The Yummiest, Heart-Healthiest Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World

I tried to go vegan a couple of times but never have been able to pull it off. The main culprits holding me back: cheese and chocolate, two of my most favorite foods in the world. The stinkiest, agiest, tangiest cheese in the world. And the richest, most decadent milk chocolate in the world. The dark stuff just doesn’t cut it you know. It’s the cream, milk and butter that produces the “silken, melting delight” European chocolates are famous for. (Don’t get me started on European chocolates. Also, read Diane Ackerman’s unforgettable “A Natural History of the Senses”.) Sigh, yummm. I had a long heart-to-heart with myself and decided life would be decidedly very sad indeed without these two wonderfully happy foods.

Heart-Healthiest (and in my opinion, yummiest) chocolate chip cookies in the world

Chocolate is the reason why, no matter how healthy I make my diet, I will always fall off the wagon. I eat massive amounts of the stuff. It’s probably in my genes. I come from a family of serious chocoholics. Growing up my brothers and sisters had hidden places where they kept their stash hidden from greedy siblings; one of my brothers still does it because his wife curtails his “habit”. And it’s not just fancy chocolate that gets us going; at one point in Manila years ago I couldn’t find a single Milky Way bar in any store — and no kidding I went to dozens — and I feared the Mars company had stopped making them. When I finally found them in one stinky store I bought up several boxes. My brother Topel later told me he was also frantically searching for the chocolate caramel yummies at the same time I was. Family trait.

It must be the “psychopharmacology” of the stuff that has us coming back for more. Chocolate releases feel-good endorphins which promotes a feeling of well-being; it also happens to contain phenylethylamine (PEA) which triggers the same “amphetamine”-like rush of falling in love. In short, chocolate is an awesome upper that tastes so darn good, but unfortunately, eaten in

Healthy ingredients from 100% wind-powered MOM's

 rampant immoderation as I’m wont to do, is so darn bad for me. Yada yada yada. Which gets me to the point of all this rambling, which is that in the interest of keeping healthy I wanted to get a grip on my addiction. How can I satisfy my chocolate craving in a healthy way? At the gym a couple of weeks back I was reading the Vegetarian TImes and found this recipe for “The Heart-Healthiest Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World” and the picture looked good so I decided to give it a try. That weekend my friend Brittny and I schlepped to My Organic Market to buy all the heart-healthy ingredients (total, $19) and I made the cookies just this last Saturday night to bring to a picnic with my family.

Oh.My. God. The cookies were a hit. The crucial judges: my 10 and 12-year old nephews, who pronounced them “really good.” And surprisingly, they are. Very good. Especially when I tell you that the cookies contained no eggs, no dairy, no wheat flour, pure dark chocolate chips, and only three tbsps. of vegetable oil. That’s right, it’s vegan. In lieu of white flour it suggests ground oats (oat flour) and ground walnuts (packs a protein punch). The 1 1/2 cups of choco chips make every bite a chocolatey delight (this is really bad copy…) My friend Elaine who is anti-health food wouldn’t try them, she said they look like “wheat-germ” cookies, yes well, I haven’t gotten the hang of making food real purty yet. (For the record toasted wheat germ on oat bran is delicious.) But Brittny, my sister Aileen and my mom said they were really good, happily chomping away.

Recipe from the Vegetarian Times