Recipe substitution

Question
Hi Laurie,
I have been cooking a very strict heart-healthy diet for my husband for the
past three years. We have no food items in our home containing hydrogenated
oils, eggs or any other bad fats. He has had two heart attacks and now has 6
to 7 stents. He misses having chocolate chips cookies. I found a recipe to
make home made chocolate chunks. using cocoa powder, canola oil, fructose
and milk. I'm thinking this recipe will not be solid at room temperature like
regular chocolate chips. Would adding edible paraffin wax be okay, (if so, how
much to add) or is there another ingredient that would solidify these
chocolate chunks?   I also found a recipe for chocolate chip cookies using
canola oil instead of butter/margarine/shortening. So I would use that instead
of my former recipe. Thank you for your help in advance.

Answer
Hi Diane,

Kudos to you for the healthy food preparation you've been doing for your lucky husband! As a dietitian I am tempted to say, "If he would like 2 chocolate chip cookies after 3 years, just buy a couple and let him eat them"... however, it depends on the individual case and if he wants them often, finding a healthier recipe is a must!

I would imagine the recipe you have for healthier chocolate chips would definitely be solid at room temperature--how would a recipe be invented for chips that wouldn't be solid?! Another option is to keep the cookies refrigerated if the chips are soft. But I think they are meant to be a substitute and would be exchangeable for the regular chips.

Although carob is not necessarily a healthier substitute (the carob chips still contain saturated oils and sugar), this site contains a healthy recipe for carob-chip cookies; you can use 1/4 cup egg beaters to replace one egg and your recipe for chocolate chips: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0860/is_n2_v51/ai_7043532/

If a cookie has a few chips in it, it's probably the cookie more than the chips that is bad for the fat content. You might try using a substitute for some of the oil, such as applesauce or prune puree. These sweet fruits keep the texture that the oil adds to the recipe (although not 100 percent--I recommend replacing 1/2 the oil with one of these) and also make a cookie sweeter so you can cut back on the sugar in the recipe (probably by at least 1/4).

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