This recipe for Healthier Sugar Cookies makes delicious, healthy cut-out chocolate chip sugar cookies perfect for sharing with your loved ones on Valentine's Day or anytime your heart desires!
With Valentine's Day quickly coming up I decided to spend some time baking something special for the kids. But with all the sweets we consumed over the holidays, I wanted to give them a treat that would be appealing and delicious as well as healthier.
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How to Make Healthy Cut-Out Cookies
A couple of things I do when I'm looking to bake healthier treats is to replace some or all of the all-purpose flour. My preferred choices are whole wheat pastry flour and quinoa flour. I find quinoa flour works well in most baked goods.
Then I look at the amount of sugar and see how much I can reduce without it having a huge effect on the flavour and tenderness of my baked goods. This will vary depending on what you're baking as it's different for cookies and cakes.
Though granulated sugar isn't a healthy ingredient, I think using a small quantity in a treat, is ok. If you don't want to use refined sugar in this healthier cookie recipe, you could try coconut sugar. I haven't tried it myself so if you decide to give it a try let me know how it went in the comments!
This chocolate chip sugar cookie dough comes together quickly and easily. It's also a very easy dough to work with. Here's an overview of the ingredients used to make these heart shaped cookies.
Ingredients Overview
- Unsalted butter: Make sure to bring it to room temperature
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract: Adds flavor to the cookies.
- Quinoa flour: Can substitute all-purpose flour.
- Whole wheat pastry flour
- Baking powder
- Cinnamon: Adds flavor and a touch of warmth to the cookies.
- Salt: Enhances all the flavors.
- Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Tips for Making them
Just a half-hour in the refrigerator was all it took to get these cookies firm enough to roll and cut into shapes without any difficulty. As you can see in the pictures, these healthier sugar cookies maintain their shape beautifully.
- When ready to roll the dough out, start by dusting your surface with a little bit of flour. This will make sure the dough doesn't stick to your counter.
- Roll the dough out to about ¼ inch thickness before cutting out the shapes.
- In case you leave the dough in the refrigerator for too long and find the dough hard to roll out, just let it sit at room temperature for a bit and try again in a few minutes.
- If the dough is too soft, put it back in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. If chilling the dough doesn't work, add a bit more flour and test the dough again.
Serving Suggestions
These cookies can be iced but I find the chocolate chips add visual appeal as well as an extra touch of sweetness and therefore make the icing unnecessary.
Serve these Healthier Sugar Cookies with a cup of tea or a glass of milk for the kids.
Storage Instructions
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. You can also make these sugar cookies ahead of time, place them in an airtight container with wax paper between the cookie layers and freeze them for up to three months.
If you try this recipe I hope you'll find that it's still possible to bake healthier cut-out sugar cookies that still taste delicious!
If you have kids, have them join you in the kitchen and help you bake these cookies. Mine always have so much fun cutting out the shapes.
If you like using quinoa flour in your baked goods you may want to take a peek at these Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies and these Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.
Enjoy!
More Valentine's Day Recipes
- Pistachio Crusted Salmon
- Dukkah-Crusted Lamb Chops with Cauliflower and Potato Purée
- Spicy Chocolate Brownies
- Double Chocolate Coconut Almond Truffles
Healthier Sugar Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1-½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup quinoa flour or all-purpose flour*
- ¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until light and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the sugar and continue beating for 2 to 3 minutes more, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl once or twice.
- Add the egg and vanilla, beat well. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Whisk until blended. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture, beating until just combined. Add the mini chocolate chips and beat until they're just mixed in the cookie dough.
- Remove the dough and shape into 2 disks about an inch thick. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour and up to 2 days maximum.**
- Once the dough is chilled, remove one disk from the refrigerator. Position a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat it to 350°F. Line two sheet pans with nonstick baking liners (silpat) or parchment paper.
- Dust your surface with a little bit of flour, roll the dough out to about ¼ inch thickness.
- With cookie cutter, cut as many shapes as you can, place cookies on the baking sheet. Re-roll the remaining dough and cut out more cookies. Repeat until all the dough is used.
- Bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through the baking time. Bake until cookies look set and are slightly golden underneath.
- Let cookies rest on baking sheet for a few minutes and remove to rack to cool completely.
Notes
- If you don't have any quinoa flour or don't care for it, you can use all-purpose flour.
- If the dough is refrigerated for much longer than ½ hour, and is hard to roll out, let the dough sit on the counter for a bit.
Nutrition
This post was originally published in February 2018. It has been updated with additional content. The recipe remains unchanged.
Shibasram" Old age home says
Thanks for sharing these amazing tips
Sweet and Savoury Pursuits says
My pleasure, I’m glad you found them helpful.
vanyadhanya says
Wow, these look amazing and so pretty too!
Sweet and Savoury Pursuits says
Thank you!
Louise Crosby says
These are so cute, and I love that they contain healthy flours and chocolate chips!
Sweet and Savoury Pursuits says
Thanks Louise! It's all about balance!