Adventures in Whole Wheat Baking...part 1

Oh, my goodness.

I may never make cookies with "all-purpose" flour again.

Today I bought whole wheat flour at the store, because I was planning to make a whole wheat pizza crust. See, Johnny and I both love pizza...but we don't love the cost of ordering pizza, or that gross "I just ate greasy pizza" feeling. And homemade pizza is easy. Soooo I thought I'd start making it when we were in the mood...and if you're going to make it at home, why not go all out? Low-fat cheese, low-fat sauce, fresh veggies on top...and whole grain crust to boot.

I haven't tried the whole wheat crust yet, although I found a recipe that looks promising. But there on the back of the flour sack was a recipe for whole wheat chocolate chip cookies that I was dying to try.

Well, not dying.

So I started rummaging in the fridge, checking my ingredients...and I was out of butter. Sad...but by this point, I really wanted to make whole wheat something-or-other. I did some searching on the internet and found a recipe for peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies that required no regular butter (but used all-purpose flour). I read it and wrote down some of the amounts for the major ingredients, went to the kitchen and modified it quite a bit...and here was the end result. They were quite good. Notice I'm not saying "these were the best cookies in the universe." That's just because they're peanut butter--no peanut butter cookie will ever get the "best in the universe" label from me. I just prefer plain jane chocolate chip cookies...BUT as peanut butter cookies go, these were delicious in my book. And made with only whole wheat flour! I really didn't taste a difference, although occasionally I felt a little fleck of wheat in my teeth.

Of course...there's still sugar...and an egg...and chocolate chips...so don't start calling them "healthy." But it's a start.

Oh, by the way--if you bake a lot, you'll know that peanut butter cookies are supposed to be rolled into balls, then flattened with a fork. That's just the way it's done. But I didn't mess with all that nonsense...I just used my cookie scoop as usual. Trust me, the universe did not implode...and the cookies tasted fine.

Whole wheat peanut butter chocolate chip cookies


1 c whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 c + 2 tbsp. firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 c milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 c crunchy peanut butter
2/3 c chocolate chips (I also had an insignificant amount of peanut butter chips that I threw in for good measure...probably a tablespoon or so...)

Preheat oven to 375.
Combine flour and baking soda in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, combine sugar, milk and vanilla. Add egg and beat well. Stir in peanut butter, then chocolate chips. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture a little at a time, mixing well. Drop by rounded teasponfuls (or use a cookie scoop) onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9-10 minutes (you want golden-brown tops, but don't overbake!). And enjoy the whole-grainy goodness!