Wholewheat chocolate chip cookies

My first chocolate chip cookie was at a Subway. The dark chocolate variety, with little white chocolate chips peeking through a rich, chocolaty, chewy flat cookie. Almost irresistible for chocolate lovers. Its like a dare to  the good minded people who go there to have their low fat sandwiches. Also, anybody ever notice there is always an ice-cream shop next to a Subway? As if the chocolate chip cookie wasn't temptation enough!

Break - had to munch on a chocolate chip cookie. All this writing making me hungry :-)

So every time we went to the Subway, i would opt for the cookies as part of the meal and deny my husband's favorite potato chips. Every time! Now such a proposition is not fair and cannot should not last long. But i had also become addicted to chocolate chip cookies. They are quite a comfort food. And so began my online search for chocolate chip cookies and, believe you me, there's no dearth of them online. I  then took the minimum ingredients listed in most recipes and tweaked it into a healthier version - so the wholewheat flour in the ingredients. You see, i had every intention of eating the whole batch of cookies and hence a small attempt at not feeling guilty at the end of it!

I had just about started my experiments in baking with cakes and breads at this time and what a huge surprise it was for me to find out that cookies were the simplest of all baked goods! Warm cookies are delicious. The only thing you probably have to get to make this recipe NOW is chocolate chips or chunks of chocolate. You can add some nuts into the dough if you want a chewier (is that a word?) cookie. I no more ask for the Subway cookie - i eagerly wait to get back home and have a couple of my home-made ones.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened 
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (or regular white sugar)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt (skip if using salted butter)
• 1 cup chocolate chips

 Method

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease the baking sheets.

Whisk together the butter and sugar until it reaches a creamy consistency. Add the egg and vanilla essence and beat them in. Add the wheat flour, baking soda and salt and mix until all the flour is incorporated into the dough. Gently mix in the chocolate chips.

Use an ice cream scoop or a tablespoon to scoop the dough onto the baking sheets with 2 inch space between the cookies. The dough doesn't need to be flattened, the cookies will flatten out while baking. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-14 min until lightly brown and allow to cool on a wire rack. The cookie will still be soft when taken out of the oven and will harden while cooling. They store well too, at least a week in an airtight container at room temperature.

Note: I have read in several places that the cookie dough can be chilled in the refrigerator for upto 4 days and will develop a fuller flavor and is supposedly best when used after 36 hours. I could never wait that long once the cookie dough was ready. One day soon!