The Cookie Experiment

We love to bake around here.  I make it a group activity with all the kids, even when my daycare girls are here.  We put all the ingredients on the table and take turns measuring out the ingredients and dumping them in the mixing bowl.  Most of the time it works out great.  Especially when I let them eat a few chocolate chips when we are done.  :)

Today I decided to try a little bit of an experiment.  I have been trying to use more whole grains in our diet.  I have been using whole grain pasta for quite a while and always make whole grain bread.  I just recently found a recipe for whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes, where the chocolate chips eliminate the need for syrup.  I checked our bottle of syrup: 33 grams of sugar for 1/4 of a cup!  Granted, we don't use near a 1/4 of a cup.  I always have my kids dip their pancakes in their syrup which results in less syrup, and less sugar consumed.  So I scoffed, can chocolate chips really have that much less sugar?  Holy buckets, yes!  They only have 8 grams for 2 tablespoons, again, of which there aren't that many in 1 pancake.

I tried out the whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes recipe.  I can't say it was a total success, but they ate them.  I think next time I will use half whole wheat flour and half white. 

When I found this recipe, I also saw one for whole wheat chocolate chip cookies (or something close to that), so when I decided to make cookies today I had the brilliant idea to experiment on a little bit healthier cookie (does such a thing really exist?).  So, after the pancake experiment I decided to try half and half on the flours and used half of my light margarine instead of all butter flavored Crisco as my favorite cookie recipe calls for. 

The result:  A slightly darker cookie, but virtually no taste difference at all!  The kids noticed the different flours when we measured them in, but didn't say a thing while enjoying the cookies!  The true test will be when daddy tries them. . . . I'll fill you in on that once it happens. 

Don't mind her crazy hair - it didn't get combed after nap

same here with the hair. . . .

Also on the 'healthy cookie' note - if anyone figures out how to cut down on the 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar in my recipe without ruining the cookie let me know!!  Like I said, does a healthy and yummy cookie really exist?

Sorry for the bad pictures, my good camera was in my car and I was too lazy to go out and get it.

EVEN DADDY APPROVES!!!!