What’s a fun day of Christmas cookie baking without a good Christmas playlist?!
No worries, I have one for you.
Just scroll down to the very bottom {if you are reading this through email, click here to see/listen to the playlist}… You should see a little Spotify app with some songs in there. Just press play and there you go 
This is what I listened to today when I spent 3 and a half hours baking cookies.
Not a very productive day for work but a very happy day for me {Wednesday is my cooking/baking day}
One of the cookies I made today was a snickerdoodle
I was trying to make them easier and a little bit healthier.
Cream of tartar & shortening are two common ingredients for snickerdoodles, but most people don’t keep cream of tartar just hangin’ around and oh my gosh please don’t use shortening!
So here’s my adaptation…
I like
They were a little more time consuming than regular drop cookies, but I wanted them to be Christmasy so I used red & green sugar + cinnamon to roll them in.
Now, honestly, I can’t remember the last time I made or ate a snickerdoodle, so I can’t 100% compare these to regular.
But they were delicious
Lots of cinnamon flavor, chewy, and perfectly sweet
I used some cream cheese in place of the butter {1 TBSP reduced-fat cream cheese is 70 calories, 1 TBSP butter is 100} to help cut back on the fat & calories in these babies.
And I really liked the texture of these.
I hate using fruit purees to replace the fat in cookies because it makes them cakey – not ideal for my cookie preferences
The cream cheese keeps the texture butter gives to cookies.
These are adapted from a chocolate chip cookie recipe in the cookbook Nourish {which I love!}.
I went ahead and used 100% white whole wheat flour, omitted the chocolate chips, and added some cinnamon. All of which were good decisions in my opinion. Let me know what you think if you try these…
Snickerdoodles
Keywords: bake dessert whole wheat soy-free nut-free healthier Christmas cookie
Ingredients (32 Cookies)
- 4 TBSP {1/2 stick} unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup reduced-fat cream cheese
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3 TBSP sugar {colored if you want} + 1.5 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, cream cheese, and brown sugar together for about 1-2 minutes. Add in the vanilla and egg yolks. Beat for 1 minutes until completely incorporated.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add half flour mixture into the butter mixture. Beat for about 30 seconds until mixed in. Add remaining half of flour, and beat until completely incorporated {about 1-2 minutes}.
Transfer dough to the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a baking sheet lightly with non-stick spray or oil.
Stir together the 3 tablespoons sugar + 1.5 tsp cinnamon in a shallow bowl {if you do two colors, use 1.5 TBSP green sugar + 3/4 tsp cinnamon and 1.5 TBSP red sugar + 3/4 tsp cinnamon}.
Shape tablespoon sized scoops of dough into balls; mash slightly into small disks. Coat with the cinnamon sugar.
Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheet about 1-2 inches apart, and bake in preheated oven for 6 minutes. Rotate pans, and bake an additional 2-3 minutes. Let cool on pan for 3 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Store in an air-tight container for up to 5 days.
Nutrition Facts per cookie:
71 calories, 2.4g fat (1.4g saturated), 11.9g carbohydrates, 0.6g fiber, 1.1g protein
Shared on 
More cookies tomorrow