Lighter Halloween cookie still a tasty treat
| • | Dress up instant ramen |
By Elaine Magee
| |||
 |
|
||
Q. I want to make sugar cookies this Halloween with my grandchildren and wondered if you could make these sugar cookies a little healthier but still soft and delicious. Too much to ask?
A. I guess I can't cut way back on the sugar in a "sugar cookie" recipe, but I did bring it down by about 3 tablespoons. And the texture and sweetness still worked well.
I replaced some of the white flour with whole-wheat flour and used egg substitute in place of one of the eggs.
Now for the butter. The original recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter (1 cup), so I tried 3/4 cup of a less-fat margarine and added a couple of tablespoons of fat-free half-and-half to compensate for the lost moisture. The dough texture seemed a bit soft but they baked up nice and chewy, just the way I like them!
The trick is to slightly underbake them; this helps give it that chewy — not cakey — texture.
If you like your cookies crispy, bake them until nicely brown and then let them cool completely on the cookie sheet.
This recipe (with 40 percent less fat, two-thirds less saturated fat and cholesterol and 22 percent fewer calories) was tested with a vegan margarine (Earth Balance organic buttery spread). The original recipe contains 175 calories, 9.3 grams fat, 5.6 grams saturated fat, 40 milligrams cholesterol and 0.3 grams fiber per cookie.
LIGHTER M&M COOKIES
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat two nonstick cookie sheets with canola cooking spray.
In a small bowl, whisk together flours, salt and baking soda.
In a large mixing bowl, cream margarine, sugars and fat-free half-and-half with an electric mixer until creamy. Add vanilla, then one at a time, the egg then the egg white or egg substitute, mixing well after each. On low speed, mix in the flour mixture just until blended well.
Scoop to form cookie dough balls and place them with plenty of space between them on the prepared cookie sheet. Decorate tops with about 8 M&Ms per cookie (pushing in the M&Ms will naturally flatten the cookie dough mounds a little).
Bake cookies until they are just starting to brown in places (6 to 7 minutes.) Remove from oven and let the cookies cool for a minute before transferring them to a serving plate or cookie rack. Makes 2 dozen bakery-size cookies.
Elaine Magee is a registered dietitian. Learn more at www.recipedoctor.com.
