Magic-doodles - the superman of cookies

Geeky snickerdoodle by day, daring choco-doodle by night -- a hero with both glasses and a cape (wow I may have gotten carried away here).

If you read the "about me" blurb to the left, then you saw the "low-impact/high-yield" verbage. What the shave, right? While it sounds like a super healthy, super smart, Whole Foodsian phrase it simply means: how can I make versions of everything my family and I love healthier without sacrificing taste (and without spending $1000 a week on food or getting a degree in nutrition)? Essentially I want what every bargain hunter does - the most bang for my buck. Soooo, years ago I fell in love with a Cooking Light recipe for snickerdoodles. It was back in the day when I was primarily concerned with calories and not much else. Now I have to get all Sherlock Holmes about gluten and calories and sugar.

Well a few months ago I re-visited this recipe and substituted my favorite gluten-free flour mix made by Pamela's Products. I LOVED it! Thin, crispy, cinammon-y and still what I term "low impact." I did not feel bad for eating these cookies (other than that there's still more processed sugar than I'd like). Not satisfied there wasn't more fun to be had, I returned to the lab one more time because I was craving chocolate chip cookies but didn't want to "take the hit" with my classic recipe and ingest all the gluten and calories it entails. So I thought to myself, "why can't I take the snickerdoodle recipe but skip the "snicker" part and sub in some mini semi-sweet choco chips? A-ha! FLASH OF GENIUS! The choco-doodle was born.

I just want to let you know that sharing my magic cookie recipe is an act of love because it's been fun acting all mysterious and brilliant when people eat them and I secretly know they're yummy but for much better stats than "not so magical cookies." But I feel the world needs this...so here goes. Hope ya'll enjoy these as much as we have (and I also hope I didn't over-sell them like movie trailers do a lot of times and you can't help but feel disappointed and annoyed at the end of the movie).

Magic-doodles (can also be made gluten free or as Choco-Doodles)

Yield: 42 cookies (serving size: 1 cookie)
1 3/4  cups  all-purpose flour (can substitute gf flour mix)

ingredients

• 1/2  teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2  teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1  cup sugar
• 1/4  cup butter, softened
• 1  tablespoon corn syrup (I've substituted agave as well)
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 1  large egg
• 3  tablespoons sugar
• 2  teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ** can add 1 cup or amount desired of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips for "Choco-doodles" version instead of cinnamon/sugar mixture
• Cooking spray

directions

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar, stirring with a whisk. Combine 1 cup of sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add the corn syrup, vanilla, and egg; beat well. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beating just until combined. Cover and chill for 10 minutes. Combine 3 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon, stirring with a whisk.With moist hands, shape dough into 42 (1-inch) balls. Roll balls in sugar mixture. Place balls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Flatten balls with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 375° for 5 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft). Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

nutritional info

Calories: 54 (22% from fat)

Fat: 1.3g (sat 0.7g,mono 0.1g,poly 0.4g)

Protein: 0.7g

Carbohydrate:10.1g

Fiber: 0.2g

Cholesterol: 8mg

Iron: 0.3mg

Sodium: 28mg

Calcium: 3mg

 

Cooking Light, APRIL 2003 (recipe from allrecipes.com)