Monday, 26 October 2009
Nothing scary about these Halloween treats!
As we near the end of October, only one thing comes to my mind… Halloween! This year, instead of attacking those piles of “fun sized” candy, beat your sweet craving with a homemade nutritious treat.
This recipe uses slightly cooked apples and walnuts to replace some of the butter commonly used in sugar or butter cookie recipes. It also has whole wheat flour and oats to increase the fiber content. In the Halloween spirit of fun activities, this recipe is perfect for Halloween cookie cutters. It also makes for a great cookie sandwich — put a slice of apple between the two cookies and you have your own personal apple pie.
This recipe was designed using Sun Crystals, one of our new favorite products at Skinny. For those who enjoy cookies but don’t like all the sugar, Sun Crystals provide the same amount of sweetness with half of the sugar by using a sugar/stevia combination. This recipe provides a moderate amount of calories, good fiber, vitamins, minerals, and healthy sources of fat.
Try these cookies with a nice glass of skim milk; it will surely put you in the Halloween mood without putting you over the edge!
Haunted Healthy Cookies
 Total Time: About 90 minutes
Makes: 40 cookies or 20 sandwiches
Ingredients: - ¾ cup walnuts, whole
- ½ (heaping) cup chopped apple (about ½ an apple)
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2/3 cup Sun Crystals, granulated
- Red & yellow food coloring
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cup whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup oats (quick or old fashioned)
- 3 tablespoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon (Add ½ - 1 extra teaspoon if you’d like, or a different spice of your choice!)
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour (to knead and roll out the dough)
- 2 apples if you’re making sandwiches
- Pumpkin or other Halloween cookie cutters!
- Non-stick cooking spray
Instructions: - Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grind walnuts finely in a food processor. Then, chop ½ cup apples and microwave in a microwave safe bowl for 25 seconds (to soften). Add apples and canola oil to the food processor (if there is not enough room, take out some of the walnuts). Blend until finely ground; it will have a creamy consistency.
- Add this mixture to a mixing bowl with the butter and mix. Add the Sun Crystals and cream mixture together. For a very orange cookie, add 8 drops of red food coloring and about 24 drops of yellow food coloring. Then, add eggs and vanilla, mix well.
- In a separate bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, oats, baking soda, and cinnamon. Whisk together. Add the dry ingredients to the moist ingredients in 3 batches, mixing well in between.
- Using the all-purpose flour, flour a surface to roll out the dough. The dough may need to be kneaded with some all-purpose flour, but use just enough to keep it from sticking, too much flour will make the cookies hard and dry.
- Roll the dough out in batches about 2-3 mm thick (they plump a little). The dough is a bit delicate to transfer when they are too thin. Use your favorite Halloween cookie cutters (I chose pumpkins) to make the cookies. After cutting out the shapes, knead the scraps together and roll out again. For a 2” round pumpkin, you’ll get about 40 cut-outs and 20 sandwiches.
- Lightly spray the cookie sheets with a non-stick cooking spray. Place about 6 cookies on a sheet. If you want to make the sandwich cookies, core and slice your additional apples (leave the skin on for extra fiber). I chose to slice the apples in rings (up to 1 cm thick) so they fit perfectly in my pumpkin cookie. Before baking, place one apple ring or one layer of apple slices on the cookie and top with another cookie. Now you have little cookie sandwiches ready to go in the oven.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350°F. Remove from the oven and let cool. Once cooled, store in an airtight container.
Nutrition content using Sun Crystals (1 sandwich cookie): 123 calories, 4 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 20 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 2.6 g protein, 574 mg sodium
Nutrition content using sugar (1 sandwich cookie): 152 calories, 4 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 27 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 2.6 g protein, 574 mg sodium
Want to add a fun twist? - Spread some Trader Joe’s Pumpkin butter on the bottom cookie before adding the apples and top cookie — give it a delicious fall flavor bonus!
- Feel free to add some nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice to the cookie dough depending on your flavor preference.
- Add some chopped nuts to the cookie batter if you want a little bit of crunch in your cookie.
- If you’re using a ghost shape cookie cutter, a light dusting of powdered sugar can give them extra spookiness!
- Melt some dark chocolate, place it in a zip lock bag and cut a very small hole at the corner. Use it to draw faces on your pumpkins, bats, witches, ghosts or whatever your Halloween cookie shape! Remember the chocolate will add calories but is a fun way to decorate.
—Alexandra Oppenheimer
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