The recipe for these Multigrain Snickerdoodles takes the traditional cinnamon cookie and adds whole grains, including rolled oats, barley flour, and whole wheat flour. 

These Multigrain Snickerdoodles, made with 100% whole grains, are so tasty. All of the whole grains add lots of dietary fiber to the cookies. The barley flour adds a lovely sweet, nut-like flavor, the oats add texture, and the whole wheat adds more depth of flavor.

These cookies can be either a little more chewy or a little more crispy, depending on how long you let them cool before placing them in an airtight container. If you let them sit out overnight, you will get crisper cookies. We went for soft, chewy cookies. They do look a bit floppy, don't they?

Nevertheless, these cookies are delicious! I took about half of them to work and the cookies were gone by 9:00am. The rest of my family, including my grandsons, finished off the rest of these, and deemed them "the best cookies ever!"

This month, the Creative Cookie Exchange group is making "healthy" cookies, however we define "healthy." I'm not a big fan of calling any food "healthy," (it's kind of a pet peeve) and prefer the term nutritious. These cookies are more nutritious than cookies made with all purpose flour, but keep in mind, there is still sugar.... and buttah!!! The reason cookies were invented. Either way, my grandsons had no clue that whole grains were involved in the making of these cookies... and I can pretty much guarantee that these were their favorite cookies I've made so far (well, maybe these Andes Mints cookies were, but these Snickerdoodles were a close second). Each cookie contains about 109 calories. Not bad!

The cookie dough needs to be refrigerated overnight before baking. I learned that the hard way. The recipe from which I adapted these started with "Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F," and then, once I mixed up the dough, said "refrigerate overnight." Aaack! I dutifully turned my oven off and baked these the next day.

After the recipe, be sure to check out the rest of the "healthy" cookies from the Creative Cookie Exchange Bakers. You should also check out my other snickerdoodle recipe, these Browned Butter Snickerdoodles.

Multigrain Snickerdoodles

Ingredients

• 3/4 cups (6 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups (4 5/8 ounces) rolled oats, ground for 30 seconds in a food processor
• 1 cup (4 ounces) whole barley flour
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon for the coating.

Instructions

1. Cream the butter, sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
2. Beat in the orange juice and eggs. Scrape down the bowl and then add the oats, barley flour, and whole wheat flour. Beat until well combined and then refrigerate the dough, covered, overnight.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line three baking sheets with parchment paper (you can also reuse the baking sheets, just make sure they have cooled completely).
4. Add the sugar and cinnamon to a one gallon zip lock bag. Drop tablespoon scoops of the dough into the bag, six pieces at a time, and toss them in the coating.
5. Place the coated dough onto the lined baking sheets, and press each piece down with the bottom of a glass, to 1/2 inch thick rounds. Repeat until you've used up all of the dough. There should be about 12 rounds per baking sheet.
6. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, on the center rack of the oven, for 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from the oven and and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the other two baking sheets.
7. Store in an airtight container.

Adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains

Yield: 36 cookies

New Year’s resolutions? The theme this month for the Creative Cookie Exchange group is “Healthy” Cookies! If you are a blogger and want to join in the fun, contact Laura at thespicedlife AT gmail DOT com and she will get you added to our Facebook group, where we discuss our cookies and share links. You can also just use us as a great resource for cookie recipes--be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them here at The Spiced Life). We all post on the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month! Also, if you are looking for inspiration to get in the kitchen and start baking, check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made:

• ANZAC Biscuits from Food Lust People Love
• Avocado Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from 2 Cookin Mamas
• Banana Oatmeal Cookies from A Baker's House
• Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies from All That's Left are the Crumbs
• Four Ingredient Healthy Cookies from Spiceroots
• Multigrain Snickerdoodles from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Whole Wheat Digestives from Flours and Frostings