low-fat oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

happy weekend! i am so glad its finally the weekend! its a bit chilly in the house. but i think i have very poor blood circulation because i am always cold. however, today, with the faint scent of warm cookies fresh from the oven, my body is not shivering as much in this unseasonably cold april.

today, i remade some old favorites, including some chocolate cookies with chocolate/vanilla chips and a mini version of my sisters favorite low-cal low-fat strawberry pie.

doesnt everything look cuter mini sized?

the latest edition of my baking includes oat-meal chocolate chip cookies - low fat - and dare i say, still pretty tasty?

when i found my recipe of choice, i was aghast! 4 dozen cookies called for 1 cup of butter. now 1 cup of butter doesnt sound great, but doesnt sound like it will kill you. but when i realized that 1 cup of butter was not 1, but 2 T-W-O sticks of butter, i had a mini-heart attack. i could NOT let my baked goods kill my friends! in my mind, i quickly adjusted the recipe, deciding to substitute something in place of all the butter, for the sake of all my friends!

now baking low fat is no simple task, mind you. in addition to getting all the accurate proportions of everything, you need to know how much butter to cut out, with what substitute, and the same goes for the eggs. i used 2 tablespoons of apple sauce in place of 1 1/2 (ONE AND A HALF - no joke) sticks of butter. keeping a little bit of the butter is important to hold the cookie together and for the sake of taste. its a pretty impressive feat that we were able to cut out 75% of the butter. also, i used 1 egg and 1 egg's equivalent in egg whites, decreasing the total cholesterol in the cookies. instead of the full cup and a half of flour, i substituted some whole wheat flour in there. they turned out quite good actually. they were sweetened with the applesauce, so i could have gone a little less with the sugar, which is something ill watch for next time. but overall, cutting out about 1250 calories and 135 grams of fat in 4 dozen cookies is worth it! i may adjust the recipe a bit more, but again, i didnt have much time between thinking up the recipe in my head and executing. tough job, being a baker!

anyhow, heres the recipe. please feel free to play around with it and get back to me with your thoughts on this.

Ingredients
* 1/2 stick of butter (4 teaspoons), softened
* 2 tablespoons of applesauce
* 1 cup packed light brown sugar
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 egg and 1 egg equivalent of egg substitute
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 cups all-purpose white flour
* 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 3 cups quick-cooking oats
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, apple sauce, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flours and baking soda; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

straight from the oven, the applesauce taste was stronger and it was more noticeable that something was different with the recipe. however, once i tried a cookie the morning after, it just tasted like a simple cookie. perhaps the temperature brings out the flavor of the applesauce more. so dont worry about your cookies if they taste a little different right out of the oven, once the cookies cool, your cookies taste pretty darn good!

this was definitely one of my worries when i made my low fat brownies, as i thought the brownies tasted too fruity. perhaps i will wait until the brownie cools down to try it next time. or ill try substituting yogurt instead of applesauce. i think applesauce is pretty good for less chocolatey baked goods such as banana bread, carrot cake (the low fat version also calls for crushed pineapples), and perhaps even cranberry white chocolate chip cookies!

bon appetit!

on a side note, i will make an increased effort to bake low-fat goodies for everyone. with the summer coming, i know it wouldnt hurt for us to eat a little healthier for bikini season!! think healthier, happier you!