Healthy Cookies and other desserts

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Every recipe sounds so yummy! Wish I had something worth adding...

Nathan's Lemon Cake

This is a namesake because Nathan Coulon's mom baked it for his birthday every year. We've adapted this recipe to trim the fat and calories, and it's still a moist, lemony treat.

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients
Cake:
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups all-purpose flour (about 9 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Icing:
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon lemon rind
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Lemon rind strips (optional)
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare cake, coat 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms of pans with wax paper. Coat wax paper with cooking spray. Dust pans with 2 tablespoons flour, and set aside.

3. Lightly spoon 2 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

4. Place granulated sugar and 1/2 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and nonfat buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat in 2 tablespoons lemon rind and 2 tablespoons lemon juice.

5. Pour batter into prepared pans; sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for 32 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack; remove wax paper from cake layers.

6. To prepare icing, combine powdered sugar and the remaining ingredients (except lemon rind strips) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk until smooth. Place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread half of icing on top of cake. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining half of icing over top of cake. Garnish with lemon rind strips, if desired. Store cake loosely covered in the refrigerator.

Nutritional Information
Calories:
317 (27% from fat)
Fat:
9.5g (sat 5.6g,mono 2.6g,poly 0.5g)
Protein:
3.6g
Carbohydrate:
55.7g
Fiber:
0.6g
Cholesterol:
56mg
Iron:
1mg
Sodium:
165mg
Calcium:
52mg

I will have to try those peanut butter cookies. I love peanutbutter.

I want to try some of these recipes. Great idea for a thread!

Ooh, oh I love healthy baking!
Meringue cookies are always a savior, especially if you use half splenda, but they take for-ev-er to bake.
I wholly suggest finding a "low fat blondie" recipe and using chocolate protein powder in place of some or all of the flour (mine has about the same calories as flour anyway) and you have brownies I suppose with vanilla protein powder you could do that with a whole host of things!
Also, if you're looking for another excuse to eat a brownie, look up a recipe for black bean brownies - I know, it sounds daunting, but if you add instant espresso powder you hardly taste it (and when you do, it tastes sort of good.)
I bet you can also make banana bread really healthy and tasty. I can't get enough of it sometimes - the whole wheat gives it this new sweetness. Maybe I'll try that with half splenda this weekend and see if it's still as irresistible. Don't be afraid to add a little cocoa - cocoa powder is actually super good for you

Also, I bet you could adapt one of my stranger recipes for apple dumplings to be healthier. It calls for refrigerated biscuits or crescent rolls, but you could make a scratch flour or find some low-fat whole wheat ones. Basically, you chop up a few apples, wrap the dough around the bits, and put it in a cooking dish. fill the dish with spices to taste, a few spoonfuls of butter or substitute, and a bottle of (diet) mountain dew - bake at 350 until golden brown. YUM.

A lot of recipes I use whole wheat flour instead of white flour, and add less sugarand/ or use splenda, and add applesauce also to keep the cookies more moist.

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These all sound so good! I am looking forward to making and trying these :bigsmile:

Bump!

yummy yum

yum! I just joined and have already tried 3 recipes I found on mfp! This is an awesome thread

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bummmmmmp