Why You Should Swap Sugars (and a Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe)

I’ve been a bad girl all summer long. Usually the debauchery of Stampede is enough to set me straight for a few weeks. But this year I went to Whitefish right after Stampede, and you know what that means: sugar, shopping, booze, pool, pool drinks, pre-dinner cocktails, wine with dinner, dessert, rinse and repeat.

I’d love to say that as soon as I got home it was back to clean eating, but you all know me better than that. The one (somewhat) healthy thing I have established this summer is swapping sugars. I’m totally off anything made with corn syrup (hot chocolate! marshmallows! ice cream!), and have swapped refined white sugar for cane sugar and coconut or palm sugar for brown sugar.

I can barely taste the difference, but I feel so much better! How sweet is that? Is cane sugar that much better for you than refined sugar? It is, but I won’t get into the scientific debate here. I’m just glad these more natural sugars are easy to find (at Superstore), and can be substituted one to one with the regular child laboured kind.

Healthy-ish chocolate chip cookies

Here’s the recipe I now use for chocolate chip cookies, adapted from my friend Julie Van Rosendaal’s quiona chocolate chunk cookie recipe.  My daughter loves them too, and didn’t even realize they were different from her usual refined sugar/flour standbys.

Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup packed palm (or coconut) sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1.5 cups quiona flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Beat the wet ingredients together in a large bowl until creamy.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the dry ingredients.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, and stir by hand until almost combined. Add the chocolate chips and still until blended.
5. Roll cookie dough into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden.

Makes approximately 1.5 to 2 dozen cookies.

Have you ever replaced refined sugars with other versions? I’d love to hear your results.