Recipe: Wheat Snickerdoodles

In my opinion, you just can't have Christmas without cookies!  However, cookies are not in the nutritious category.  With the empty calories that come with refined sugar and flour, you end up eating so many but quickly getting hungry again afterwards.  That's why I decided to try and make wheat snickerdoodles this holiday season.

I know....I know.....you're thinking who on Earth would want wheat cookies?!  Well.....why not?!  If they're still delicious, I see no problem with adding something wholesome to cookies.  My husband frequently tells me that I have a knack for sneaking in nutritious ingredients into classic favorite recipes.  It's become almost an obsession for me.  I've gone as far as to make green pea cupcakes (that will be in another post in the future).

These are not "diet" cookies.  They're cookies that allow you to indulge without completely throwing out the idea of wholesome ingredients.  Wheat flour and natural sugar are staples that I use in baking.  I do still add all purpose flour to keep the taste light, but what's Christmas without a little "cheating"! 

For this holiday season, I used unsalted butter in the cookie recipe, but I would normally use Smart Balance to cut down on some of the calories and saturated fat.  Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Wheat Snickerdoodles

1/2 cup of butter
3/4 cup of natural sugar
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3/4 cup of whole wheat flour
3/4 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/8 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of natural sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

-  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
-  Mix the flours, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  Set aside for later use.
-  Add butter and 3/4 cup of natural sugar in a stand mixer.  Cream the butter and sugar.  Since this recipe uses natural sugar, the mixture won't be quite as fluffy as it is with refined sugar.
-  Add the egg and vanilla extract to the creamed butter/sugar.  Mix until well combined.
-  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.  Once it is all incorporated, stop mixing.  You don't want to over mix.
-  Mix the 2 tablespoons of natural sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Roll the cookie dough into 1 1/2 inch balls.  Then, roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Due to the use of natural sugar, you will have to do a roll and pat to ensure that the sugar sticks to the dough.  Repeat this process for the rest of the dough.
-  Place the dough balls on a cookie sheet (about 2 inches of space between each cookie).
-  Bake for 8 minutes.  Due to varying oven temperatures, the baking time may vary a little.  Keep a close eye on these cookies, because they can burn rather easily.
-  Enjoy these cookies warm or room temperature....they're good either way!