Healthier Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well, well, well. It's already April – April Fool's Day, to be exact. If I were perhaps a bit more mischievous, I'd have thought up some clever prank to post here today. (Yes, food pranks do exist!) But as I am not, my small readership shall be spared. Instead, I've got a batch of oatmeal cookies to share – ones which I made roughly two weeks ago and, you guessed it, forgot to tell you about. (Luckily for my roommates, they got the memo anyway.)

Keeping with my butter-vendetta, these cookies use yogurt instead of butter, and in the general "health" trend, contain other lovely things like skim milk and egg whites. The original recipe technically didn't call for chocolate chips, but there are limits to my health-consciousness when it comes to cookies.

I know I've been absent most of March, but I promise there are more things to come this month! The weather lately went from an utterly frigid – by California standards – winter to a rather humid summer with little transition and regard for Spring's feelings, so I've been craving more seasonally-appropriate treats. Plus, we are celebrating two of my roommates' birthdays within the next week, and I've a few tricks up my sleeve not quite of the sort that an April Fool might have in mind.



Recipe and more photos if you read more...


CHEWY FRUIT [AND CHOCOLATE] AND OATMEAL COOKIES
from a Quaker Oats cookbook

Ingredients

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 container (8 ounces) low-fat vanilla or plain yogurt*
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons fat free (skim) milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups uncooked quick or old fashioned oats
1/2 cup diced dried mixed fruit, raisins or dried cranberries**
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugars, yogurt, egg whites, oil, milk, and vanilla in large bowl; mix well. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, if desired, in medium bowl; mix well. Add to yogurt mixture; mix well. Stir in oats and dried fruit.

2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire racks. Cool completely. Store loosely covered.

Makes about 36 cookies.


* I just use non-fat because that's what we keep in our refrigerator.

** The original recipe called for one cup of dried fruit (I use dried cranberries) and no chocolate chips. Feel free to play with the ratio.