What do you call it when you make something that tastes super delicious, with the perfect amount of crisp on the outside, implying the existence of loads of butter, and absolute chewiness in the center, with all the right spices to make your mouth warm up but not fire up, and yet, it's low calorie and made with applesauce and little butter?
I call that Victory.
Chocolate Spice Cookies
Adapted from a recipe by Nick Malgieri in Perfect Light Desserts
Makes about 36 cookies
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into your measuring cup
1/3 cup alkalized (Dutch-process) cocoa powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup molasses
Prepare the oven racks by placing one of them in the upper third and one in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and set aside.
In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Since the butter is melted, it is easy to do this by hand rather than with an electric mixer. A large wooden spoon or rubber spatula should do the trick. Beat in the applesauce and molasses.
Add in the dry ingredients and stir until you form a soft dough.
On two cookie sheets or jelly roll pans lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mats, drop tablespoons of dough, spacing them out about an inch apart. You can also use an ice cream scoop to make evenly sized dough balls.
Bake for 10 minutes. Halfway through baking, swap the two cookie sheet locations and turn them from front to back. Don't overbake the cookies. If they look a little undone and moist, that's a good thing. Take them out! If they look a little undone they will turn out perfectly chewy as they set!
Leave the cookies on the sheet (or slide the parchment onto a rack) to cool for a few minutes, then transfer from the paper to the rack with a flat spatula.
Store in an airtight container and layer with wax paper so they don't stick to each other.
There are only 61 calories per cookie and 2 g fat!
Step-by-Step in Pictures
In a bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. Set aside...
Beat together the melted butter and sugar...
Beat in the applesauce and molasses...
Stir in the dry ingredients...
Form a soft dough...
Drop tablespoonfuls evenly apart on the cookie sheets...
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes. Don't overbake!
Yum!
4 comments:
It just doesn't seem possible, by the looks of your pictures, that it could only be 61 calories per cookie! Perfect for this time of year to have a "healthy" sweet treat!
I can't believe that they have so few calories! I'm going to have to bake some myself for a taste test! :) As usual, they look amazing!
The applesauce makes it "healthy,'' right? So that means I can eat at least three cookies before feeling any guilt? LOL -- I wish!!
You call that "victory" but I call that fine writing, no quotation marks needed! Also - *drool*.
Post a Comment