enjoy the beauty of it. There is nothing better than being wrapped up in a blanket and cuddled up with a book as I watch the snow fall--at least, not during winter.

Unfortunately, I had to work last Saturday. Having to get up and get dressed in order to be presentable makes it a little harder to enjoy the snow. But, going to work actually turned out to be pretty great. Why? Because while I was there, someone put the idea in my head that a snowy Saturday afternoon would be the perfect time to bake cookies! Once the idea was in my head, I immediately began searching the internet for whole wheat cookie recipes. I found this one (check it out!) and decided it was a chocolate chip kind of day.

I tweaked the recipe, just a little, but they turned out deliciously! They also didn't spread, like the recipe picture shows, and I couldn't figure out if that was because I'm cooking at a high altitude or because I didn't use white whole wheat flour or what--but the cookie bites they ended up being got rave reviews. (I had 2 cookies and then promptly gave the rest away; cookies are great snowy-day gifts and I like sharing them way more than I like eating them all!) Every bite ended up being filled with chocolate--which I think is definitely a plus. I'll be making these again, for sure.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
6 tablespoons vegan butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 (12oz) bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips 
1 cup ground almonds (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet, or line your cookie sheet with parchment paper.


Directions:
In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugars, honey, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Beat in the vinegar, egg, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir in the flour, then the chocolate chips and almonds, mixing JUST till combined. Drop the dough, by tablespoonfuls, onto the prepared baking sheets. (I'm not generally a dough dropper; I always roll my cookies into little balls so they come out nice and round. While this was a bit tricky, with all those chocolate chips!, it also enabled me to make sure there weren't a ton of chocolate chips left in the bowl.)

Bake the cookies for 10 to 11 minutes, until they’re starting to brown around the edges. Remove them from the oven, and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

Make this a cookie baking weekend!

Happy baking!
Rosalyn