Ingredient swap makes for healthier chocolate chip cookie

You shouldn’t compromise on taste for healthiness — that’s the motto Kelly Boretsky now lives by.

A few years ago, when the Dickson City, Lackawanna County, resident found out she was headed for a diabetes diagnosis, she decided to make changes to get healthier. Boretsky started swapping in more wholesome ingredients or replacing those high in fat and carbohydrates.

One of her creations, her Double-Chocolate Cookies, sounds too good to be true at just 99 calories per cookie.

Boretsky adapted the recipe from one she found online. The original called for white flour and sugar, but Boretsky had almost completely cut those out of her diet.

Boretsky used almond flour instead of regular flour and coconut sugar instead of white sugar, then used Greek yogurt to cut down on the amount of butter in the recipe.

“I just found out you can swap butter for Greek yogurt,” Boretsky said. “That way, you’re getting the protein without the added fat. I stopped counting calories and started focusing on the quality of what I was making or eating.”

Boretsky’s cookies pack all the taste of a typical cookie. They have a soft, gooey consistency, and the chocolate chips are rich and velvety.

“‘Were those healthy or not healthy? Because they tasted not healthy,’” Boretsky recalled a friend saying. “You can’t taste the difference. You can still eat something that tastes good and it can be good for you.”

Kelly Boretsky’s Double-Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups almond flour

⅔ cups cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup coconut sugar

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup of butter (softened)

¼ cup of 0% fat Greek yogurt

2 eggs

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine dry ingredients in one bowl.

Using a mixer, combine butter, yogurt, eggs and vanilla. Add in dry ingredients and mix well, but do not over-mix. Mix in chocolate chips.

Drop by spoonfuls (or use a cookie scoop) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake approximately 10 minutes.