February 2010 - Cookies

Cookies, one of my favorite desserts, maybe not a food category but lets devout the whole month to cookies. Is there anything better than a warm cookie just out of the oven? They are still kind of doughy and gooey and just melt in your mouth. I have been making cookies since I was a little kid, with my mom’s help, and I never grow tired of them or creating a new kind. Growing up I was taught to make them using the traditional ingredients; butter, sugar and white flour. When I started eating healthy I had to convert my favorite cookie recipes to use better ingredients. I am proud to say I have successfully converted almost all my favorite childhood cookie recipes to a healthier version and along the way created many more new and interesting cookies.

My preferred and favorite sweetener to use in dessert recipes is brown rice syrup. It is made from whole grain brown rice that is cooked down to create a thick syrup. Being that it is predominately maltose, the least reactive sugar there is, it does not spike your blood sugar level. Regular sugar is sucrose, the most disruptive sugar, that wrecks havoc with your whole system. White sugar has no nutritional value and it spikes your blood sugar level, eaten over time this is detrimental to your health. It has been linked to such diseases as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, migraine headaches, tooth decay,
hypertension, digestive diseases and many more.

Most people ask "Is there a one to one conversion to substitute brown rice syrup for sugar in a regular recipe?" The answer is no. Brown rice syrup is a liquid, white sugar is a dry ingredient, so in order to substitute you have to make many changes to the recipe. Most of my childhood favorite cookie recipes I took and changed a lot. And it took a few tries to get the taste and texture similar to the original. Here is one of my original cookie recipes that is exceptionally delicious. Serve it at your next party or make it for your sweetie for Valentines.