If you’ve ever had an authentic cowboy cookie you know they are delicious! Typically filled with chocolate chips, coconut flakes, nuts, maybe dried berries, sugar and of course butter! They are so yummy and with that ingredient list you even think hey, this actually could be good for me!
An authentic Cowboy cookie can have up to 1.5 cups butter and 1.5 cups of sugar in the entire recipe, not including the extra chocolate chips and dried fruit you can add. This leaves the cookie being in the 4-500 calorie range! Over 55g of sugar and 24g of fat per cookie! They are large cookies, typically scooped out with a 1/4 cup scoop but that’s a lot of cookie and sugar!
So in order for my cowboy to stay lean, I came up with a variation that will cut down the fat and the sugar resulting in less of a hit to those calories!
I replaced the butter in the recipe with unsweetened applesauce. This will cause the cookie to be a little more “gummy” then crunchy. I have done half butter half applesauce. That will help cut down the fat but also keep some of that cookie crunch. When you use apple sauce as a replacement you would use a 1: .5 ratio. So cut the butter in half and that’s how much applesauce you should use.
To decrease the sugar I use Monkfruit. Monkfruit is a zero calorie, naturally occurring sweetener that I love! It leaves no weird aftertaste in your mouth. The brand I use, Lakanto. This brand does have erythritol mixed in but I don’t mind. The ratio for this is 1 cup to 1 cup. I sometimes will do half sugar and half monkfruit. That is a good combo and nobody can tell the sugar has been cut in half.
Here’s my recipe for the cookie! Makes about 16 cookies!
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup Monkfruit
1 1/2 eggs
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup chopped cashews
1/2 cup dried berry of your choice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Mix Flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a bowl
In a 5 quart bowl, beat applesauce on medium speed until smooth (shouldn’t take long-20-30 seconds. Gradually beat in the monkfruit until combined. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until combined. Ad chocolate chips, oats, coconut, and pecans.
Fopr each cookie, drip 1/4 cup dough onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Space at least 2-3 inches apart. I put 6 cookies on each sheet pan.
Bake in oven 17-20 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Remove cookies to rack to cool
Enjoy!
Calories per cookie: 222/ Fat 10g/ Carb 33g/Sugar 14g/Protein 3g