Maple Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
My perfect whole wheat chocolate chip cookie is crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, with a satisfying crunch.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 19, 2024
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I have been on the hunt for the perfect whole wheat cookies for over a year now. A girl can only eat so many cookies, though, so it has been a long and slow process that paused during a crazy hot summer. In my attempt to narrow down the possibilities, I searched around for the highest authorities on chocolate chip cookies and sampled the most promising cookie recipes I could find.
First, I tried baking a whole wheat version of The New York Times’ chocolate chip cookies during a snow storm last year. I baked a few cookies with the fresh dough and then let the dough rest overnight as directed. From that, I learned that cookies really are better if you let the dough age for 12 to 72 hours—the dry dough ingredients soak up the rest of the ingredients over time, which ultimately produces a better cookie. I’ve tried it and it’s true.
The New York Times cookies, though? Everyone agreed they were really good, but they weren’t what I was looking for (blasphemy to some of you, I’m sure!). They didn’t have enough of that gooey, brown sugary goodness on the inside. They were a little too crisp, too ready to snap.
Then Molly Wizenberg waxed poetic about Kim Boyce’s whole grain chocolate chip cookies in her cookbook, Good to the Grain. Molly knows her stuff, but the cookies weren’t toothsome enough for me.
On the upside, I took one of my favorite pictures of Cookie the day I made those cookies:
So a couple of months ago, I signed up for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, hosted by Lindsay of Love & Olive Oil and Julie of The Little Kitchen. Basically, it entailed baking three dozen cookies and sending a dozen to three bloggers, while receiving three dozen from three other bloggers. It’s a logistical nightmare that I wouldn’t want to organize but I thought it would be fun to participate!
True to form, I waited until the day before the deadline to decide what to bake. I cracked open Heidi Swanson‘s Super Natural Cooking and came across her recipe for mesquite chocolate chip cookies. I decided to continue my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie and gave her recipe a shot.
I based the recipe below off of Heidi’s recipe, but made several notable substitutions and ended up with three dozen of my ideal chocolate chip cookies—golden on top, crisp around the edges, with a soft, moist interior oozing with dark chocolate chips. To get there, I traded easier-to-find whole spelt flour for expensive mesquite flour (they both have a slightly malty flavor and low gluten content, but feel free to use more whole wheat pastry flour instead). I swapped 1/3 cup maple syrup for a 1/2 cup of raw sugar, which is the recommended substitution ratio in the Green Market Baking Book. Next time, I’ll try reducing the raw sugar by another half cup in favor of an additional 1/3 cup of maple syrup.
I didn’t want oatmeal cookies, and my arm was giving up after mixing in even a half cup of oats, so I stopped at one cup. These are not chewy oatmeal cookies, mind you. The oats add a bit of extra fluffiness. They’re magical. Lastly, I mixed a hint of cinnamon into the dough, let the dough rest overnight and sprinkled the warm cookies with Maldon sea salt, which is a bit of a splurge but worth its weight in gold. However, my idea of a perfect recipe is one that is accessible, so it’s optional.
By the time I was ready to put the third dozen in the oven, I realized that eleven minutes is too long. Ten minutes is just right. I was apprehensive that the cookies might dry out during shipping but carried on.
I was so relieved when I received this sweet facebook comment from one of the recipients, Andrea: So, I heard my son in the kitchen checking out the cookies we got and heard in this appalled voice, “You got to be kidding, whole wheat?”. The next thing I see is, him sitting down with about 5 cookies and a glass a milk trying to tell me, with a mouth crambed full of cookies, how good they are and how much he loves them. Thanks and great job, the were delicious.
Apologies to the two recipients who didn’t receive their cookies in a pretty box, but in recycled book boxes instead. The white box was actually recycled from one of the dozens of cookies I received. Call me lazy and cheap… or eco-friendly and hip. ;)
Maple Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
These are my ideal whole wheat chocolate chip cookie—crisp on the outside, and as fluffy as their all-purpose counterparts on the inside. Maple syrup, cinnamon and a slight sprinkling of Maldon salt make them extra special.
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 cup whole spelt flour (or an additional cup of whole wheat pastry flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon fine salt
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups raw (turbinado) sugar
- ⅓ cup real maple syrup
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (60% or higher)
- Maldon salt (optional), for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy, then beat in the sugar.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time.
- Whisk in the vanilla extract and maple syrup.
- Add the dry ingredients in 3 increments, stirring between each addition. Once you’re done mixing in the last of the dry ingredients, you should have a moist, uniformly brown dough.
- Stir in the chocolate chips and oats by hand until they are evenly distributed. Put some muscle into it!
- Drop about two tablespoon of dough per cookie onto the baking sheet, leaving about two inches of space around each cookie.
- Bake for 10 minutes, until the tops are just golden. Err on the side of underbaking.
- Allow the cookies to set on the baking sheet for about a minute and transfer them to a cooling rack. If desired, sprinkle with a pinch of Maldon salt. Serve with a glass of milk, of course!
Notes
Based on Heidi Swanson‘s recipe for mesquite chocolate chip cookies in Super Natural Cooking.
Yields 3 dozen big cookies (about 3 ½ to 4 inches in diameter)
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Hi Kate, these are the best cookies ever!! My whole extended family love them – nephews & nieces demolish a batch in an afternoon. Your Healthy Banana Bread comes in a close second. I have a request for some cookies tomorrow but have just realized I don’t have enough butter. Is there a way to substitute coconut oil instead? Thanks x
Coconut oil typically works as a good substitute, so it would be worth trying. Not sure on the result! Let me know.
Hi Kate!
Thanks for your amazing recipes!
Planning on making these this weekend, but only have spelt flour and white flour (don’t like the latter at all, but …). Can these work? Any recommendations on ratio?
Thanks!
Sorry, I haven’t used those flours for this and baking can be quite precise!
It is! Thanks
DELICIOUS I absolutely love your recipes, they are my main go to for meal planning every week! These cookies are so soft and full of flavour ! I substituted the butter with coconut oil 1:1 and they turned out great!
The Maple Oat Chocolate Chip cookies were sensational!! I substituted the whole wheat and spelt flour with Namaste and Almond flour to make the Gluten Free. I also added ground flax see, chia seeds and blanched almonds….delicious.
Would like to know if you have a favorite GF flour since it’s time to reorder??? I really enjoy your website. Thank you!!
Hi Vicki! I’m glad you love them. I have had good luck with Bob’s Red Mills 1:1 baking flour.
Incredible, amazing, the absolute best thank you so much!!!!
Hello! First of all, I love your blog. Your green soup is a staple in our house –we eat it at least twice a week with chickpeas and homemade pizza or homemade papoosas. Your cauliflower risotto is also a staple, and I love your hummus, green goddess dressing and Greek salad. All fantastic! Thank you so much for your wonderful, accessible, easily-modified-for-picky-children recipes and your super helpful narratives and descriptions!
For baking recipes, could you please include gram measurements as well, for the nerds amongst your readers who use scales and occasionally need to substitute flours? I’m about to substitute the whole wheat pastry flour for a 1:1 mix of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour and will let you know how it works out!
Hi! I’m delighted you are enjoying so many recipes, Mary. I appreciate your feedback on the metric measurements, and I get that a lot. But, unfortunately it isn’t as simple to just provide the measurements. I am hoping sometime to have a reliable plug-in. But, for now I would suggest a conversion chart. Or buy US measuring cups (other readers have actually suggested this) if you cook from my recipes often. Flour replacements really to vary by recipe, so I wish I had a go-to for you. I hope this helps!
Just made these Maple Oat Chocolate Chip cookies and they’re miraculous! I *might* have made the scoops even bigger than 2 Tbls and I was worried about undercooking them but the timing was perfect! Thank you for this gem of a cookie!
These sound amazing! Could I try them with oat flour, and would I have to make any special substitutions?
Hi! I haven’t tried it with this recipe, but you could try it. Follow my How to Make Oat Flour and let me know how it goes.
Hi! Would these work with chia eggs? I’d like to try halving the recipe but i’m not really sure how to do that with an odd number of regular eggs.
Hi! They tend to be a good replacement and tend to work like flax eggs. Let me know!
These are, by far, the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. They are soft, which I love, and better than bakery cookies! I used all whole wheat pastry flour and they turned out great. Thanks for the recipe.
Love it! Thank you for your review, Gorana.
Would love weights – so much easier than measuring
Hi Kate,
Thank you for create amazing recipe and sooooooper delicious cookie I ever tried
This is my second time baked this recipe. When I kept cookies overnight it turns out soften but still delicious. I wonder what should I do to keep it crisp around the edges like after baked or cookies need to be soften
Anyway I put in the air fryer 5 mins before eat it. It kind of waste my time but still delicious!! Third round will come sooon
I’m glad you loved it, PP! I appreciate your review.
The picture of Cookie….my heart melted! Her love remains….
I haven’t made the cookies yet, but they’re on my list : )
I made these Maple Oat Chocolate cookies today and love them! They were moist, chewy and full of chocolate. I used all whole wheat and did not sprinkle the cookies with salt at the end, but they are fabulous. I made half the recipe just to try it. Half the recipe made 26 cookies. Thanks for this great recipe. I will be using this from now on.
Sandy
I really wanna make these cookies!!! I am going to try to substitute GF 1:1 flour for the Whole Wheat (I know this sacrifices some of the health benefits) and then add in Oat fibre along with Oat Flour instead of Spelt…whatcha think?
I’m not sure with all those changes without trying it. Sorry!
Wait, shouldn’t we refrigerate it overnight like you said in the beginning of the article? I want to make these but need to know. Thanks
Can regular whole wheat flour be substituted for whole wheat pastry flour?
They won’t be quite as light/fluffy, you can try it. Let me know if you try it.
Absolutely delicious!!! I followed the recipe (I only had 1/3 cup of maple syrup so I wasn’t able to adjust) exactly, swapping the whole wheat flour for Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten free all-purpose flour and the spelt flour for almond flour. To say I am thrilled with the results is an understatement! Thanks for another great recipe, Kate! Xo
These cookies sound delicious and healthy too! I was planning to make these soon and was wondering if I substitute coconut sugar for raw sugar would work okay? I tend to opt for that vs. other sugar in baking.
Love your recipes Kate!! Thanks