Fantastic Food Find Friday

Food Find Recipe Edition: Ginger Snaps

So it’s getting cold and the holidays are just around the corner…lots of baked goods are coming, right? Lots of them. I’m a lover of all things sweet and when I bake I end up eating half the batch of whatever comes out of the oven, so I really try to make healthy alterations to most recipes.

One of my favorite holiday foods is ginger bread, ginger snaps, ginger cookies…okay, you get it…I love ginger baked goods. I found a recipe (and then made a few of my own alterations) that takes almost all the fat out of ginger snaps and the cookies are fantastic. This recipe makes close to a million little cookies so feel free to half it J.

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 4 tablespoons molasses (I use sorghum molasses from my husband’s family farm!)

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Place parchment paper on cookie sheets.
• Sift together the flour, ginger, allspice and baking soda, set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Stir in the applesauce and molasses. Add dry ingredients to the molasses mixture and mix until just blended.
• Roll teaspoons of dough into balls. Place the balls on the parchment paper.
• Grease a spatula and smash down balls of dough so they are flat.
• Bake for 12 to 15 for crisp cookies.
• Cool on wire racks.

These bad boys are only about 55 calories for THREE COOKIES and have just a trace amount of fat.

Spice it up! These crispy snack cookies with a hot cup of tea are fantastic on a cold fall afternoon or evening.

Enjoy!