Chocolate Chip Cookies with Ghee, Spelt Flour & Sea Salt

When it's gloomy and rainy outside and I feel unproductive, I bake; usually cookies. There are few things as instantly satisfying as mixing together a mess of disparate ingredients, plopping them on a cookie sheet and pulling them out of the oven, all golden and bulging with morsels of whatever scrummage of goodness I could find.

The thing with baking, like so many other things in life, is it's all about balance.  Once you get the basic components down you can tweak the recipe to better suit your mood, your diet, your belief system, your budget, your energy level, your intolerance's or whatever you feel needs to be suited.

That's not to say the "little of this, little of that" method hasn't led me astray; I've seen my fair share of sad, flat, hard, bland, bouncy or just "off" cookies (tip: when this happens melt chocolate in a double boiler and dip those cookies right in, chocolate tends to forgive most blunders. Plus licking melted chocolate from the bowl and your fingers might cheer you up). So despite my past failures, today I am celebrating a success, a delicious one, one that made me feel productive when I needed it most. 

I started with a recipe for chocolate chip cookies on

the back of a bag of Arrowhead Mills organic spelt flour but made some substitutions and additions; In place of the butter I used Ghee. Ghee is clarified butter that's traditionally used in Indian cooking. Since all the milk solids are removed it can be stored at room temperature. And it's soft, making it ideal for creaming together with sugar. Ghee is also good for digestion; In Ayurveda Ghee is considered a digestive tonic that soothes ulcers and improves the bodies assimilation of nutrients.  I happen to love it's clean, nutty flavor. 

In addition to the ghee I also added some coconut oil

and (still scarred from my last dry, crumbly experimental batch of cookies made with spelt flour that required the old chocolate dip trick) I added plain yogurt for moisture and a handful of raisins. The result: They are lighter and nuttier tasting than traditional chocolate chip cookies. Simultaneously crisp and soft. Plus, I added a sprinkle of sea salt to each cookie while they were still warm because, trendy as it may be, I am a poor sucker for the whole sweet and salty thing. 

 Spelt & Ghee Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt
makes about 2 dozen cookies

1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbs Ghee
2 Tbs Coconut Oil
3/4 Cup Raw Sugar
1 Cup Plain Yogurt
1 Egg
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 3/4 Cup Spelt Flour
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips
1/4 Cup Raisins
1 Tbs Sea Salt for that extra POW (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat ghee with sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl, add yogurt and mix. Blend in dry ingredients, stir well. Fold in chocolate chips and raisins. Drop on baking sheet by the teaspoonful and bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Add a few pieces of sea salt to each cookie while still warm.