Recipe: Big, Soft, and Chewy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies (and How To Hug a Sheep)

Chocolate Chip Sheep and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Soft and chewy with a crisp, buttery edge, the whole wheat flour adds extra flavor.

My first experience with lambing, back in 1996, was quite an adventure, especially since I had never before witnessed anything being born.

A big, black-faced Suffolk named Sophie was the first of my ewes to give birth. And she had quadruplets. Which is extremely rare in sheep circles. Two of the lambs didn't survive, but this is not uncommon.

The two that did had black heads, black legs, and white bodies covered with darling little black spots. Curled up together, they looked like two scoops of chocolate chip ice cream, and I immediately started calling them Chip and Chip, or The Chippers. This was nine years ago, and Chip and Chip are doing just fine.

The Chippers are boys, and unless one is in need of a ram, all male lambs on a farm are routinely castrated when they are very young. They are then called wethers. Wethers are fattened up and eventually relocated into somebody's freezer. Except the lucky few like Chip and Chip.

They were cute and sweet and cuddly and the first lambs born on the farm! I refused to rename them Chop and Chop. Their chocolate chip spots faded, and they became big, wooly pets. One is bigger and woolier than the other, so they are referred to as Big Chip and Skinny Chip, though both of them are huge.

Since the days of raising large flocks of wethers solely for their wool have long since passed, The Chippers are, according to pretty much everyone except me, completely useless. They are also probably two of the oldest wethers on the planet.

During her last visit to the farm, my mother pointed at Chip and Chip and said, "Tell me again why you don't eat those two." I reminded her that for one thing, they were much too old and wouldn't taste very good. And secondly, it would be like eating the dog. "Oh."

Big Chip, January 2006

Since sheep are always standing on all four of their feet, they cannot give each other hugs like people can. A mother ewe is unable to hold her lamb; the lamb snuggles up next to her or will sometimes sit right on top of her (which is adorable). To show affection in general, sheep have their own unique version of a hug, which I learned from Big Chip.

What you do is this: Stand right next to the sheep, knees slightly bent to brace yourself. Then you lean your hip and leg into the sheep, pressing with all of your might. At the same time, the sheep presses back. If you stop hugging before the sheep is done, you will end up on the ground. Other than that, it's a very pleasant experience. Every time I get near Big Chip he walks right up to me and demands a hug.

Skinny Chip checks out a new arrival, March 2006

Besides being fun to have around, the Chippers actually do serve a purpose, which I am constantly called upon to explain to people when I am rationalizing their existence. If you want a flock of sheep to do something or go somewhere, you only need to get one sheep to do it. Then the rest will generally follow along (hence all those sheep jokes). A Chipper is often The One.

Because they're so friendly and trusting, it's much easier to get them to do what you want than, say, a psychopathic ewe who always looks as though she wants to kill you (and has, on more than one occasion, tried to). If we're trimming hooves or shearing, I can usually walk right up and put my arms around one of The Chippers and we're good to go.

If this priceless attribute is not a reasonable enough explanation, I then point out that I do not have any children, so my animals are my kids, and a wether is even easier and cheaper to keep than a dog (let alone a small child).

And so Chip and Chip will continue to lead happy, carefree lives on the farm until they drop dead someday from extreme old age. (Update: We lost 14-year-old Skinny Chip in March 2010, and Big Chip made it to fifteen, demanding hugs up to the very end. Nine-year-old Teddy is doing just fine.)

Big Teddy under his personal awning, October 2010

I've also managed to keep another pet wether around—a 250+ pound baby named Sweet Pea, but he's a whole other story. And since these three guys are getting grey around their muzzles, I have Teddy, my orphaned bottle baby born last year, standing by as Wether-in-Waiting.

I've completely ignored all suggestions to rename him Tasty because he really and truly, with all his little lamb heart, believes that I am his mother. Teddy will never move into somebody's freezer.

While the number of chocolate chip wethers I can get away with having in the barn is severely limited, fortunately there is no end to the number of chocolate chip cookie recipes allowed to live in the house.

I usually turn to the recipe I've been following since grade school and used to make at my little California bakery cafe (it's similar to this one), it's always nice to try something new. I've found that even the slightest change in a recipe can result in an entirely different cookie, which is always a perfect excuse to bake another batch.

I recently came across this recipe in my files. In 1991, I was working, among other things, as a freelance graphic designer for a small publishing company. The office was located on the same property as the owner's residence, and a talented, friendly man named Greg was often around, doing various construction and repair jobs.

Not only did he install the most beautiful Art Deco tile bathroom I've ever seen, but he also brought us poor slaving workers a batch of his homemade chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious and different from any I'd ever tasted, so naturally I begged him for the recipe. I still have the original version that he scribbled in pencil on the back of a page from a long lost graphic novel with some really bad dialogue.

There are two things about his recipe I find amusing. First of all, he calls them 'Tollhouse Cookies,' and yet I'm fairly certain the original Tollhouse recipe did not include whole wheat pastry flour—or cinnamon or nutmeg or raisins. I suppose it's sort of like how everyone refers to facial tissues as Kleenex.

Secondly, he calls for 'one bag chocolate chips (a little less),' and I've always wondered if this is because he steals a handful of chips before pouring them into the batter. I know I always do, but I never thought to admit it in writing.

I made enough changes to claim this recipe as my own, but it's definitely based on Greg's. These are big, soft, and chewy cookies with lots of vanilla flavor and a crisp, buttery edge. They're a pleasant change from other chocolate chip cookies, and with the whole wheat flour and raisins in them, you can almost convince yourself they're good for you.

But then again, some of us believe that all chocolate chip cookies are good for you.

Who can resist homemade cookies and milk?

Farmgirl Susan's Big , Soft, and Chewy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies
Makes about 18 large cookies

**Click here to print this recipe**

These cookies are soft and chewy with lots of vanilla flavor, a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a crisp, buttery edge. The chocolate chips and raisins taste great together (although you can skip the raisins if you prefer), and the whole wheat flour adds to the flavor and texture without making them taste like health food. In fact, you don't even need to tell anyone they're whole wheat.

Everybody loves these cookies, but men go especially crazy for them. I gave a stack to our farrier and his son once when they were down here trimming donkey hooves, and a year later they were still talking about them.

As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients; they really do make a difference. Organic raisins are are one of the best organic buys around. Organic flours and organic sugars are readily available these days.

Look for real farm eggs like these at your local farmers' market or find a local source on LocalHarvest.org. You won't believe how good they taste. Grating your own whole nutmeg takes a few seconds and makes such a difference, plus you get to use one of those cute little nutmeg graters.

I highly recommend investing in a couple of heavy duty commercial rimmed baking sheets; at about $15 each, they're one of the best kitchen deals around. Treat them well—I usually line mine with sheets of unbleached parchment paper, which is wonderful stuff—and they'll last for ages. I've been using the heck out of some of mine for 20 years for everything from baking scones to roasting Brussels sprouts.

It's easy to make nice round cookies if you portion out the dough with a scoop. I own five or six different sizes and have had some of them for 20 years, too. For these cookies, I use a 1/4-cup scoop.

1 cup organic butter, softened
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large real farm eggs
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1½ cups organic whole wheat flour (not whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup organic all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (1/4 tsp. if freshly grated)
1 12-ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (or a little less)
1 cup organic raisins (optional)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream the butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar for about 2 minutes. (I use an electric hand mixer.) Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.

Combine the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating on low speed just until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and raisins.

The dough will be soft, and the cookies will spread while baking. For slightly thicker cookies, chill the dough for about 30 minutes.

Use a 1/4-cup scoop or measuring cup to form cookies and place them on a heavy duty baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper. (Six cookies will fit on one baking sheet, and I reuse the same sheet of parchment for the entire batch.)

Bake at 350 degrees until the centers are barely set, about 16 minutes. You can also make smaller cookies; just reduce baking time. Cool on a wire rack.

Serve warm or at room temperature with glasses of very cold milk. Personally I think they taste even better the second day. And, as with all chocolate chip cookies, they freeze beautifully.

More Farmgirl Fare recipes for cookies with chocolate chips:

Nigella's Big Chocolate Chip Cookies Two Ways

Easy Baby Shortbread Cookies with Mini Chocolate Chips and Toffee Bits

Choco-Oat-Butterscotch-Coconut Crazy Cookies

Toasted Almond Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Yip Yap Giant Whole Wheat Chooclate Chip or Raisin Banana Snaps

Can't survive on just chocolate chip cookies? You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the Farmgirl Fare Recipe Index.

© FarmgirlFare.com, serving up recipes, stories, and photos from my crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres, with a stash of homemade chocolate chip cookies in the freezer.