Cookie adventure (of slight doom)

goodmonster

****disclaimer; I am not a great baker. I can cook your friggin' socks off; but kind of a baking fail. I consider it a blessing in disguise most days****

So I wanted to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
I have wanted to for awhile.
This morning I got up with the intention of doing so- but I wanted to make them not so terrible for me.

These are the things I did to the recipe:

It called for a cup of butter. Instead, I used canola oil and unsweetened applesauce. I traded the butter fat for half the amount of another kind of fat....and applesauce.
It called for two eggs. I didn't have any; so instead since it is a thicker liquid anyway I used 2oz more of canola oil per egg (okay thinking back on it now I totally only used one 'egg'. whoops)
It called for generic white flour. I didn't want to go to the store to get any special kinds of flour since like I said I'm not a big baker, I ended up taking some of the old fashioned oats and zapped them in my mini-food processor- OAT FLOUR cha ching! (I'll have to remember to do that more often, super easy.)

The mixture itself (yeah, I'm a cookie-dough eater. sue me.) tasted fine; basically a really oaty flavor that I enjoyed. Plus (for those of you who are currently suing me for being a cookie dough eater) you'll remember it had NO eggs in it so technically it was safe to try out! aha!!

Per tablespoon once I put in all my numbers, the cookie dough wound up being LESS than 95 calories per cookie. Yes even with those semi-sweet chocolate chips. Whee! I love it when you can have tasty things in moderation.

That's all super awesome, HOWEVER.

Baking said cookies is a whole 'nother ball game; as in these suckers spread. and spread. They don't look like normal cookies, and I had serious issues getting them off the pan. My first batch looks like a wounded chocolatey chipped animal (my husband will eat that mess, he's one of those 'eat whatever he wants' kind of guys. *slight glare*) and the rest went from being semi-round cookies to squished wrinkly bars.

...not that it will stop me.

Next time I'd like to use mostly applesauce instead of canola oil at all, and just man up (er, woman up) and use eggs. Maybe that will let them rise a bit better? *shrug*

Overall, a silly little cookie story I thought you would all enjoy, if you want the original recipe let me know. Tweak it however you want; I'd love to hear your variations!

Contrarian

I'm not a baker, either. I am impressed at your bravery.

CakeFit21

I am a baker and I'm impressed by your honesty!

annabellj

applesauce and egg whites i think will work. look up hungrygirl.com if you dont know it already she does a lot of substitutions, but i usually dont substitute. if i am gonna eat sweets, i will eat the good stuff. it isnt worth it to me to save 50 calories and have it taste crappy.not saying that yours do but I am an awesome baker and my kids are picky about that stuff. i have tried to sub and it just doesnt work for my family. i just bake a lot less.

musicgirl88

I think you may need to give in and get flour...because it's the flour that will help them rise up (I think...I've never tried to bake cookies without flour before, so I could be totally wrong!), and the egg is what helps hold it all together! But super great on trying to make an awesome healthy cookie!!!

reallyneatgirl

I do this sort of thing as well, but I specifically make cookie dough sans eggs with the intention of eating it raw.

TrinaJ11

My husband keeps his cookie dough in the freezer...he claims it helps bring the mixture back together. When you're ready to bake thaw for about 5 minutes so you don't break your spoons and bake in preheated oven 5-10 minutes.

slimkitty

Make some oatmeal and throw a handfull of chocolate chips in. Sprinkle with some shredded coconut and enjoy :laugh:

goodmonster

lol- don't get me wrong though guys- these still tasted fabulous. =D

they just look redonkulous.

...that kind of rhymed.

NorthRiver

Usually it's the baking soda that makes dough rise. Unless you're using self-raising flour... But thumbs up to you for experimenting with substitutions!

annabellj

omg i didnt read the part that said you didnt have any flour in it! lol, sorry! if you do half and half flour and oats and dont grind them up for flour then they would be better I would think!

annabellj

Make some oatmeal and throw a handfull of chocolate chips in. Sprinkle with some shredded coconut and enjoy :laugh:

that sounds yummy

jenilla1

I you use something like Egg Beaters instead of eggs, the eggs are pasteurized, so it doesn't matter if you eat the dough raw. That's what I do all the time. :flowerforyou:

Abbey70

I really appreciate this post cause I don't really know how to substitute things like the applesauce. Thanks

goodmonster

No problem! Best bit is you can't taste the applesauce at all. Just make sure you're using basic unsweetened (ie, check the ingredients for no added sugar). :bigsmile:

rlysrh

Maybe its the amount of oil you used? Because if you think about it oil is used when you fry to help stop things sticking to the pan, and so I'm guessing by replacing eggs (which tend to bind things together) with oil (which does the opposite) that could be why they aren't sticking together? You could probably find a good low fat recipe for oat cookies on google. (:
Good luck (:

roslynds9

If it was just a case of how they look then why not do them as a tray bake next time. Just pour the mixture into a baking tin and when its cooked you can cut it into squares :-)

LilMissFoodie

Yeah, I'm not sure on the whole flour thing - never used oat flour before. I think the eggs were the main problem though - if I ever forget to put eggs in cookies they turn out really flat and either crumbly or slimy! Because the egg binds and the protein coagulates when it cooks you can't really just sub another runny thing for them.

Ps. totally no judgement for cookie dough eating

netchik

awesome substitute for 2 eggs - teaspoon of vinegar and a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

javamonster

Okay food geek checking in here. We actually did a cookie baking lab in first year Food Chem (which was actually a really hard class, so don't laugh!). The more oil, the softer the cookie will be, and oil has a lower MP than butter or margarine so your cookies are going to spread like mad without any flour to help hold them together. The protein in the flour gives you the structure, and wheat flour, which of course has gluten, gives the best results. The protein in oat flour just doesn't form a strong enough matrix, especially without eggs to help out. The protein in eggs will help with the structure, but gluten will do a pretty good job on its own. Baking powder is a faster-acting riser than baking soda, but without enough protein (ie. gluten or egg protein) it can only do so much.

Thank me for doing that without talking about denatured proteins and plastics and glass transition theory. :happy: Did anyone actually read this????

Contrarian

Okay food geek checking in here. We actually did a cookie baking lab in first year Food Chem (which was actually a really hard class, so don't laugh!). The more oil, the softer the cookie will be, and oil has a lower MP than butter or margarine so your cookies are going to spread like mad without any flour to help hold them together. The protein in the flour gives you the structure, and wheat flour, which of course has gluten, gives the best results. The protein in oat flour just doesn't form a strong enough matrix, especially without eggs to help out. The protein in eggs will help with the structure, but gluten will do a pretty good job on its own. Baking powder is a faster-acting riser than baking soda, but without enough protein (ie. gluten or egg protein) it can only do so much.

Thank me for doing that without talking about denatured proteins and plastics and glass transition theory. :happy: Did anyone actually read this????

I did!

jetscreaminagain

I read it too. The science of food is fascinating to this lay-lady. No one has yet believed me when I asked for "On Food and Cooking" repeatedly for various gift giving holidays. Oh well.