Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies made with coconut oil and whole wheat flour in place of butter and white flour – crisp edges, soft middle! Yum!

Sometimes when trendy ingredients (coconut oil, quinoa and Greek yogurt come to mind immediately) appear in recipes, our automatic reflex is to scream “super food, here I come, baby!” because all we hear is how good those foods are for us.

But letta me tell you a fact. These cookies?

Stacked chocolate chip cookies in a white ramekin.

While they do use coconut oil in place of butter and whole wheat flour for white flour, well, yeah, they’ll make your thighs jiggle just like any other cookie recipe if you eat the whole batch.

Better for you, maybe, than a cookie filled with butter and bleached flour, but come on, they are still cookies (and as long as we can all agree on that, I’ll sleep better at night).

Healthy or not, it’s quite impossible to resist the allure of these cookies.

Here’s where they are different than the usual chocolate chip oatmeal suspects (which I also love heartily) – thanks to the coconut oil, these cookies have a bit more of a crisp outer shell and super soft, chewy center. If you’ve baked with coconut oil before, you’ve probably noticed that it lends a different texture to baked goods, especially cookies.

A white plate with a chocolate chip cookie with a bite taken out.

I can’t get enough of the slightly crunchy outer edges and super yummy middles of these cookies especially with the oatmeal and whole wheat flour. It really is quite nearly cookie perfection.

You know what these remind me of? They are the closest things I’ve had to the amazing chocolate chip oatmeal cookies at a Great Harvest bakery.

Do you know what I’m talking about? They aren’t quite as big (those cookies are monstrous) but the taste is right there.

A white plate with stacked chocolate chip cookies and one laying on it's side on the stack.

I’d take an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie any day over a plain old chocolate chip cookie and these coconut oil whole wheat cookies are now among my favorites. They are dark and almost secretive in their goodness.

And even though I gave that big disclaimer above about these not being health food and blah, blah, blah, I’m not going to lie, it’s a lot easier justifying a second cookie with this recipe, and when I’m really being honest with myself, my real name for these cookies is Superfood Chocolate Chip Cookies which should teach all of us that you really should never listen to me. Ever.

A metal spatula taking a chocolate chip cookie off of a cookie sheet with other baked cookies.

One Year Ago: Pretzel and Toffee Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies
Two Years Ago: Skillet Taco Pie
Three Years Ago: Homemade Ciabatta Bread {And The Best Garlic Bread On Earth} 

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Whole Wheat Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Yield: 36 Cookies
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 13 mins
Total Time: 28 mins
4.50 stars (10 ratings)
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Ingredients

  • 1 cup (212 g) lightly packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup (212 g) granulated sugar
  • 1 cup extra-virgin coconut oil, soft but not melted (see note)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 ½ cups (355 g) white whole wheat flour (see note)
  • 1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 ¼ cups (125 g) quick oatmeal
  • 1 ¼ cups (125 g) old-fashioned oatmeal
  • 2 cups (340 g) chocolate chips

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  • In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar, granulated sugar and coconut oil until light in color, 1-2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and whip the mixture for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt, and oatmeal until barely combined – there should be a lot of streaks of dry ingredients remaining. Add the chocolate chips and mix until combined.
  • Scoop and roll the cookie dough into 1-inch (or so) balls and place 1-2 inches apart on a lined (with parchment or a silpat liner) or greased baking sheet.
  • Bake for 11-13 minutes until the edges are lightly golden and set but the middles are still soft.
  • Let the cookies sit for 2-3 minutes on the baking sheets after removing them from the oven before using a spatula to place them on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

Coconut Oil: I haven’t made these cookies with refined coconut oil but it should work also. The best way to describe the texture of the coconut oil should be sludgy. You don’t want it completely melted but it shouldn’t be completely solid. I usually scoop the coconut oil into a microwaveable liquid measuring cup or bowl and microwave for a couple of seconds (but usually my kitchen is warm enough that the coconut oil is the right consistency right out of the container).
Whole Wheat Flour: also, if using freshly ground whole wheat flour that is slightly warm from being ground, either let the flour come to room temperature or else chill the cookie dough for an hour or so, otherwise the cookies will spread while baking. I haven’t made these with hard red wheat (only hard white wheat) but I’m sure that would work fine also; the cookies will be slightly darker in color and a bit more heartier tasting.
Oats: finally, for those that are wondering about the oats, the reason I use both quick and old-fashioned is because I like the texture of the old-fashioned oats but using 100% causes the cookies to spread really flat – subbing out part of the old-fashioned with the quick allows the cookies to keep their soft, chewy shape while still giving lots of oat flavor.
Updated Recipe: after a few commenters indicated their cookies weren’t spreading well, I ran into the kitchen to remake the recipe and weighed the flour this time in order to get the perfect amount. I’ve adjusted the flour amount from 2 3/4 cups in the original recipe to 2 1/2 cups (or 11.5 ounces). It really depends on how you measure the flour and if you are using freshly ground wheat flour or storebought (which tends to be slightly more compressed). Make sure to fluff the flour and measure lightly (as opposed to measuring out super compressed flour or shaking the cup to level). Thanks to those of you who made the recipe so quickly and reported back! If your cookies are still spreading using 2 1/2 cups flour, you may be overflouring and measuring too much flour in your cup.
Serving: 1 Cookie, Calories: 180kcal, Carbohydrates: 25g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 7g, Cholesterol: 17mg, Sodium: 113mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 15g

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Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (the bare bones of this recipe used for the cookies altered to swap coconut oil for the butter and messing with the ingredient amounts a bit)

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