While I do sometimes use real butter to make cookies, I don’t use my Bosch mixer for anything dairy because of some of the kosher food preparation standards we observe around not mixing meat and dairy foods including keeping dishes completely separate. Mixing cookies by hand takes a bit of dedication, and I don’t own a hand mixer (perhaps I should?). The dairy-free option means we can eat them after a meal that includes meat. It may seem odd to some, but for the kosher family it’s just normal. Since we stopped eating margarine, and most of the mild tasting oils (for health reasons), I’ve come to rely on Coconut Oil and Palm Oil shortening for most of my baking and have learned how to work with them. The Palm Oil shortening is the closest I’ve found to real butter in terms of texture and similarity for creaming together with sugar for things like cookies. This recipe is based on Sally’s Baking Addiction Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies which I made previously with the molasses and cinnamon, but this time I wanted something milder. Totally try her recipe if you want to use sucanat and butter, but if you are looking to substitute shortening and coconut sugar, I’ve got you covered!
Whole-Grain Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe uses Coconut Sugar, Palm Oil Shortening and Whole-grain Pastry flour freshly milled from soft white wheat berries.
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 Cups Soft White Wheat Pastry Flour Freshly ground on finest setting 376 grams
- 2 tsp Baking Soda
- 2 tsp Salt
- 2 Cups Organic Palm Oil Shortening (Spectrum) 460 grams
- 3 Cups Coconut Sugar 600 grams
- 4 Large Eggs
- 4 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 Cups Quick Oats I used PC Choice Organic Quick Oats
- 3 Cups Large Flake Rolled Oats I used One Degree Organics Sprouted Rolled Oats
- 2 Cups Semi-Sweet or Bittersweet Chocolate Chips I used semi-sweet minis
Instructions
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In a mixer with a whisk attachment, cream together palm oil shortening and coconut sugar, then add the eggs in one at a time, continuing to cream it. It should become fluffy. Add the vanilla last, whipping a little more.
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Switch from the whisk attachment to the kneading attachment or cookie attachment. With the mixer off, add in the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix on low until just combined. Stop to scrape the sides if needed.
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Add in all the quick oats, mix to combine, then add the large flake oats 1 cup at a time as the mixer incorporates them.
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Add the chocolate chips last and mix just to combine.
Ready to roll
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Preheat the oven to 375 F or 350 Convection.
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Line 3-4 baking sheets with parchment paper, and get out your cookie scoop. I like to space the first 2 for immediate baking, and crowd the next 1 or 2 pans for flash freezing. I used a 2 TBSP cookie scoop this time, but I often use a 1 TBSP for little cookies.
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Bake for 8-10 minutes. The cookies should still look under cooked and doughy if you want chewy cookies. If you like a crisp cookie for dunking, just bake until they look done, maybe another 3 minutes.
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Let cool completely before trying to eat them unless you enjoy that falling apart warm cookie experience.
I used a 2 Tablespoon cookie scoop, and got 86 cookies from this batch. I baked 40 of them between my 2 full sized baking pans, but they were pretty crowded and I determined that I should bake 12 per pan next time vs 20 if I wanted them to be perfectly round. I froze 40 scoops crowded on a sheet pan and later moved them to freezer bags. Of course, some cookies were consumed in their dough form…