Last Sunday,  Mike and I spent more than 2 hours shoveling out my car from the infamous "Nemo" Blizzard. I was not about to hop in the car and lose my precious, hard earned parking spot by taking a tiny 5 minute drive to the grocery store. So I loaded up my backpack and hiked down the hill to grab some much needed groceries. Upon arriving at Star Market, I was quite surprised to see that the grocery store was still pretty cleared out from Thursday's feeding frenzy of Somerville/Cambridge residents stocking up for the end of the world, aka NEMO! After spending way too much time pacing up and down the aisles trying to decide what to get, I ended up loading my backpack with enough ingredients to make a healthy Eat Fit not Fat entree for Sunday dinner (stay tuned for next week's blog post) and to whip up approx. 48 chewy oatmeal bourbon soaked raisin cookies.  Now, without further ado,

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

You will need: The most important ingrediant- Bourbon/Whisky, raisins, unsalted butter, unsweetened applesauce, dark brown sugar, salt, 1 egg, 1 large egg white, milk, vanilla extract, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and oats

You will need: Bourbon/Whiskey (the most important ingredient!), raisins, chocolate chips, unsalted butter, unsweetened applesauce, dark brown sugar, salt, 1 egg, 1 large egg white, milk, vanilla extract, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and oats

You will notice that I did not use any oil in this recipe. I substituted the oil with unsweetened applesauce. Honestly, we really couldn't tell the difference. I've heard applesauce is a great substitute for oil in many sweet treat  recipes. I also encourage you to go make yourself a tasty cocktail while baking these treats, I mean the bourbon is already on the counter... 🙂 (Calories don't count while you're cooking, right?)

Soak your raisins in 2 tablespoons of whiskey or bourbon and it stand while you prepare the batter.

The raisins enjoying their bourbon bath

In a separate bowl, pour your whiskey or bourbon over your raisins and let it stand while you assemble your batter.

Beat the butter, applesauce, brown sugar, granulated sugar and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through.

adding ingred.         

Then beat the egg and egg white , milk and vanilla into your mixture.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon, add to the batter and beat just until flour is absorbed.

choc.raisins.oats

Gently fold in the oats, bourbon soaked raisins and chocolate chips.  ( I decided to add a half of a small bag of choc. chips to this recipe. I couldn't resist and it only added approx. 10 calories per cookie, give or take a few.)

stiring mix

Your dough will somewhat resemble this beautiful masterpiece above.

cookie sheets

Use 2 spoons to scoop out the batter by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, 1 1/2 inches apart. I ended up using a heaping teaspoon and my cookies came out a bit smaller, hence 48 cookies in my batch. I used parchment paper to protect my cookies from sticking. Added bonus- no calories in parchment paper! The cookies slide off the parchment paper when baked, making clean up of your cookie trays super easy.

Bake until the cookies are set but still soft in the centers, and beginning to brown on the edges 17-20 minutes.

photo (5)

Now go enjoy a cookie with your bourbon or whiskey cocktail, you deserve it!

Directions

Make this "Cook Yourself Thin" recipe. Makes about 40 (2 1/2-inch) cookies

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/cook-yourself-thin/recipes/chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies

Calories per cookie: 116

( I was able to get approx 48 cookies from my batch)

A couple facts from Google:

Au Bon Pain Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookie: 290 calories

McDonald's Oatmeal Raisin Cookie: 150 calories

Mrs. Field's Chocolate Oatmeal Raisin Cookie: 280 calories

Entenmann's Oatmeal Raisin Cookie: 160 calories

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons whiskey or rum
2/3 cup raisins
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup natural unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups oats (not instant)

I added a half bag of chocolate chips to my cookies