Later this month, I’ll be attending the Eat, Write, Retreat Conference in Philadelphia. I went to it two years ago when it was in DC and had a great time, so I’m looking forward to it! One of the fun things about this conference is that a lot of the sponsors send their “swag” to you ahead of time, so you have a chance to try it out before the actual event. This year, one of the sponsors is “In the Raw” and they sent us all some of their newest product: Monkfruit in the Raw. It’s the newest all-natural zero-calorie sweetener. They invited the conference attendees to make their sugar cookies and decorate them in our own style for a change to win a variety of prizes (including a KitchenAid mixer!). I’m not very patient when it comes to decorating cookies – I’ll leave that to the crafty people out there – so I took a more rustic approach to mine, topping them with a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter and crushed pretzels. The result is sweet, salty, chewy, and crunchy – they remind me of Take 5 bars (my favorite candy bar!)
Sweet N Salty Cookies
Total time
3 hours 10 mins
Author: Lauren Keating (Healthy-Delicious.com)
Serves: 12
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons unsalted sweet butter, softened
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 large egg plus 1 yolk, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup Monk Fruit In The Raw™ Bakers Bag
- ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
- 1 ounce pretzels, crushed
- In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium-high to beat the butter until fluffy, 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is incorporated for 3 minutes. Add the egg, yolk and vanilla, beating well between additions. Add the Monk Fruit In The Raw Bakers Bag and beat until just combined. Reduce the beater speed to low and gradually add the dry ingredients, beating until the mixture is clumpy. Stop blending and use a flexible spatula to complete mixing the dough by hand.
- Turn the dough out onto a counter covered with plastic wrap and divide it in half. The dough will be soft and sticky. Using plastic wrap to flatten dough, shape into two rectangles 4 to 5 inches wide by 6-inches long. Wrap dough and chill in refrigerator at least 3 hours or overnight.
- To roll, place one cookie rectangle on a floured non-stick surface. Working quickly
- lightly dust top of dough with flour and roll out with rolling pin to ¼-inch thickness and 12 x 9-inch rectangle. Using a large 3-1/2 inch cookie cutter, cut out 6 large cookies. Repeat with the second dough. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and place cookies on baking sheet about 2-inches apart. Let rest.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. When oven is hot place cookies on center rack in oven. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cookies are firm when pressed in the center and evenly pale gold in color. Let the cookies rest for 1 minute on the baking sheet. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.
- In a small saucepan, heat the chocolate chips and peanut butter until melted and smooth. Spoon ½ teaspoon of topping onto each cookie, spreading it out with the back of a spoon. Top with crushed pretzels.
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I received a sample of monkfruit in the raw as well as the basic sugar cookie recipe because I’m attending the Eat, Write, Retreat conference. I’m paying for the conference myself. It costs a small fortune, but if it’s anything like it was 2 years ago, it’s totally worth it.