Kriss Kross Applesauce

I’ve always loved baking (thanks to my mom and my grandmother who gave me a cookbook called “Cookies for Kids” when I was little) and, if you know me well at all, you know that I truly prefer the dough versus the final baked product.  This can be anything from any kind of cookie dough, brownie or cake batter, muffin batter, biscuit dough or basically anything else.  I’d honestly rather be served a bowl of raw cookie dough than a plate of cookies.  Some of you are absolutely disgusted right now and some of you have a huge smile on your face.  Nice either way. 

I guess I have to thank my Aunt Diane (who really isn’t related) but who was our main babysitter growing up.  She would always bake cookies with us and even let me taste every ingredient as it was going in the bowl.  I LOVED it and thought she was the coolest because she would also let me lick the bowl and beaters when we were done. MMMMMM!  I use this method whenever I take care of kids now too.  It’s great entertainment for them and a great result for your effort.  Her recipe is actually the one I use to this day but I’ve perfected it over time, not for the final cookie result, but for the taste and texture of the dough so I can enjoy a perfectly raw bite.  It’s true.

I can also thank my college roomies who indulged with me in a Sams tub of cookie dough after dinner each night.  We’d pull it out of the freezer, all grab spoons, and each take a spoonful or two or three or…  I think I probably got the award for eating the most.

However, over the past several years, I’ve realized I cannot bake without major consequences.  When there are just two people in your household, it’s just not good to have a bunch of delicious cookie dough around.  I also read the ingredient and nutritional value of the cookie dough tub you get at Sams one time and realized that in one sitting of my cookie dough splurging, I could easily consume 2 DAYS worth of fat!  And I don’t care that much about counting calories or fat or whatever else women tend to do but that not only disgusted me, it scared me a little.

So, recently, I’ve gotten majorly into substitutions and finding healthier alternatives for my favorite recipes.  I now eat more fruits and vegetables than I ever have, pay attention to eating whole grains, have trained my palette not to need as much seasoning or fat for something to taste good, and try to balance my carbs & proteins in littler meals throughout the day.  I also eat a lot of cottage cheese which I still find very bizarre.

Back to the substitutions…my favorite discovery has been unsweetened applesauce for up to 3/4 of butter in a recipe!  I had heard about this for cakes but never considered it for general use and it really works!  Not to mention, it is MUCH cheaper than butter.  I also usually always switch to whole wheat flour and if a baked recipe really doesn’t taste good that way, I use a whole grain unbleached all-purpose flour for half while keeping the other half whole wheat.  It has been fabulous!  Everything from cookies, to banana muffins, to biscuits, to whole wheat bread, to brownies, etc.  Not everything has turned out well the first time and I’ve never dared to try a sugar cookie recipe without using entirely butter but it’s on my list!

I feel so much better about cutting down the fat content and adding extra nutritional value.  Next I plan on experimenting with honey instead of sugar to see if I can get a good result.  I’m also going to see about using egg whites instead of whole eggs too but I want to take it one step at a time.  I guess all of my stuff might taste horrible now but if that is the case, I’ve totally tricked my palette and I guess that’s better for me.

Any other tricks of the trade I should know about?