A Facebook friend mentioned that she really likes the recipes on skinnytaste.com so I took a peek. The recipes are relatively low-fat and include nutrition information, including Weight Watchers points. Unlike many supposedly "healthy" recipes, most of these actually do contain real food ingredients. I'd rather use less of something real, like butter, than to substitute some chemical-ridden substance like "low fat margarine". For instance, this cookie recipe uses real butter but only two tablespoons worth in the whole recipe. Last week I made chocolate chip cookies and they used two STICKS of butter.
So, how do they taste? Pretty darn fantastic, actually.
Here is the link to the original recipe and I encourage you to take a look at it. Gina Homolka is the author, recipe developer and photographer at skinnytaste and she does a good job with the photos, something I don't even attempt.
Original recipe:
Pumpkin Spiced Oatmeal Pecan Cookies
Below is the recipe as I made it. I'm including it here for future easy access as I know I'll be making these often.
Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (I used organic)
- 2 cups oats (calls for quick oats; I whirled regular, organic oats in the blender a couple of seconds)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice *
- 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature (called for unsalted, I only had salted and it was fine)
- 1/2 cup sugar (I used organic)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, unpacked (I usually use organic but had some regular I wanted to use up.)
- 1 large egg (organic)
- 6 tablespoons canned pumpkin (not pie filling; I used organic)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I make my own)
- 3/4 raisins (organic)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. The original recipe calls for two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or a silpat. I just have one large, airbake cookie sheet so I used that. I did recently purchase some parchment paper so I put that on the cookie sheet. I did successive batches but the cookies came off the parchment so easily that I used the same sheet for the whole recipe.
In medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pumpkin spice and cinnamon.
In large bowl, with a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, followed by the pumpkin and vanilla extract. Working by hand, stir in the flour and oats mixture until just combined and no white streaks of flour remain. Stir in raisins (original recipe calls for pecans; chocolate chips or dried cranberries would be good, too).
Drop one tablespoon of dough at a time on prepared cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes or until cookies become light brown at the edges. Allow to cool on cookie sheet a couple of minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
They are sweet and chewy and even have some nutritional value. In fact, with all those oats and raisins, I think you'd be justified in having them for breakfast.
*I didn't have pumpkin pie spice so I substituted:
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
That equals 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice and is a handy thing to know if you are out of it.
