Dark Chocolate Olive Oil Cookies
These gorgeous dark chocolate olive oil cookies are studded with dark chocolate chips and made with olive oil and brown cane sugar, making them a lighter alternative to cookies ladened with butter and sugar.
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This recipe for dark chocolate chip olive oil cookies first appeared on The Culinary Jumble.
We use olive oil in our house quite a bit, especially in bread such as mozzarella and red onion bread. I have also made cakes with it, such as my vanilla olive oil cake, with a delightful cherry and raspberry frosting. However, I’d never used it in cookies. I’ve got to say that I really am a butter kinda gal. For these cookies though, I decided to experiment a little by swapping out the butter and using olive oil instead.
Can I use olive oil in cookies?
Yes, you can. And these chocolate cookies are living proof. They were good. Asking my very own personal taste testers (my kids), they gave them the thumbs up. Mind you, it is a very rare occurrence for cookies of any description to go stale in our house. These dark chocolate chip olive oil cookies were crunchy on the outside and had an almost cake-like texture in the middle. They were chunky, not overly sweet and peppered with lovely little bits of dark chocolate.
Using olive oil in baked goods elevates the other flavours uses, especially spices and chocolate. However, you should proceed with caution when considering using it in baked goods. It’s heady, strong taste can often overpower other ingredients, and ruin an otherwise good cookie.
As cookies go, I would have to say that these are fairly healthy. I used brown cane sugar along with the olive oil, making an overall, better-for-you alternative to other sugar and fat laden versions.
The measurements below will make between 10-15 cookies, depending on the size.
Lighter desserts
If you are reading this post, you are probably interested in creating recipes that are a little healthier. Here are some of my best lighter desserts:
- Apple and ginger cake
- Lighter spelt apple streusel cake
- Greek yoghurt Eton Mess
- Maple meringues
- Cinnamon and chocolate banana cake
- Spelt coconut chocolate cake
- Baked Greek yoghurt cheesecake
Dark Chocolate Chip Olive Oil Cookies
Ingredients
- 2½ tbs extra virgin olive oil
- 110g (½ cup) brown cane sugar
- 1 egg (medium)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 150g (1¼ cups) spelt flour (see note 1)
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- a pinch of salt
- 25g (3 tbsp + 2 tsp) cocoa
- 30g (1 oz) dark chocolate cut into chunks (or chocolate chips)
- icing / confectioners' / powdered sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 190°C (374℉), and line a large baking tray with grease-proof/baking paper.
- Beat the olive oil and sugar together, then beat in the egg, followed by the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, dark chocolate and salt.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir to combine everything. The end result should be a dough you can easily handle.
- Roll into balls of equal size and place each one on the baking tray with a little space apart. I made 10 large cookies.
- Push down with the back of a fork to flatten a little.
- Bake for around 12 minutes (until the edges are firm).
- Remove from the oven and leave on the tray for a while, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- When cold, sprinkle with a little icing sugar (if using) and enjoy!
Notes
- You can use the same amount of all-purpose/plain flour in place of spelt.
Could I use maple syrup instead of brown cane sugar?
Hi Amber,
I haven’t tried making the cookies with anything but brown sugar. I would be a little concerned that there was too much liquid, which would naturally change the overall result. However, I do love an experiment, so if you do try it, let me know (and I can amend my recipe to include it).