Ever have one of those days? I am having one today. I have had a recipe for Homemade Molasses Bear Paw Cookies bookmarked to bake for quite a long time now. You can find it here. After my last fail at making similar cookies, my sister had shared this one with me, thinking that it might be a better option.
I love molasses cookies. My mom made wonderful ones. We never went home for a visit but what a tin full of molasses cookies was waiting for us. I will always equate mom with those special treats, and I strongly suspect that I will never ever be able to bake any as good as the memory of the taste of hers, especially now that she is no longer with us. By the way, these first two cookie photos are not the Bear Paws . . .
These are the bear paws and they were an unmitigated disaster. The dough was very sticky, but hers also looked quite sticky. I decided to use my piping bag, not wanting to get my hands all covered in goo. So that is what I did. I used baking parchment to hopefully keep them from sticking to the pan. It didn't work. These cookies spread out flat, flat, flat . . . and only puffed up a little bit. They resemble bear paws in no way whatsoever, and they stuck to the baking paper like crazy. In short I don't recommend this recipe as written. It needs some work done on it. Half of each cookie was getting left on the pan. Also they were gooey, not cookie like. The consistency was almost glue like. Not a good cookie at all. I know my baking and I know my cookies. I was quite miffed actually as Molasses is a very hard to come by ingredient over here and I hate HATE wasting it! The cookies went into the bin.
By then I was wanting a cookie . . . but a good cookie, and so I baked these Lemon Oaties instead. The original recipe comes from Everyday Diabetic Recipes.
I love oatmeal cookies almost as much as I like molasses cookies, and when you throw the flavor of lemon into the mix I am in like Flynn!
It can be a bit hard to bake Diabetic recipes from a lot of online sites because the ingredients are not available here in the UK. This was a simple recipe, that didn't require anything out of the ordinary.
It did call for stick margarine, but I don't use stick margarine. I use butter. End of. Butter is a natural thing, not mechanically produced. I like natural.
The recipe makes 30 cookies so 5 TBS of butter divided by 30 means not a lot in each cookie. If I am correct, there is not a lot of difference in fat or calories between butter and margarine, although butter might have slightly more cholesterol. At least it is produced naturally, not chemically. That's my story anyways, and I'm sticking to it!
There is some sugar in these, 45g each of white and light brown sugar (1/4 cup) each, so 1/2 cup altogether. I am not sure a sugar substitute would work or not. but at only 3g of sugar per cookie, I don't think these are overly bad.
They are low carb, low GI . . . with only 70g/1/2 cup of flour in the whole recipe and 80g (1 cup) quick cooking rolled oats . . . oats are very low GI and contain fibre, which is a good thing. You could probably use white whole wheat and make them even lower in the carbs if you wanted to. We don't have white whole wheat flour here in the UK. At least not that I am aware of.
There are two egg white in the recipe, which help to give the cookies a bit of lightness and volume.
The lemon flavor comes from the addition of finely grated Lemon Zest. One full TBS. I use my microplane grater to grate it.
They are not huge cookies, but they are really delicious, and to be honest a Diabetic shouldn't be eating huge cookies anyways!
One of these cookies makes for a delicious oaty, buttery, lightly sweet, lemony treat. I think they are quite fabulous actually and I will be putting them into my regular rotation!
Yield: 30
Author: Marie Rayner
Lemon Oaties
Crisp cookies with a delicate lemon flavor that are quick and easy to make and very diabetic friendly.ingredients:
- 5 TBS butter, room temperature(or stick margarine)
- 45g soft light brown sugar (1/4 cup, packed)
- 45g granulated sugar (1/4 cup)
- 2 large free range egg whites
- 1 TBS finely grated Lemon zest
- 80g quick cooking rolled oats (1 cup)
- 70g plain flour (1/2 cup)
instructions:
How to cook Lemon Oaties
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line several baking sheets with baking paper. Set aside.
- Beat the butter, both sugars, egg whites and lemon zest together until light and creamy. Blend in the oats and flour. Don't over mix.
- Drop the dough onto the prepped baking sheets by rounded teaspoonfuls, leaving 2 inches between each.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Let stand on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
- Store in an airtight container.
I am a person who does find it really annoying when I waste ingredients, especially when they are hard to come by. I think I will stick to my mother's Molasses Cookie recipe from now on when I get a craving for Molasses Cookies. It never lets me down.
Up Tomorrow: Apple Pie Danish
