sugarless cookies for santa

Countdown to Christmas: Day 9

Whenever I bake I look for alternatives to refined white sugar.  I’ve used cane sugar, honey, agave nectar, maple syrup, molasses... all sorts of things.  But the biggest challenge I always have is baking with Splenda.  I find it takes some recipe fiddling to get it just right.  I was determined this year to make something that my diabetic friends would be able to eat.  So I set out to make sugarless sugar cookies.

I’ll be honest, when I first took them out of the oven I was ready to give up in disaster as I thought I had ruined them.  But after I cooled off and so did they I gave them a shot and realized that they tasted amazing!  In fact, they were better than any regular sugar cookie I’d had before.  So if you’re up for a challenge and a baking leap of faith give these a try.  I know that’s not my best sales pitch, but they really are good.  Just put on some of your favourite Christmas music and relax.  Baking always goes better with a happy person behind the spoon.

ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup splenda
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 cup whole grain pastry flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

for the icing:

• 2 parts splenda
• 1 1/2 parts cornstarch
• 1 part milk

Take your butter out and leave it on the counter until it’s room temperature.  Don’t rush it or it will just make things harder.  Using an electric mixer beat your butter until it’s light and creamy.  Add in your splenda, egg, vanilla & milk and beat it again until it’s thoroughly mixed.

Add your flour, salt & baking powder to the butter mixture and stir with a spatula until it comes together into a dough.  Put the dough in the fridge for at least an hour to chill.

When the dough is nice and cold pull it out of the fridge.  Flour a cleaned work surface and roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick.  Using your favourite cookie cutters cut out the shapes and place on a cookie sheet.  Repeat with the extra dough until none is left.

Bake at 375F for 8 minutes.  Don’t be alarmed when you take it out if it’s a bit bubbly.  I have yet to figure out why but that happens when you bake with splenda sometimes.

For the icing mix together 2 parts of splenda, 1 1/2 parts cornstarch & 1 part milk.  (I used 4 tbsp splenda, 3 tbsp cornstarch & 2 tbsp milk).  I really suck at icing cookies so instead of trying to be perfect I do the “drizzle & splatter” artistic effect.  For festive colours mix in a few drops of green or red food colouring.

This year Santa will appreciate the effort.