Chocolate Chip Cookies Made With Honey

Why use honey in your cookie recipes?  Two reasons-it does make a difference in the taste, texture and shelf life of the cookie AND we have our own bees so we have an abundance of honey!  You may not have tons of the amber liquid but I promise you it is still worth switching over.  Your cookies will stay soft much longer and everyone will taste the difference.

I looked a long time for a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that used honey but couldn't find one I liked, I mean I still wanted it to look and taste similar to what I normally baked.  So I decided to try a little experiment with my trusted Williams Sonoma recipe by replacing the white sugar with honey.  Here is the adapted recipe below.  Note: when baking with honey you usually use equal amounts of honey for the sugar, reduce the liquid by 1/4 cup per 1 cup of honey used and reduce the temp of the oven by 25 to 30 degrees.  This recipe follows some of those guidelines but not all.

Williams Sonoma Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

2 sticks of butter at room temperature

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

12 oz. chocolate chips

 

Preheat oven to 345 (only 5 degrees change from the 350 in the recipe).  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.  Set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on med-low speed until smooth, about 30 seconds.  Add the brown sugar and honey, increase the speed to medium and beat until slightly fluffy, about one minute.  Be sure and stop to scrape the sides once in a while.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in the vanilla.  Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture and beat until just combined.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the prepared pan, spacing the cookies about two inches apart.  Bake about 9 minutes then turn pan in oven and cook another minute.  The cookies should be a light golden color and the bottoms should not be dark brown.  Put the pan of cookies on a baking rack to cool for 3 minutes and then remove cookies to a rack to cool completely.  Makes about 36 cookies.

 

These cookies don't spread as much as the ones with sugar.  They stay nice and thick and moist.  Yum!

Diana