Cookies?

 

My first attempt at no sugar added baking. I had been avoiding this like the plague because really, baking just does not work the same without good ol' granulated sugar. It's like the sugar in sweet baked recipes adds the caramelization and some sort of invisible culinary magic that sugar substitutes can't even come close to mimicking.

As I was stimulating the economy by shopping at Whole Foods, I came across this sweetener in the baking aisle that had the words "organic zero" on the front. I figured, if it's sold at Whole Foods, it can't be bad for you, at least according to the FDA and the healthy folk who stock Whole Foods shelves. "Organic Zero" is apparently organic erythritol, which, though it sounds like an antibiotic, is a naturally fermented and crystallized sugar alcohol. I think I read somewhere that the fermentation process is similar to how they make kombucha, but I can't really cite that as I am blogging, except as "the internet". Anyway, I thought I'd give this no-calorie sweetener a whirl, even though "sugar alcohol" usually means an unpleasant after-effect on your digestive tract. Fortunately, I did read up on a few sites that erythritol is the least irritating to your digestive tract, and Tyson and I can attest to that after sharing a batch.

I adapted an old peanut butter/chocolate chip/oatmeal cookie recipe that I came up with years ago. I've only brought myself to make two tiny batches since this "Organic Zero" crap is, like, $12.99 for a 12 oz. bag. So I can label this post "no sugar added", "healthy", but definitely NOT "budget".

Organic Zero Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 egg
1/4 cup TJ's natural salted crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup Organic Zero (plus an extra hefty sprinkling, about 2 tbsp?)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder (the baking soda and baking powder are just thrown in for good measure since they're expected to be used for baking.I really have no clue what they would do to this recipe.)
1/2 cup Sunspire Grain Sweetened Chocolate Chips

Ah yes, grain sweetened chocolate chips. They're like ordinary semi-sweets, but instead of being sweetened by refined sugars, they're sweetened with malted grains. They fit into Tyson's arbitrary rules.

Bake for however long cookies should bake. My oven is broken so I can only set it at 400 and turn it off to hit temps in the 300's. I think I baked them for 15 min.

I'd have to say, these taste just so-so when you first take a bite, but throw in an ice cold glass of Fat-Free Milk and the cookies do disappear quite quickly.