Post by Emily on Dec 16, 2012 14:56:06 GMT -5
If you want to make Christmas cookies this year that are actually healthy, and that you could actually eat staying on plan, try these recipes. I just made these with my little siblings, and they had so much fun with them.
I used two different cookie recipes and an icing recipe, and tweaked them just a little bit:
Butter Cookies - www.elanaspantry.com/butter-cookies/
Gingerbread Cookies - comfybelly.com/2010/12/gingerbread-cookies/#.UMus7ZPjnKw
Cream Cheese Frosting - recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=179345
I used a few shakes of nustevia extract powder in all of the recipes to replace the other sweeteners (maybe 8 shakes in each recipe - adjust to your taste), and that worked perfectly. You could also make a batch for your kids using honey (I made a separate batch of butter cookies for the little kids like this).
I used the same method for gingerbread cookies as the butter cookies - using the food processor, and rolling the dough between parchment paper. Make sure you keep the dough very well chilled, or else the cookies will smash together when you try to put them on the pan. I chilled mine, cut out cookie shapes, and stuck it back in the freezer before moving to the pan while I worked on the next piece of dough. That seemed to work best.
I also skipped the extra crisping time in a warm oven in the gingerbread cookie recipe. They seemed to crisp just fine to me, and I wanted to save time and oven space.
You might want to eat them the same day you frost them, because of all the dairy in the frosting which won't keep well on the counter, and they could get soggy after sitting for a long time.
You could make the dough ahead of time and freeze, or even freeze the baked cookies if you want, and pull them out when you're ready to use them!
It was so great to have some real Christmas cookies this year, and they're gluten-free, as a bonus for those of us with gluten sensitivities. These cookies are so great as a healthy, delicious, traditional treat this season.