Nut Free Cookies
I thought I would share my delicious nut free cookies recipe with you.
“Healthified” Cookies
1 cup SunButter
1 cup Swerve Confectioners
1 tsp stevia glycerite
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Redmond Real Salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 ChocoPerfection Bar, chopped
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and spray a cookie sheet with Coconut Oil cooking spray. Mix the sweeteners and SunButter together until smooth. Add in the egg, vanilla, salt and baking soda. Mix until smooth. Chop a ChocoPerfection bar and mix in the pieces.
Place round mounds of dough on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set in the middle of each cookie. Remove from oven and cool.
NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per cookie)
Traditional Sunflower Cookie (using Honey) = 278 calories, 11g fat, 5.1g protein, 30 carbs, 3.1g fiber
“Healthified” Cookie = 149 calories, 11g fat, 5.1g protein, 5.7 carbs, 3.7g fiber
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Dawn looks amazing too!
Maria-my husband is a chemist, and receives C&EN (Chemical and Engineering News) in the mail. They had a nice article about prebiotics, mentioned chicory, FOS, etc. and also got into a bit about gut flora and tied that into breastfeeding vs. formula. It was a pretty interesting read.
It was titled Feeding Your Gut Microbiome. It is only available with a log in currently it seems, but if I can find a public link I’ll link it up here.
Thank you!!! I would LOVE to read it!
Maria – how do you find that the “just like sugar” products do in cooking? Erythritol has the cooling effect but does not bother me at all. But stevia causes weird neuro symptoms in me, so I have to avoid it. Can I use the just like baking sugar and just omit the stevia in this recipe, or is the stevia needed to make it work? Thank you, I appreciate it.
Nope, there is no cooling effect. I think you would really like it!
Happy eating!
I actually just read a label with oligofructose on it yesterday. It was on ‘Kraft milk & Gronola bars’.It also had ‘fractionated palm kernel oil’ in it. That was the first time I had seen ‘fractionated’ oil?
I recently discovered your blog and love your recipes. I most recently made a bowl of your cream of wheat and loved it! I was skeptical about the nutmeg, but in the end that was the flavor that “made it” for me. Thank you for a satisfying breakfast treat on a cold morning!
My question is about caramelizing the inulin in the Just Like Sugar products, as in some of your candy/nougat recipes. Have you seen any research on whether the polysaccharide molecules break-down into fructose molecules in the high-heat/ caramelization process?
It is difficult to find information on this subject online, but several sources seem to lean towards the answer of “not sure, but probably”. I am curious if you have any information on diabetics testing their glucose levels after eating something made out of caramelized inulin to see if there is a noticeable gycemic surge. I would love to try some of your candy recipes, especially with Halloween upon us, but I would like to learn more about the behavior of these long-chain fructose molecules when exposed to melting temperatures. Any information you may have would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for such a wonderful, informative and fun blog!
Gabriela
Thank you for your interest gabriela!
I appreciate your kind words.
I have not read anything about heating it… Do you have any links to studies that I can read?
Thanks again!
Currently I am trying to get a handle on my Candida but Love food and love to cook. I’m having a really hard time not having any type of sugars (usually fruit would help but can’t really have that for now). Donna Gates talks a lot about Lakanto, but it’s super expensive. Do you think the Just Like Sugar could be a safe sugar alternative to give me some sweetness relief until I get a good handle on the candida? It sounds like it would for the Prebiotic properties but I’m still pretty new at this so I thought I’d ask. Thanks and love your blog!
So can I use just like sugar products and omit the stevia?
Yep Stacy, you can do that;)
RB- Just Like sugar would be a safe alternative to use if you have candida.
Happy Eating!
Hi Maria,
With respect to heating inulin and its possible breakdown into fructose, the idea came to me by looking at how agave syrup is processed (from Mary Rait’s Healthy Label Makeover: Sweet Alternatives at http://www.organicprocessing.com/opmayjune11/opmj11ingredients.htm):
“To create this syrup, the agave piña is ground up with hot water, releasing the inulin from the fiber. The remaining fiber is filtered out, leaving dilute inulin syrup, which is then processed with low heat to break down the inulin into fructose and glucose. The result is about 80 percent fructose and 17 percent glucose.”
Although this information is about very slow wet cooking, which would not apply to quick caramelization, it is still of interest in that it does break down the inulin into fructose.
I also found from Jim Mitchell in Innovations & Development at Ciranda, Inc. (at: http://coconutbliss.com/sites/default/files/Agave_Syrup_9.4.09.pdf):
“The [agave piña] syrup is processed with either high heat (primarily used in the tequila industry), low heat and extended time, or low heat and enzymes. All processes break down the inulin into fructose and glucose.”
Something good I found about the molecular breakdown as far as prebiotics are concerned (at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/fk87200341u35603/):
“Dry heating at 195 °C induced complete degradation of the fructan chains and the concomitant formation of low-molecular degradation products, most likely di-D-fructose dianhydrides. …preliminary data may point to the hypothesis that heat-treated inulin or its degradation products may cause improvements of the gut microflora superior to native inulin.”
Although possibly good for digestive purposes, my concern is how these broken down fructose molecules affect glucose levels in diabetics.
Finally, on the paper Heat-Induced Degradation of Inulin by A. Böhm, I. Kaiser, A. Trebstein and T. Henle (at:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/8pu972c42h9rma12/):
“Dry heating of inulin from chicory for up to 60 min at temperatures between 135 and 195 °C resulted in a significant degradation of the fructan ranging from 20 to 100%. … Inulin degradation must be taken into account when fructan is used as a prebiotic ingredient in thermally treated foods like bakery products.”
As you can see, I do not have any definitive proof of anything, just concerns –and a lot of articles that make me raise an eyebrow. I have spoken to various technical/medical friends who seem to think it is “logical” to assume that high heat would break the molecular bonds (perhaps explaining how a “fiber” can brown/caramelize). I was just hoping you had looked into this, or have access to better data than I have. I guess food for thought… Who knows, maybe I’ve planted a bug in your ear and I’ll soon be reading your own article about this on your blog (I hope!)
Thanks for listening.
Gabriela
Hi Maria,
I just bought your kids cookbook and these cookies are cooling on the rack — we can’t wait to try them! How many cookies should the recipe make to hit the nutritional info you’ve listed? I think we made them a little on the “large” side 🙂
I think it was 12 cookies. 🙂
Is the dough supposed to be super sticky?
Yes
I baked them, let them cool, and WOW!!! Exceeded my expectations, I am so scared I’m going to eat them all by myself in one sitting!!! Thanks for the recipe!!!
Awesome!!!
Once again Maria, you rocked it! I so appreciate the knowledge you share with us, and the yummy recipes. I and several others, have a LC/LCHF/Keto Facebook page, and I often share your posts, and teach from your book (Keto-Adapted) THANK YOU!