Chocolate Chip- Wheat Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies take the standard formula and roughen it up. Honey replaces sugar for a softer sweetness, quick oats and puffed wheat cereal go in alongside the chocolate chips, and the whole thing bakes into cookies with a craggy top and a chewy middle that holds together better than your average oatmeal drop cookie.

The puffed wheat is the curveball most home bakers overlook. It melts into the dough partway and stays crisp partway, giving the cookies a textured bite that’s not quite cereal, not quite cookie. Folding it in last is in the directions for a reason: stirring it through wet dough crushes the puffs.

The baking soda is dissolved in a teaspoon of water before going in. That trick distributes the leavener evenly through a thick, sticky dough where dry pockets are otherwise hard to break up.

Kitchen Tips

• Fold the puffed wheat in last and gently. The puffs are fragile and turn to powder if you stir hard.
• If the dough feels too soft to scoop, chill it 30 minutes. Cold dough holds shape and bakes thicker.
• Don’t overbake. Pull the cookies at 10 minutes even if they look slightly underdone in the centre. They firm up as they cool on the sheet.
• Use parchment paper instead of greasing the sheet. The honey makes the cookies slightly stickier than usual.

Variations

• Swap half the chocolate chips for chopped pecans or walnuts to dial back the sweetness.
• Use rolled oats instead of quick oats for a chewier cookie with more pronounced oat texture.
• Stir in half a teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg for a warm-spiced version.