CAROLYNFS ALMOND COOKIES

CAROLYNF'S ALMOND COOKIES *
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup granular Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 cup almond flour (about 4 ounces)
1/3 cup vanilla whey protein powder (1 scoop)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 1/2 ounces Lindt 70% cocoa bar, coarsely chopped, optional

Blend the butter, Splenda, vanilla and egg with an electric mixer at least until somewhat blended. The butter doesn't seem to blend very well with the egg but it won't matter. Mix the almond flour, whey protein powder and baking powder. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the butter mixture on low speed. Fold in the chocolate, if using.

Make 18-22 cookies using a 2 teaspoon cookie scoop and place them on a silicone or parchment-lined baking sheet. Flatten the dough balls slightly. The dough is very soft and sticky so you may want to cover the dough with a piece of wax paper to press them. Bake at 350?about 9 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 18-22 cookies

* The recipe that Carolyn posted was actually for chocolate chip cookies but I left out the chips. It didn't make sense to call the chocolate chip cookies when mine had no chocolate in them.

Cookies made without chocolate chunks:
With granular Splenda:
Per Cookie: 96 Calories; 9g Fat; 3g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; .5g Dietary Fiber; 1.5g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Cookie: 94 Calories; 9g Fat; 3g Protein; 1.5g Carbohydrate; .5g Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carb

Cookies made with chocolate chunks:
With granular Splenda:
Per Cookie: 131 Calories; 11g Fat; 4g Protein; 4.5g Carbohydrate; 1.5g Dietary Fiber; 3g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Cookie: 129 Calories; 11g Fat; 4g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 3g Net Carbs

This is CarolynF's tweaked version of Maria's recipe that she posted at Low Carb Friends. The recipe didn't say how to mix the dough so I used my electric mixer. After seeing how the dough came out, I think that it might work fine to just dump everything into the bowl and mix it at once. I would still combine the dry ingredients in another bowl first though so that the baking powder is evenly distributed. Using my 2 teaspoon cookie scoop, I got 22 cookes rather than just 18 like Carolyn did. I was able to fit them all on one baking sheet because they don't really spread much while baking. Mine came out about 2 inches in diameter or about the size of a thick vanilla wafer. These are very nice, soft cookies that are good even without the chocolate. The texture reminds me of Chinese restaurant almond cookies so I might add some almond extract next time. I might also coat them with a mixture of cinnamon and Splenda for a Snickerdoodle version sometime. Click the photo to see a close-up.

Update 2/11/12: Someone mentioned recently in an email that she used my Magic Peanut Butter Pudding as frosting for a little cake that she'd made. That gave me the idea to use some to make peanut butter sandwich cookies and they were very tasty. If you try that, you'll have to refrigerate the cookies if you're not eating them right away after filling with the frosting. One batch of frosting made about 4-5 filled cookies. I didn't fill mine all at once so I don't recall exactly how many I got.

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