I'm in a cookie frenzy lately. Last week my sister gave me some flourless peanut butter cookies that were oh so yummy! She based them off of Paula Dean's "Magical Peanut Butter Cookie" recipe, and made some changes.
Then after buying my first coconut sugar -HURRAY- I rushed home and made oatmeal heart cookies from Ali and Tom's AMAZING food blog "The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen" at www.nourishingmeals.com. (Seriously, I've finally found my food blog!!!) They were AMAZING!! I ate too many and got a bit sick :( But they were AMAZING!!
Today I was hankerin' for cookies again (I tell you once the ball gets rolling...) I checked out Paula Dean's recipe and it seemed really simple :-) I don't use regular sugar and I'm not a believer in chemical artificial sweeteners, and as usual I couldn't help but make a few changes of my own.
This is the first recipe I've posted using *coconut sugar* It is a new discovery I've made in the sugar alternative world. After learning that while Blue Agave is low-glycemic, it is very high in fructose, supposedly increasing insulin resistance, is highly processed and is not sustainably harvested, I needed to find another low-glycemic substitute. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't bake well at all. All because of the amazing www... I learned about coconut sugar, it being low glycemic - at 35 on the GI, very sustainable (the sugar is tapped off the flower and regenerates quickly - without killing the plant as is the case with agave) and a high nutrition profile. It seemed to be the perfect answer.
As far as baking goes, it is SO much better than agave, and tastes beautiful. It comes in granulated form, and tastes a little bit like brown sugar or caramel. Unfortunately, it is still sugar and SO yummy it's hard for me to limit myself to just one or two cookies, and it kicks off the cravings in my brain... So too much still makes me sick, but a little bit is alright. It is also expensive, but that is actually good thing because then I will save it for true special occasions.
1 egg
2 T honey
2 T - 1/3 c coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
1/2 tsp vanilla or imitation vanilla
1/4 c unsweetened shredded coconut (opt)
pinch of salt
Mix all ingredients with a hand mixer, roll into small balls - the size of a walnut shell. Press down with a fork. No need to grease a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes, cool on wire rack.
My boys are my toughest critics. Cory hasn't tried them yet but Ethan gobbled them up :-) That made me smile.
*I learned a trick for stirring my natural peanut butter.... I poured the whole jar into a bowl and mixed it with a hand mixer -duh I don't know why that took me 28 years to figure out- Saved me about 10 minutes of careful stirring. I used the bowl and beaters to mix up this cookie batter, so no extra dishes :) Next time I'll let the kids scrape out the peanut butter with apple slices or something.
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