Food swaps

Sweet13_Princess

Hello all! it's Christmas cookie baking season and I'm curious what kind of healthy swaps can be made to cookie recipes without sacrificing the flavor. I'm posting two recipes below that I absoluately love, but want "healthied up." Please let me know how I can best do this.

Thanks,
Shannon

Sweet13_Princess

Mom’s Sugar Cookies
Makes: 2 ½ dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 ¾ c. sifted all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda

Directions:
Cream shortening and sugar well. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Gradually blend in dry ingredients which have been sifted together. Chill the dough at least 3 hours. Roll to 1/8 to ¼ inches thickness on a lightly floured pastry canvas. Cut cookies with floured cookie cutters. Bake on ungreased mirror cookie sheets at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Sweet13_Princess

Raisin Filled Cookies
Yields: 36 cookies
Dough: Filling:
½ c. Margarine 2 ½ c.=1 box raisins
½ c. Crisco 1 c. sugar
2 c. sugar 1 c. water
2 eggs 2 tbs flour/cornstarch
2 tbs vanilla extract ¼ tbs salt
1 c. milk
5 ½ c. flour + ¼ c.
1 tbs salt
4 tbs baking powder
1 tbs baking soda

Directions:
First, make dough. Then, chill it for at least two hours.
While you wait, make the filling. Let it cool to room temperature.

Once chilled, roll the dough out (sprinkling additional flower to keep it from sticking) until it is ¼ inch thick, cut out cookie shape with cookie cutters for the top and bottom portions.

Scoop out a spoonful of filling and place it in the center between the layers, gently press shut.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Sweet13_Princess

One special note: I CANNOT use butter. I have adverse reactions....(I'm in the bathroom all day).

Shannon

NoAdditives

I'm just not worrying about it. I'm going to be making all kinds of cookies, candies and other treats for friends and family. Some things that can be used for substitutions (margarine, artificial sweeteners, etc.) have more adverse health effects than the ingredients in the recipes.

tristalin

You could change the tradition a little bit & have a soup swap instead. I just had my 2nd soup swap earlier this month and I'm going to have another one in January because it is so popular with my friends and family. It is a lot of fun!

Aeriel

I can't use eggs in a lot of my recipes due to my son's dairy and egg allergy. I substitute 1-2 tbsp water for an egg sometimes, or use an egg replacer when I can't.

To cut down on oil in recipes, I usually substitute half unsweetened applesauce. Not sure if that would work in place of crisco/margarine.

Depending on your position, you could use splenda instead of sugar in the recipes to reduce calories. Some people think its bad for you, others don't. I never have used it, but my MIL does sometimes because she is diabetic.

melodys_attic

OK. Cookies are cookies. I would say make GOOD cookies (original recipe) but then you only get one instead of two? One thing to definitely lose is the crisco. You can get a coconut butter that they have somehow manipulated so it doesn't taste or smell like coconut and use that. I think. Haha. But a shortbreak cookie would, I should think, only really be a shortbread cookie with butter. it's just what it is. I believe that some things just are what they are. For the raisin-type cookies I'm sure there are millions of hermit and other spice cookies out there that have been designed to be low fat AND yummy. I saw a chewy molasses cookie recipe on here recently. Maybe under the healthy nutrition thread? Sorry... I don't remember!!

Tabs_A

I've been looking into healthier options and have come across meringue cookies! Haven't tried them yet but they are low calories and have no fat. Most are made with egg whites, cream of tartar,bit of sugar and some flavoring.

Sweet13_Princess

Thanks for the ideas. I found some others online and I'm going to try a few. I'll let you know the results!

Shannon