Chewy Granola Chip Cookies

I have met some really amazing people through our family’s food allergy journey. Many people go out of their way to turn their plight into something great.

Kyle Dine became a musician, entertainer and educator that helps children, their schools and families to have a positive attitude about their allergy as well as to have helpful ways to remember to be safe.

There are also countless parents that have created products to not only help their child, but others as well. One of those parents is Jenny Stackle of Kip’s Granola Bark. You can read about her story, and how she started this granola bark company for her son Kip, that has several life-threatening food allergies. Read more HERE.

Jenny recently reached out to me, to see if I’d be interested in joining her bloggers recipe contest, using Kip’s Granola Bark as an ingredient. Heck yes! I love recipe creating, and especially love collaborating with food allergy friendly companies. It’s a win-win in my book.

This recipe can be made using traditional ingredients or it can be made gluten free, vegan and top 8 friendly. The cookie base, is one that I have used for years, and have personally tried subbing with gluten free measure for measure mix, egg sub, and dairy sub. It’s a great base recipe!

Tried and True Allergy Friendly Substitutes For This Recipe

1. Gluten Free – My husband has been gluten free for nearly a decade, and back when he was first gluten free there weren’t measure for measure blends available for baking, or at least we never heard of them. In recent years there have been several, and my favorite is King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure blend. You can literally use it measure for measure. When measuring if your cookies come out a little flat, add more flour into the mix. If the cookie comes out more rounded, just gently press them down, on subsequent batches, with the palm of your hand or a glass.
2. Egg Free – My go to sub for baking egg free is to use 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce for each egg when making cookies, and to sub one mashed up banana in place of eggs when making breads, cakes, and muffins. If I have a recipe that calls for several eggs (more than 2), I will do half and half subbing both egg and banana for the eggs. For this cookie recipe I use 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce in place of the 2 eggs.
3. Dairy Free – Earth Balance with Olive Oil is dairy free, vegan, and soy free. They have another buttery spread, in a yellow container, but that one contains soy.
4. Nut Free – For allergy friendly chocolate chips we love to use Nestle Tollhouse Simply Delicious or Enjoy Life Foods. Both are great options that are Top 8 Free.

I’ve got a bonus treat in this recipe for you, and that is some helpful tips on baking in high elevation as well! I originally planned on making this recipe in the Valley (Metro Phoenix), but I got a little behind on my blogging and ended up bringing the granola with me on our Spring Break vacation to our family’s cabin in The White Mountains (Pinetop, Arizona).

The elevation of Pinetop is roughly 7,300 feet. If you look it up online it says about 6,900 but that is incorrect because it is basing it off of Lakeside, a town nearby, but it is actually right on the outskirts of McNary, and closer to 7,300. Someone please tell Google for me, they are wrong – ha!!

We lived up here for 7 years, and it took me several of those years and lots of trial and error to figure out baking in high elevation. Here are the tricks that have worked well for me.

Baking in High Elevation

If you have never baked in high elevation, thank your lucky stars! If you have, then boy oh boy do you know the headache it can be! Here is what I have done to help fix my baked goods when baking at 6,500-7,500 elevation in the mountains of Northeastern Arizona.

1. Decrease the baking soda and/or baking powder by 25%. So if the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda, for example, just use 3/4 tsp.
2. Decrease the baking time by about 10%, making sure to check that baked goods are baked through before removing from the oven. For cookies, for example, this has meant cutting back by 2-3 minutes depending on the recipe.
3. Increase the flour by about 1/4-3/4 cup depending on what you are baking e.g. cookies, muffins, breads, etc. Start on the lower end and slowly increase.
4. Just as with baking with gluten free flour, above, if you have cookies that turn out “flatter”, add a little more flour to your existing dough and give it a good mix for the next batch going into the oven. If the dough appears to be too rounded and when baking is not flattening out, on subsequent batches gently press down the dough with the palm of your hand before baking in oven.

For this recipe, I took the granola from Kip’s and placed it in a ziplock bag, and then crushed it with a rolling pin. I prefer to leave it pretty chunky because the moisture in the cookies will dissolve some of the granola. I like the chunks of granola mixed with chocolate chips. If you break it down too much it will really serve as more of a flavoring as opposed to a “mix-in”. You can use any flavor combo of Kip’s Granola. I used both cinnamon and chocolate. Tasted great!