One Long Cookie Night! Part Two: As Healthy as Cookies Get

Part one: Not so Healthy Cookies

So cookie night continues. It is late.. Really late and I just finished my last of the cookie recipes. I was planning on doing three types of cookies. I ended up with four. I have done enough quality checks now that I actually made kale chips when I finished! I needed some veggies to offset all the sweetness. Cookies for dinner seemed like a good idea at the time. It still is, but maybe don't have cookies for a midnight snack after.

Before the cookie hangover fully sets in, let's get on to part two of the cookie night. I labelled these as the healthy cookies. I don't know if I would go so far as to ever call cookies a health food, but in the grand scheme of cookies, these two recipes have a few more nutrient dense ingredients so you are getting more than just sugar and flour. I also used two different egg replacers again to give a comparison.

I have to say of all the egg replacers I have now tried, they all do the job as they said, but I think the chia and flax eggs are the most eggy and they both gave the best consistency for the recipes. That say, use your discretion. What ever you use will change the taste of your food. This means use a replacer that makes sense. If you don't think banana goes with your recipe, don't use banana as the replacer. Easy as that.

Cookie #3: Lemon Sugar Cookies * Chia egg replacer
Adapted from Light-Hearted Everyday Cooking
- 1/4 margarine, softened
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 chia egg (1 tsp ground chai seeds and 2 Tbsp water)
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
- grated rind of 2 lemons
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Make your Chia egg, combine the chia seed and water in a small bowl. Whisk then let sit for a couple minutes. Whisk again until it forms an eggy texture.

In a large bowl, cream the margarine and sugar with an electric mixture. Combine the chia egg and lemon juice and beat until fluffy.

Combine the dry ingredients together (flours, lemon rind and baking soda). Pour the dry into the wet and mix until combined. Shape Tbsp sized amounts of dough into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Using a fork, flatten the balls and then sprinkle the remaining sugar. Bake for about 10 minutes and then let cool for another 5 and transfer to a plate. Makes 30 - 40 cookies.

Cookie #4: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies * Apple sauce egg replacer

From Cookie Madness via James Frederick (Thanks James!!)

- 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (3.25 oz)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 scant teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar (3 ½ oz)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/4 cup applesauce, drained on a paper towel
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup raisins, plumped and patted dry
- Walnuts chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside. Mix both sugars, maple syrup, apple sauce, oil and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Add the flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in the oats, followed by raisins. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let cool for about 5-8 minutes on cookie sheets then carefully scoop up onto a wire rack. Makes 2 dozen.

So, what did I learn from all this? First, I love cookies and they make a great Sunday dinner. Second, there is a very simple formula to making a decent cookie. Cream fat with sugar, add bonding agent and wet ingredients, then mix the dry ingredients into the wet and bake. Presto - Cookies. I also learned the egg replacers are easy and only seem weird because I hadn't tried them before. You would have thought I learned my lesson about this already... I think this time I have!

What's your favourite cookie recipe?