Noah's Best-Ever Low-Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted for a QUEST "recipe makeover" class from the original Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Recipe. Makes about 3+ dozen cookies*

Ingredients:

2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 stick butter (4 Tbsp), softened (at room temperature)
3/4 c unsweetened applesauce
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 large egg whites (or 1/2 c + 1 Tbsp "All Whites" or similar product)
12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Other stuff you'll need:

1 small/medium bowl
1 large bowl
electric mixer
fork
cookie sheet(s)
parchment paper
butter-flavored non-stick spray

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter, applesauce, sugars, vanilla, and egg whites on medium for about 3 minutes. The mix won't be smooth, but it shouldn't be lumpy.
3. Pour the flour mixture into the large bowl (add the dry ingredients to the wet) and mix with a fork until it is no longer lumpy. Note: for thick, chewy cookies, the batter should be dense enough to hold the fork upright before adding the chocolate chips.
4. Add the chocolate chips and stir with a fork until evenly distributed throughout the (now very thick) batter. Chill batter in refrigerator. (Cold batter cooks better.)
5. Preheat oven to 375. Place parchment paper on cookie sheets and spray paper with butter-flavored non-stick spray (aka Pam). (Alternatively, grease the cookie sheets directly, but using parchment paper makes the process less messy and keeps the cookies from burning.)
6. Drop by rounded tablespoons* onto a coated-parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet. Cook for 11-13 minutes, until golden. (While baking, keep remaining batter in the refrigerator.)
7. Let cool on pan for 2 minutes then transfer cookies to cooling rack.

*If you use smaller scoops, you'll have more cookies. Using rounded tablespoons, as we did, yields 3 dozen cookies.

Nutritional Information (for entire recipe, not per cookie - so you can divide by the number of cookies you make):

Original (Tollhouse) recipe:
6480 calories
372 grams fat

Noah's recipe:
4055 calories
147 grams fat

So, with a yield of 3 dozen cookies, each of Noah's cookies has 113 calories and 4 grams of fat; by contrast, the original Tollhouse recipe says you should get 5 dozen (clearly much smaller!) cookies that each have 108 calories and 6.2 grams of fat.