Humpastry Day!

Heart Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

O-kay, so I know today isn't Hump day, but yesterday my body finally succumed to the chest cold that I've been trying to fend off for the last couple of days.  Up until yesterday it was bearable, but by mid morning yesterday my chest felt like it had 100lbs. of pressure on it and the coughing fits wouldn't stop!  So, needless to say I didn't get to my posting...sorry!  But, today is another story.  I took some Mucinex DM, had a soy chai latte and I'm good to go! :)

I must confess that I actually made these cookies this weekend.  My sister-n-law and her husband were here visiting so my boys and I made these cookies for them.  They were super yummy and were gone within 2 days! I hope you like them as much as we did!  I'm glad there were 6 of us in my house b/c I think I would have eaten way too many of these...ha ha!

 So, we all know about the standard chocolate chip cookie recipe....2 sticks of butter, 2 large eggs,  and white flour...things that could definitely be substituted for healthier ingredients!  Well, what makes these cookies so heart healthy is the fact that the butter, eggs and white flour are replaced with ground walnuts, oatmeal, and oat/whole wheat flour! The result is a moist, chewy, chocolaty cookie that is not only delicious, but good for you too (well, as much as a cookie can be good for you...ha ha).  Oh, and they can also be completely vegan by using vegan chocolate chips, but I just used regular chips.

Ingredients:
Makes about 30 cookies

*  3C walnuts
*  3Tbl. canola oil
*  1C brown sugar
*  2tsp. vanilla
*  1 1/2C oat flour/whole wheat flour (I didn't have oat flour so I used whole wheat pastry flour instead.  You can actually make your own oat flour by taking oats, putting them in a food processor, and blending them into a fine powder.  I went for the speedier method and just substituted the flour!)
*  1tsp. baking powder
*  1tsp. salt
*  1/4tsp. cinnamon
*  2C rolled oats
*  12oz. bag chocolate chips

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2.  Blend walnuts in food processor for 30 seconds, or until ground into a fine meal.
3.  Add canola oil and blend for about  2-3min., while occasionally scraping down the sides,  until the mixture is the consistency of natural peanut butter.  Add mixture to a mixer.
4.  In a small saucepan, whisk together the brown sugar and 1/2C water.  Bring the mixture to a boil, then pour it into the mixer over the ground walnut mixture.  Add vanilla and stir until no lumps remain.
5.  In a separate bowl mix the oat/whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Slowly mix the flour mixture into the walnut mixture.
6.  There are two ways to do this next step. A) Let the mixture cool for 10min. then fold in the chocolate chips and oats.  OR  B) Let the mixture cool for about 6 minutes then fold in the chips and oats.  If you do it this way some of the chips will melt making the cookie chocolaty all over.  This is how I did it!
7.  Shape cookie dough into 2" balls, and place 2" apart on the baking sheets.  Then flatten them using the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in water (the water will prevent the glass from sticking to the cookies).

8.  Bake for 8-10min., or until the cookies begin to brown.
9.  Cool for 3min. on the baking sheets before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yum, yum, yum!  Enjoy!