These cookies are a recipe that my husband originally adapted from one of his favorite cookbooks, The Ultimate Cookbook. They are normally FULL of butter and a ton of sugar, but I didn’t really want that in my house (even though it’s DELICIOUS!!!). I replaced the butter with pumpkin puree and apple sauce. The cookies were still pretty dang good! I think maybe next time I’ll try and put more applesauce for more moisture. I’d like to cut out more of that brown sugar too!
Butter-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 10 Tablespoons Pumpkin Puree
- 3 Tablespoons apple sauce
- 1 cup packed light (or dark) brown sugar
- 1/3 cup peanut butter (can be creamy or chunky)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups rolled oats (do not use instant or steel-cut)
- 2 cups bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
- Position racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Beat the pumpkin puree and apple sauce in a large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until slightly softened, about 2 minutes.
- Add the brown sugar and peanut butter, continue beating until creamy, pale brown, and very light, about 4-8 minutes.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then beat in the vanilla until smooth.
- Beat in the oats just until uniform. Turn off the beaters, add the prepared flour mixture and beat at a low speed just until a dough begins to form.
- Scrape down the beaters, remove them, and fold the chocolate chips in with a rubber spatula making sure that there are no dry patches of flour left and the chocolate chips are evenly distributed.
- Decide how big you want the cookies and drop balls of cookie dough onto lined baking sheet. Space balls 2-3 inches apart. Cookies should be done in 18-23 minutes, or until the top part of the cookies starts to turn slightly brown in places. Take out of the oven and let rest before transferring to cooling rack. Repeat.
Let me know if you try this recipe out, and enjoy!
– Chelsey
