Sunday 11 December 2011

Crazy Low-Fat Oaty-Nutty-Nutella cookies



Do you ever have a strange but very specific craving? Last night I was craving a chewy cookie filled with oats, nuts and Nutella. I typed "oat nut Nutella cookie recipe" into Google, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. Oh yes, I also wanted them to be low fat. So, feeling a frustration that only food cravings can cause, I took at look at my new favorite blog SkinnyTaste. It has low-fat versions of almost every delicious recipe you can think of. Sure enough, I found something tempting straight away, "Low Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies". The only problem was that I didn't have any chocolate chips, and I really wanted to use Nutella instead. So, fearing disaster, I followed the recipe, adding blitzed mixed nuts and a heapful of Nutella instead of chocolate chips at the end. I was particularly worried that the Nutella and the apple sauce would combine in a horrendous way leaving something inedible. But the mixture looked sound (just like a normal cookie mixture) so I went straight ahead.



Oh. My. God. Words cannot describe how happy I was with these cookies. They are the perfect mixture of nutty, oaty and sweet and they are delicious and wholesome at the same time. The fantastic thing about this recipe is that it contains just one tablespoon of butter, and half a cup of sugar. The sweetness and the stick-ability come from the egg and the apple sauce. I'm an absolute convert to the recipe and will make it again using all kinds of combinations. Here's my version of the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup soft brown sugar
1 egg (if you decide to double this recipe, still only use 1 egg, as in the original recipe)
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup oats
1/2 cup blitzed mixed nuts (I used almonds, hazelnuts and peanuts, but any will do)
1 heaped tablespoon of Nutella

Cream the melted butter with both sugars. Whisk together all the dry ingredients, save the nuts. Into the butter and sugar add the egg, then the apple sauce and vanilla.Beat together. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, beating all the time. When the mixture is well incorporated and sticky, stir the Nutella through with a metal spoon - it's good if it's just swirled though, not fully mixed so you get little pockets of Nutella in your cookie! Spoon dollops of the mixture (1 teaspoon each) onto a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes at 180 degrees. When they come out they should be set, but still a bit gooey in the middle. Leave to cool so they can fully set before gobbling them up.

Makes 15 delicious cookies.



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