Experimenting with Whole Wheat Cookies

Tonight I had a craving for something warm and sweet, so I decided to make cookies with ingredients that I had on hand in my apartment (I was in my pajamas and didn't want to go out to the store). I was also feeling slightly guilty for my indulgences this weekend and desired a cookie that was not completely devoid of nutritional value. Thus I decided to experiment with baking a batch of sugar cookies made with whole wheat flour instead of white flour. I also decided to substitute some of the sugar in the recipe with Splenda to cut down on calories as well.

The cookies are delicious, but they don't seem to be holding together very well. They are quite crumbly; I think they could have benefited from the addition of some shortening (which I didn't have on hand). If you try this recipe, I might throw in 1/2 cup of shortening, though I'm not going to include it in the recipe below because I didn't use any. The whole wheat flour gives the cookies a crunchier texture than white flour would have, which is different but kind of nice, and the nutmeg and cinnamon make them taste really Christmas-y to me for some reason.

I enjoyed these cookies with a nice hot cup of chai tea.


Whole Wheat Sugar-Spice Cookies
(makes about 36 cookies)

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup Splenda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• cinnamon

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients up through the egg (everything except the flour and the cinnamon). Mix well with a blender. Stir in the flour. The dough will be crumbly and kind of grainy (though perhaps not so much if you've used shortening). Cover and chill for 30 minutes. Use your hands to squeeze the dough into 1-inch balls. Place the dough-balls about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Sprinkle a dash of cinnamon on each one and press down on it with the flat side of a fork. Bake cookies at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Let stand for a couple minutes before removing from cookie sheets.