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| Surprisingly good! |
A few weekends ago, I made a Bourbon Bread Pudding that called for raisins. Raisins being yet another food that I don't particularly care for, I was just going to throw them out entirely. Unfortunately, the recipe called for the raisins to be soaked overnight in bourbon, so I was fairly certain that I would be missing out on flavor by tossing them. It was suggested to me that I use a different dried fruit: cherries! I honestly had never considered using a raisin substitute, and didn't really know that dried cherries existed in a form that I would ever want to eat. I was pleasantly surprised by these Harris Teeter dried cherries. $4.00 a bag, 6 oz, 60 calories per ounce. I think if I put these in a simple syrup, they would taste a LOT like my grandmother's cherry preserves - GREAT cherries!
That started me thinking about making cookies with cherries in them. Great Harvest Bread Company makes a White Chocolate Cherry bread once a year that I fell in love with back in college. I figure, if it works for bread, it should work for cookies, right? I researched a lot of substitutions on how to make cookies "healthier." I have come to several conclusions:
- There are lot of crazy people with a lot of crazy substitutions out there, and I don't even mean food allergy types.
- If you try to make cookies TOO healthy, they look gross and include ingredients no one wants to touch like "wheat germ."
- There's a lot of strange information on the Internet.
So let's talk about some more "normal" substitutions that I had honestly never tried until today!
1) Butter
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| 2 Tablespoons of lonely butter... |
We all know it's the hidden evil in baked goods. People have gone back and forth over which version of this fat is "better" for you. My grandmother's recipe for barbecue sauce includes "Oleo," for years I know we used "Margarine," and often on the table these days I use Smart Balance. But, when you're cooking things, it is hard to beat good old fashioned butter. I always get the unsalted sticks of butter because almost anything you're cooking will call for salt to be added. The butter I buy is only used for baked goods. I have found that in MOST recipes, the amount of butter can be at least halved without much effect on the taste. The recipe I pieced together called for an entire stick of butter, but as you can see I went with much less! This means I needed to use a stand-in for the rest of my "wet" ingredients. If a recipe calls for a whole stick of butter, and you are using less, you will have to add something to make it all come together. Otherwise, the recipe will end up being just a dry clumpy mess. One of the recipes I looked at last night called for Tahini which is sesame paste, normally used for hummus. The recipe discussed how the sesame paste added a "great nutty flavor" to the cookies. That all sounded well and good, but when I looked into the nutritional content, I saw that tahini really didn't look like that great a substitution. The recipe was calling for 1/2 cup of it, which was going to be a massive number of calories... so I kept looking. This is when the Internet got pretty weird. Possibilities for substituting butter include:
- Pureed prunes. They can be subbed out for up to 3/4 the butter in most recipes. "Works especially well with chocolate!" (Yeah, and on my colon...)
- Apple butter. Can be subbed out for up to 3/4 the butter. Can also reduce the sugar in a recipe! (I'm pretty sure that's only because apple butter is about half apple and half sugar... doesn't sound particularly healthy.)
- Bananas, mashed. Can be subbed measure for measure. That means if it calls for 8T of butter, use 8T mashed bananas. (Now we're getting somewhere, but that still seems odd)
- Ricotta cheese. Can use subbed out for up to 3/4 the butter. Works well in yeast based breads. (This sounds promising, but not for cookies)
- Applesauce. Can be subbed out for up to 3/4 the butter. Make sure to get unsweetened OR reduce sugar in recipe. (This I've heard of... wonder how it works)
I am sure those were not the full extent of possibilities, but it was getting weirder, and later, and so I decided to go with the applesauce. It seemed the most normal, because I've heard of using it for substitutions before and haven't ever actually tried it. I found "no sugar added" applesauce in mini snack cups.
2) Flour
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| Super organic! |
Flour is a necessity to most baking, but it is mostly empty calories. By that I mean that plain white flour really doesn't offer additional nutrients along with the carbohydrates. It means that foods that are primarily white flour based are great for instant energy (pasta before running a race), but your body just doesn't get the same stuff from it that it could be getting. Whole wheat flour has gotten a lot of good press as people started using the South Beach Diet and other "low carb" and "good carb" diets. Whole Wheat flour contains "complex carbohydrates." I have explained this to my students before as the idea of a present that is all wrapped up. The nutrients are all wrapped up, and your body has to spend energy to unwrap the nutrients from the complex carbohydrate. It means that your body takes longer to process complex carbohydrates, and so it offers you more long-term energy. All this is great and all, but if you've ever tried straight whole-wheat pasta, you know that we haven't quite perfected how to make an even swap. Whole wheat is often stickier and can have a very different texture overall, causing some problems in baking. The solution? Don't substitute out your entire amount of flour for whole-wheat. Also, you can use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour - it has less "gluten-forming potential." The Internet claims you can find this in most Natural sections of large grocery stores. I found a small bag at Whole Foods for $2.69.
3) Oatmeal
I don't know many people who would complain about oatmeal in cookies. In fact, while I was debating using it or not, I got a LOT of feedback about how healthy it is, and how one of my friends would be upset if I left it out, so I decided it probably was deserving of mentioning here. Again, if you're going to be making cookies, you already know that they're a splurge healthy-eating item. There's no reason you can't pack those cookies with nutrients though! The health benefits of oatmeal are pretty wide. I'll be honest, I don't understand half the words in the articles that talk about how great it is, but it all sounds pretty good! Lowering your chance of diabetes, preventing sugar crashes, reducing cancer risk, lowering cholesterol. Sure, sounds great! Also, my aunt's advice in this whole subject was great: " Pops eats them every day and, as he is going on 87, I say VIVA LA OATMEAL COOKIES!" Good enough for my grandfather, good enough for me.
4) Egg Whites
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| Poor, misunderstood yolk... You will be tasty tomorrow! |
Hmm... this one has eluded me for a while. Mostly because I never know what to think of eggs. The health community can't seem to make up their minds on them either! In fact, this article points out the USDA's guidelines on nutrients in an egg yolk vs egg white. I decided to try the suggested "one egg + one egg white" that one of the recipes called for, but I think in the future I will take all my nutrients! Also, that leftover yolk is gonna be weekend-breakfast!
Enough research, I'm bored. I want cookies!
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| Tastiness about to happen... |
Since it's a "baked good," I did actually bother to read what temperature is suggested for baking these.
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| What a surprise... |
A bit about recipes: I really don't like sticking to a recipe. It makes me feel like I am missing the freedom and excitement of creating my own ideas! What I usually do is to look up several recipes (Internet, Joy of Cooking, etc) and then combine the ideas I see into one recipe. Sometimes I even write down what I do so that I can recreate it. When it is something baked, it is really important to check out the ratios of ingredients. If you don't understand what you're messing with, it's best to just stick with the suggested amounts. Also important: baking powder vs baking soda. But that's a chemistry lesson. Just make sure you have the right one.
Alright. Cookies require two bowls. One for dry ingredients, one for wet ingredients. The wet ingredient bowl should be the bowl you want to use your electric mixer in.
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| You think I measured that cinnamon? |
Into my dry ingredient bowl, I put 2 cups of oats, 1/2 c plain flour, 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. No sugar? ha HA - sugar is a WET ingredient, didn't you know? Suckers...
I needed to use brown sugar for these cookies. Why? Because they're oatmeal cookies, and you always use brown sugar in oatmeal cookies. Is it for the coloring? Is it because brown sugar is sweeter than regular sugar? Sure. Those sound like great reasons. Either way, when I pulled down my brown sugar, I discovered it was going to be a little more difficult to measure than usual...
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| Um... |
So I put it in my microwave, because I can remember Mom using that to "soften it up." After about 3 minutes of heating (30 second bursts), it still wasn't really all that soft... but it was tolerable...
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| Chisel time! |
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| Not terribly appetizing |
Here is my wet ingredient bowl before mixing! It has 2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup regular sugar, and 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce. Sugar and butter are always "wet" ingredients. They usually get creamed together before dry ingredients are (slowly) added from the other bowl.
Because I was using applesauce instead of just butter, the "creamed sugar/butter" was a lot runnier than usual. Oh, and it called for vanilla. I don't even remember how much it said I was supposed to use. Have you ever had anyone complain that you used too MUCH vanilla? The only complaint I've ever had of vanilla extract is that as a child I once licked the spoon I'd used to measure (because as a child, you probably should measure) and was sorely disappointed at the sudden bitter taste that flooded my mouth!
Then I poured the dry ingredients into the wet bowl and stirred it all together with a spoon. Using the mixer at this point is unnecessary, and entirely too messy. Oatmeal cookies get clumpy and would clog up the mixer! It's a real pain. Seriously, once the butter has been broken up, your mixer time is done. Also, I added a cup of white chocolate chips and about a cup of the dried cherries. I cut the cherries in half because they were really large. You want to make sure your ingredients are combined, but don't over-stir. It'll make your cookies tough. The wheat flour says it's less likely to produce gluten, not impossible!
Then I scooped it out onto a greased cookie sheet, using patented "two spoon method" of cookie forming!
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| Don't even try and measure this stuff... |
Because I was using applesauce instead of just butter, the "creamed sugar/butter" was a lot runnier than usual. Oh, and it called for vanilla. I don't even remember how much it said I was supposed to use. Have you ever had anyone complain that you used too MUCH vanilla? The only complaint I've ever had of vanilla extract is that as a child I once licked the spoon I'd used to measure (because as a child, you probably should measure) and was sorely disappointed at the sudden bitter taste that flooded my mouth!
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| Wetter looking than usual... because of the applesauce? |
Then I scooped it out onto a greased cookie sheet, using patented "two spoon method" of cookie forming!
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| Much easier than an ice cream scoop - also easy to clean |
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| Smaller, snack sized! |
I like to keep my cookies fairly small. Recipes I saw called for cooking times anywhere between 8-16 minutes. I set a timer for 8 minutes, and checked on them. They weren't quite done, so I added another 3 minutes. They seemed pretty good at that point. Oatmeal cookies are a little tricky because they don't look "done" when they finish baking. They're supposed to be chewy, so they aren't super crispy when they're done baking. I looked for the tips and edges to start to brown to tell me mine were done.
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| I ate one right after this picture. It fell on my shirt. Worth it. |
All in all, I consider these a total success. The applesauce did not have a noticeable change in texture or taste in the final product!
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| Pass the milk... although they were awesome with coffee! |
The actual recipe I used:
Dry Ingredients
2 c oats (not the "quick" kind)
1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour>
1/2 c regular flour
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
Wet Ingredients
1/2 c brown sugar - your choice light/dark, they have the same caloric value
1/2 c granulated sugar (plain white)
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk (seriously, I don't think it's worth it, just use 2 whole eggs)
2 T unsalted butter
3/4 c unsweetened applesauce
1 T vanilla, just in case you wanted to know how much it actually calls for
Non-moisture-specific Ingredients (added at very end)
1 c white chocolate chips
1 c dried cherries
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Blend the wet ingredients in a separate bowl until all the butter is broken up. Add the dry ingredients to the wet bowl, stirring with a spoon until the dry ingredients are coated. Once everything is combined, stir in the cherries and chocolate. Avoid over-mixing as this will cause your cookies to be tough.
Spoon the cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet and place in oven for 10-12 minutes. When they come out, let them sit on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
| Ingredients | Calories | Carbs | Fat | Protein | Sodium | |
| Eggland's Best - Large Eggs, Whole, 1 Large Whole Egg | 70 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 60 |  |
| Eggland's Best - Egg White Only (Large - 50g), 1 egg white | 26 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 83 | |
| Domino - Dark Brown Sugar, 24 tsp (4g) | 360 | 96 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Food Lion - White Granulated Sugar, 24 Teaspoon | 360 | 96 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Generic - Bread Flour- White, 1/2 cup (30g) | 200 | 44 | 0 | 8 | 0 | |
| 365 Organic - 100% Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, 1/2 cup | 220 | 46 | 1 | 6 | 0 | |
| Harris Teeter - Organic Dried Cherries, 4 oz | 320 | 72 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |
| Great Value - All Natural Apple Sauce - No Sugar Added, 0.75 cup | 75 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 16 | |
| 365 Organic - Butter, Unsalted, 2 T | 200 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 0 | |
| Quaker - Old Fashioned Quaker Oats, 2 cup dry | 589 | 108 | 11 | 22 | 0 | |
| Nestle Toll House - Premier White Chocolate Morsels, 16 tbsp (14g) | 1,120 | 144 | 64 | 0 | 160 | |
| Total: | 3540 | 626 | 102 | 52 | 319 | |
| Per Serving: | 60 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
Only TWO grams of fat?! Fantastic!
Yum! I hope you are bringing these out to the Trampoline place tonight :) Thanks for sharing the tasty info!
ReplyDeleteThey're already packed up in a box for the travelling!
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