Name: Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1/3 cup coconut oil (melted); 1/2 cup coconut sugar; 1/4 cup maple syrup; 1 flax egg; 3/4 teaspoons baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons whole wheat flour; 3/4 cups oatmeal; 1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (use vegan if going completely vegan)

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If you know anything about the South, you know we LOVE our desserts.

If you go to someone’s house for dinner, there will almost always be a homemade dessert of some kind to enjoy after the main meal. If you go to a potluck, there are typically more desserts than there are main dishes — sugar is an absolute staple!

Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies are my mom’s go-to dessert when she needs something fast and easy as a sweet treat. As a result, I absolutely adore them.

I hadn’t, however, experimented with making healthy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies until this recipe (shame on me, I know).

The original uses butter-flavored Crisco, brown sugar, and white sugar. Since I mostly try to stay away from refined sugar and am also constantly looking for ways to make any dessert healthier, I switched these ingredients out with:

coconut oil instead of Crisco
coconut sugar instead of white sugar
maple syrup instead of brown sugar

To make the recipe more plant-based, I also used a flax “egg” instead of an egg from an animal.

Ta-da! All of a sudden, it’s a healthier version of a fast, easy, and delicious dessert!

A word on sugar substitutes

Is there actually a sugar substitute that is better than another? Who knows.

There are so many conflicting opinions out there, and virtually no studies on the benefits of coconut sugar vs. cane sugar that I could find. If anyone knows more than I do, PLEASE let me know! I absolutely adore all things research and would love a study, whether it supports eating coconut sugar or not.

Anyway, I like coconut sugar mostly for the texture and the flavor, not necessarily for the health benefits. There may not be much of a difference either way. After all, sugar is sugar, so no sugar is probably always going to be better than any kind of sugar alternative.

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t eat sugar at all unless it was in fruit. But hey, we don’t live in a perfect world — so in this world, make these cookies.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough on baking sheet

A few notes about this healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies recipe

I tried switching out the oil for applesauce, and I do NOT recommend it; they were more like miniature cakes than cookies.
I personally couldn’t taste the coconut in the cookies, but several people told me they detected a slight coconut flavor.
It is VERY important to use whole wheat flour. Substituting with an all-purpose counterpart will change the consistency of the cookies.
I did not use vegan chocolate chips in this recipe, but if you are vegan, that would be an extremely easy substitute.
If you are a dark chocolate lover like me, I also highly recommend dark chocolate chips for this recipe instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
These cookies are, of course, best when served warm, but also can be enjoyed for several days afterwards!

Hand picking up a freshly-baked cookie from a pile of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

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