Healthy Cookies for Healthier Baking!

Christmas can often be synonymous with sugar. Loads and loads of sugar. And, while I am not one to say that there isn’t a time and place for sweets and cookies and all things sugary and glittery, I do feel that we often turn to those simply because we don’t know the alternatives can be so good. This Christmas season, in the midst of the wine and cheese plates and sugar-laden cakes and cookies, I encourage you to try some healthier variations to share with your friends and families. Not only will they be a refreshing break from the sugar-highs and sugar-crashes you’re used to experiencing, I think you’ll find many healthier ideas incredibly delicious and inspirational in making you want to repeat them, not just because they’re “healthy” but because they taste so good!

Some tips to consider for Healthier Baking include:

* Use oatmeal whenever possible. It adds filling fiber and takes the place of regular white flour (empty calories).
* Substitute applesauce for butter. You can read up on the best ways to do this, but I’ve had great luck with it and actually prefer many of my recipes this way. * Try to include recipes with nuts. Protein and fiber boosts are great ways to curb extensive holiday eating.
* Toast your spices. You’ll need less of the sugar and fat when your spices have a fuller flavor from the toasting process.
* Use fruits to sweeten whenever possible. Bananas are practically dessert themselves, see where you can add them. Make your own fruit sweeteners.
* Use Yogurt! I adore yogurt, and the more recipes I can find to use it, the happier I am. It’s loaded with protein, its fat-free, and it gives an extremely moist texture to things like muffins and breads.

And now, here's a healthy cookie recipe that is perfect for adults. You'll love the flavors, and it goes well with your Christmas drinks or Hot chocolate, but the best part, you'll never know its Healthy! Just use your coffee makers with your favorite coffee flavor, and follow the recipe for a delicious treat.

Coffee Almond Gluten-Free Cookies
Recipe adapted from Healthy Green Kitchen

Ingredients
2 cups almonds or almond flour
1 Tb. freeze-dried regular or decaf organic coffee or use espresso powder
3/4 cup organic sugar
1/2 tsp. Himalayan or sea salt
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. Process almonds, coffee, sugar, and salt in a high speed blender or food processor until fine. Transfer to a mixing bowl. If using almond flour, you can skip the blender/food processor and mix the ingredients right in your bowl.

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff.

Fold nut mixture into the egg whites. Add the vanilla and cinnamon and mix just until blended.

Spoon the batter onto your cookie sheets. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

You'll love this simple recipe, which is fancy enough for your Holiday baking, yet takes care of your waist size! Thanks Tara, for sharing such great tips with us. Tara Alley is a freelance writer from Big Sky, MT, a passionate baker and a lover of all things coffee-related. She is now working for Coffee Home Direct in Orange County, CA. You can reach her at: tara@coffeehomedirect.com

For more Christmas Baking, check out these Christmas Recipes at Fun and Food Cafe.

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Baking Christmas Cookies For Santa

My mom was an amazing baker-extraordinaire, and most of my favorite childhood memories revolving around Christmas involve baking cookies. It never got old, and whether we were decorating melt-in-your mouth sugar cookies with piping of all colors and styles or gluing on the perfect accessories to our gingerbread men, I loved it. It formed a bond with my mom that we will both cherish forever. Even now, 20+ years later, when December hits, all I want to do is go home, turn the Christmas music up, the oven on, and bake cookies with mom.

Part of the intrigue after the piles and piles of cookies were baked and decorated to child-like perfection was the finale: when we got to create a plate for Santa. Of course, Santa can eat everything and multiples of it, so we always had a giant plate and we put at least two of everything we had made on that plate. I was very protective of those cookies. No one (especially not a sneaky brother) was going to touch any one of them. They were for Santa and Santa alone. And, first thing Christmas morning, it was a mad dash to make sure that Santa had eaten them all, drank his milk and left just the appropriate amount of crumbs behind. He never failed me.

This year, I encourage you to bake cookies with your children. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than in your kitchen with flour flying and little fingers dipped in red sugar crystals? Play some of your favorite music and show your kids a new kind of Christmas magic. I guarantee that you won’t forget it and neither will they. And, after all, do you really think Santa prefers homemade cookies or those pre-packaged, cardboard cutouts? I’d venture to say he’d rather your child’s attempt at a cookie (regardless of what it tastes or looks like) than anything else.

If you’re at a loss for where to start, try the sugar cookies above. It’s a very simple recipe that my mom and I are both in love with. It’s called a sugar cookie, but don’t let that fool you. It’s got sour cream that makes it to-die-for, and I’d describe it somewhere between shortbread and sugar cookie. Plus, while the mixing and baking is fun, there’s something about decorating cookies after that I believe absolutely every child should be a part of. P.S. Don’t forget the milk!

Here are some more Christmas Cookie recipes that Santa will love!

Perfect Shortbread Cookies
Peppermint & Vanilla Butter Cookies
Raspberry Blondies (Cookie Bars)
Chocolate Marshmallow Mud Cookies
Snowflake Sugar Cookies
Pink Meringue Cookies
Chocolate-Dipped Madeleines

This article is written by Tara Alley, who is a freelance writer from Big Sky, MT, a passionate baker and a lover of all things coffee-related. She is now living in the heart of Orange County, CA, working for Coffee Home Direct, promoting coffee makers and coffee accessories. You can reach her at: tara@coffeehomedirect.com.
Photo: iStockPhoto.com
Recipe: Allrecipes.com

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Upside Down Apple Cake

Apple Cake is a very healthy and delicious way to gobble up some dessert without much guilt. Everyone knows the nutritious value of Apples, but when you get bored eating apple slices for your snack time, try this beautiful, low-fat, low-sugar Upside Down Apple Cake. A generous serving of Caramelized apples flavored with apple cider form the base of the cake, and the actual cake topping is equally delicious and fragrant, touched with apple pie spice, non-fat buttermilk, margarine instead of butter, a bit of whole grain pastry flour, and substituting Splenda for Sugar, makes this a healthier version, without compromising at all on the taste factor.

[Recipe adapted from Woman's Day Magazine to make a healthier version; photo by Mark Thomas]

So the next time you are browsing around for a healthy dessert recipe, give this Apple Cake a fair chance. I promise you you will be pleasantly surprised. Please note that some people have their misgivings about using Splenda - if you are one of those, just go for ripe and sweet red apples and use brown sugar, but less in quantity so you can still get a cake sweet enough for dessert. You can even use some Maple Syrup or Honey as they are sweeter than sugar, but lower in calories.

This cake is actually quite dense enough, considering the use of low-fat substitutes. I think the Caramelized apples are the gem of the recipe though. As the cake bakes, the juices separated from the apples trickle in and make it nice and moist, just the way a cake should be!

Healthy Upside Down Apple Cake

Ingredients

Caramelized Apple Topping
1/2 cup splenda
1/4 cup apple cider or juice
1 Tbsp each lemon juice and light stick butter
4 medium Cortland or Fuji apples (1 1/2 lb), peeled, cored and each cut into 8 wedges

For The Cake
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) light butter, softened (or margarine)
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp apple pie spice powder (or all-spice)
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole grain pastry flour (or use regular wheat flour)
2/3 cup nonfat buttermilk

Method
Heat oven to 350ºF. You'll need a 9 x 2-in. round cake pan coated with nonstick spray.

Mix sugar and apple cider in a large nonstick skillet; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil mixture 4 minutes or until light honey color. Add lemon juice and butter; reduce heat to medium. When butter is melted, boil mixture 1 minute, until light golden. Add apples, flat sides down; cook 8 minutes, turning apples with a fork after 4 minutes, until lightly caramelized and crisp-tender when pierced with a skewer. Remove from heat and cool in skillet for 5 minutes.

Pour the apple mixture from skillet into prepared cake pan; use a fork to arrange in concentric circles. Beat butter, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, baking soda, apple pie spice and salt with a mixer in a medium bowl 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, until blended. Beat in flour and buttermilk alternately, in three additions, until batter is smooth. Pour batter over apples; spread to edge of pan. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, until a pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Invert onto a serving plate. Cool until cake is just warm, then serve. (This cake is also delicious at room temperature.)

Related Recipes
Fried Apple Pies (Empanadas)
Spiced Apple Bread
Best Homemade Apple Pie

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