The Perpetual Feast

I am the original cookie monster.  Tell me there’s a holiday party and I’m there with a plate of cookies.

I can’t say I never met a cookie I didn’t like.  I’ve had a couple of cookie experiments that were barely good enough for dog biscuits (like the cookies in the lower left side of the photo above, a failed attempt at a low fat peanut butter cookie).  But I love cookies for much the same reason I love muffins – they re nice measured units.  You can eat them and know just how many fat grams you are eating. Eat a 3 gram cookie and have 3 grams of fat; take 2 and have 6 grams.  You can easily fit them in as a snack.  I try to keep my cookies between 2 and 4 grams of fat/cookie.  One of my Principles is that snacks should be 4 grams and under, so that you can eat lots of them.  You can also freeze most cookies, so you can create a freezer full of carefully-packed snacks to take out when the midnight munchies hit.  And of course, most of the time cookies are delicious.

Chocolate Cherry Chewies are the cookie that everyone says “these can’t be low fat” about.  They are VERY chocolaty, the outside is kind of crisp and the inside is chewy and melty.  They keep and freeze well.  The original recipe came from Cooking Light.

Chocolate Cherry Chewies

1  cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2/3 cup dried tart cherries
3 Tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips (I used really good chocolate to give it that extra flavor)
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degree.s  Coat baking sheets lightly with cooking spray.

Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Place butter and sugar into large bowl of a mixer and beat at high speed until well-blended.  Add vanilla and egg and beat well.  Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add flour mixture.  Be sure to scrape bowl and beaters.  Fold in cherries and chocolate chips.  This makes a very stiff dough that you can almost shape with your hands.

Drop by tablespoonful 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or just until set (tops will begin to crack). Remove from oven and cool on pan for 5 minutes to allow cookies to firm up. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.  Makes 30 cookies with 2.7 grams of fat/cookie.

Variation: I often make this with dried sweetened cranberries rather than cherries, because the cherries are sometimes hard to find.  They’re just as good.