Holiday Cookie Makeover

by The Meal Makeover Moms on November 26th, 2007

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us and the holiday season is in full swing, you may be dusting off your old recipe box as you plan for a month of baking your favorite festive treats. If that’s the case, we hope you’ll try some of our hot-off-the press cookie recipes featured in this month’s issue of Kiwi magazine. There, you’ll find five of our best-ever cookie makeovers. Perfect for cookie swaps, neighborhood parties, and family gatherings, you’ll love our sweet, better-for-you confections. Click here to check out the article (hey, we even made the cover with our Chocolaty Coconut Mini Tortes recipe).

Chocolaty Coconut Mini Tortes
Makes 2 Dozen

These super fudgy, hard-to-resist nibbles get a healthy makeover with a few smart switches. For starters, we use whole wheat flour instead of white. For the clincher, we swap the usual stick or two of butter for a healthier fat: canola oil. By using omega-3 eggs, we also up the ante on nutrition.

8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
5 large omega-3 eggs, beaten
Confectioners’ sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil or coat 24 mini muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Stir the chocolate chips and canola oil in a medium saucepan over low heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Whisk the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, and coconut in a large bowl until well combined. Whisk in the eggs until well blended. Add the melted chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared muffin cups. Bake about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes. Remove the tortes and cool. To add “snow” to the tops of each torte, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

Nutrition Information per Serving: 150 calories, 9g fat (3g saturated, 0.5g omega-3), 15mg sodium, 18g carbohydrate, 1g fiber, 2g protein

| |
4 Comments | Filed Under Desserts, Holidays, KiwiMagazine 

4 Responses to “Holiday Cookie Makeover”

  1. Karina on November 27th, 2007

    I have tried beating brown sugar with canola oil in recipes calling for beating sugar and butter, but never got to that creamy state where you start adding the rest of the ingredients (this with a pumpkin muffin recipe). Am I doing something wrong, or is it just not possible to cream brown sugar with canola oil? I hate to waste ingredients (and those muffins turned out too dry). Great work, by the way, keep it up!! Thanks.

  2. The Meal Makeover Moms on November 30th, 2007

    Hi Karina:

    Converting baking recipes from solid fat to canola oil requires a bit of experimenting, however, it is possible. Sometimes there is a texture difference – recipes using oil will usually be moister and and more cake like. Muffins, loaves and cakes tend to work well with the conversion but cookies are harder as beating sugar into solid fat aids with the leavening process and over all texture of the cookie.

    One suggestion might be to whisk all the dry ingredients first and then add in canola oil with the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined. This might help the texture as well. Since you typically only have to use about 3/4 cup of canola oil to replace 1 cup of solid fat, you can reduce trans and saturated fat and gain some healhy omega-3fats by making the switch.

    Keep experimenting and let us know what you think.

  3. Karina on February 10th, 2008

    Thanks so much for answering my question! I tried your holiday makeover cookie in Kiwi magazine and loved it… but my 7yo didn’t, which dissapointed me because we’re hosting his birthday party next saturday and one of the programmed activities will be decorating cookies. So I was thinking of making my regular sugar cookie recipe a bit healthier and substituted some of the white flour with whole wheat. I still want to substitute oil for the butter, but am wondering if corn oil will work as well as canola oil (which is hard to find right now in my country). Also, will substituting brown sugar for the white sugar make it healthier? Or is it the same thing?

  4. The Meal Makeover Moms on February 11th, 2008

    Hi Karina:

    Was it the sugar cookies you made? If so, be sure to very finely chop those almonds (best to pulse in a mini food processor) so the kids can’t see the nuts! If you choose to leave the nuts out and tweak your own recipe, you could substitute half the white flour with whole wheat. You could switch entirely to canola oil or use half oil and half butter.

    You could certainly use corn oil but canola has a better nutritional profile – what country do you live in where canola is hard to find?

    Regarding sugar, brown sugar and white sugar are not all that different in terms of nutrition. Brown sugar has a tiny amount of trace minerals but not enough to really make a significant impact on your diet. According to Shirley Corriher, in her book Cookwise, “Brown sugar contains molasses and sugars other than plain table sugar. Some of these sugars absorb moisture from the atmosphere to make baked products soft. Cookies made with brown sugar can soften upon standing.”
    So, if you want a crisp sugar cookie we suggest you stick with white granulated sugar.

    Let us know how your son’s cookie decorating birhday party goes!

Leave a Reply