Healthy (-ish) Dark Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
April 12, 2011
I did something unthinkable last week. I made dark chocolate cookies with… whole wheat flour!!
[Collective gasp. Somewhere nearby, a child cries.]
I’ve rarely, if ever, explored the world of healthy desserts (shudder) but I had my reasons, at least this one time. Wanting to bake dairy-free cookies for a friend, I perused my recipes for something that suited her special diet needs. I found this recipe for Dark Chocolate Cookies and sure, they didn’t have real butter or flour, but with the chocolate, they’d still be pretty good, right?
Well… they weren’t bad, but let’s just say it was not love at first bite. They had a nice, soft texture and enough chocolate flavor but you could tell that they weren’t quite the real thing.
I dread this type of situation because whenever a homemade batch of treats comes out less-than-tasty, it always causes a bit of internal turmoil.
Should I chuck them?
CHUCK DESSERT?! BLASPHEMY!
But, are they really worth the calories?
DID YOU JUST SAY THE C-WORD?
Clearly, I couldn’t just let them go. But they weren’t quite my A-game, so I decided not to share with others. They sat on my counter for a few days, and every now and again I’d eat half of one. Then another. And before I knew it I was looking forward to them, instead of just guilting myself into eating them. In reality, they were pretty good and I think anyone who suffers the inconvenience of special diet restrictions would enjoy them.
I find this experience to be pretty common with healthier desserts and especially with special diet ones. It usually takes a few bites or a few cookies to get acquainted with the new flavor conditions and before you know it, you think they’re kinda good. Soon thereafter you come to crave them.
Enjoying them, but still wanting to take it up a notch, I dressed them up with some of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter. It was a good move, adding just the right amount of extra flavor without becoming too unhealthy or sweet like they might had I used some kind of buttercream filling. The nutty butter went well with the hearty whole wheat cookie base. And well, chocolate plus more chocolate? ‘Nuff said.
Get the recipe for dairy-free Dark Chocolate Sandwich Cookies here and stick em together with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter. If you want to try the original version of the cookie recipe from Epicurious with real butter and steel-cut oats, you can find that here. I made the dairy-free version but rolled them in sanding sugar before baking. Did I say these were healthy? What can I say… I tried!