Sunday Sweets

For the month of October, Laura and I have decided to have Sunday be "sweet" themed. This weekend I decided to recreate one of my favorite cookies. I LOVE the cranberry and white chocolate sugar cookies at work. The texture is incredible, and in every bite you get a bit of sweet from the cranberries and chocolate. These cookies are about 4-5" in diameter and definitely made with white flour and butter.

Of course, in true FNF fashion, I decided to give them a little makeover. I think the hardest part of giving cookies makeovers is figuring out what to substitute for the butter. I have made cookies in the past using part margarine, but the final consistency was more cake like and didn't work out for cut out cookies. Since I wasn't going to cut these out or ice them I figured Smart Balance would be just fine.

Here are all of the ingredients:

I started by creating the cookie "base." Basically everything but the festive additives. I was afraid of over mixing the chocolate pieces if I added everything all at once. Once the base was combined thoroughly I added in the fun stuff.

When making a good lower calorie cookie, the fun stuff makes a huge difference. This recipe was hard to really cut back on the calories simply because the chocolate and dried cranberries are naturally calorie dense. One day I may try to make this cookie without fun extras to see how the base would be on its own.

What are some of your favorite "fun extras" to put in cookies?

I did stick the mixture in the fridge for awhile to let it set up. The cookies don't set very well just because I used the Smart Balance instead of butter and probably the use of applesauce. When you are scooping the dough onto the baking sheet you can mold the dough to have smooth rounded edges if you want since it is so soft.

Here is the final product:

The cookies tasted pretty good and were very light for a whole wheat cookie. One noticeable difference was the texture. These cookies are very cake like. One of my favorite characteristics of my cookies from work is the slightly crunchy texture. I will have to play around with the recipe to see if I can ever fix that.

Here are the stats for each cookie (the batch made about 27):

Calories: 90

Fat: 3.4

Sodium: 48

Fiber: 1.4

On a non-food note...aren't my blog helpers adorable?!

White Chocolate Cranberry Almond Cookies

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup Splenda
¼ cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
¼ cup Egg Beaters
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tbsp Chia seeds
½ cup Cranberries
½ cup white chocolate chips
¼ cup almond slivers

Combine all ingredients except the last three in a medium bowl. Fold in last three ingredients until distributed evenly.

Chill dough for 20 minutes.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop dough out onto baking sheet covered with a Silpat. Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool for a few minutes then remove from baking sheets and let cool thoroughly on a cooling rack.