After Eva's second strep/scarlet fever relapse I decided to all take sugar (except honey) completely out of her diet because it depresses the immune system and causes inflammation in the body. She was born with a corn syrup intolerance, so we have to be very careful of what she eats anyway. Of course eating that way migrated into the rest of our lives as well. First of all, it's rude to eat sweets in front of her, and it's better if we don't eat it anyway, because sugar just isn't good for you.
Eva has been off of antibiotics for 3 1/2 weeks now and hasn't had another relapse, but I like the no-sugar thing for our family, so I'm trying to stick to that as much as is humanly possible. We'll see how long it lasts, but for now it's going well. Of course there are lots of complaints and evil stares from two certain people who will remain nameless, but I'm sticking to my guns. And I'm not into artificial sweeteners either, so no Splenda or NutraSweet here. We have had sugar a couple of times since Eva's been well, but I'm trying not to make a habit of it by not have tempting things in the house and by not making things.
Monday school started, and I wanted to have a treat to send with the girls. So I made some chocolate chip oatmeal cookie bars. The chocolate chips do have sugar in them, I still have to figure out an alternative for those.
I've tried cookie recipes that use applesauce and no sweetener of any kind, but they lack flavor and are like globs of almost raw dough. I decided to try using honey instead, which presents challenges because it's a liquid. You have to use less honey than sugar, because it's sweeter than sugar. Everything I've read says use 3/4 of a cup of honey per 1 cup of sugar called for in the recipe. You also have to use less liquid if there is liquid in the recipe. I couldn't find anything clear on this. Some say 1/4 less liquid per cup of honey that you use, some say 2 tablespoons less. The original cookie recipe which I changed quite a bit calls for 2 tablespoons of milk so I just left it out altogether. I also added in an extra 1/4 cup of flour and 1/2 a cup of oats and substituted half of the butter for coconut oil.
I've tried cookie recipes that use applesauce and no sweetener of any kind, but they lack flavor and are like globs of almost raw dough. I decided to try using honey instead, which presents challenges because it's a liquid. You have to use less honey than sugar, because it's sweeter than sugar. Everything I've read says use 3/4 of a cup of honey per 1 cup of sugar called for in the recipe. You also have to use less liquid if there is liquid in the recipe. I couldn't find anything clear on this. Some say 1/4 less liquid per cup of honey that you use, some say 2 tablespoons less. The original cookie recipe which I changed quite a bit calls for 2 tablespoons of milk so I just left it out altogether. I also added in an extra 1/4 cup of flour and 1/2 a cup of oats and substituted half of the butter for coconut oil.
They turned out pretty well. A little more cakey than I'd like, which kind of surprised me because of how much liquid was used, but the next day were a lot more moist. I need to play with the recipe a bit, maybe less oats and more flour or less of both. Less baking time maybe. I also want to bake them into individual cookies and see how that works out. They taste very good, I'd just like them to be more dense and chewy. I need to hire some scientists to figure it out.
Honey Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 stick (1/2 cup) organic butter
1/2 cup organic coconut oil
1 1/3 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Butter or spray a 9 x 11 inch pan.
3. Beat together the butter, coconut oil and honey until creamy.
4. Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined.
5. Sift the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking soda and salt together.
6. Slowly add to the butter mixture and mix until combined.
7. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips by hand.
8. Pour into the pan.
9. Bake for 30 minutes.
10. Cool completely and cut into bars.
5 Notes:
Yummm! I am trying to keep sugar out of our house too. It isn't easy. Wish Harrison's alligies it would be way better to not have sugar anyway. I am going to make these today!
Are the any left?? ;)
p.s. Have you ever considered stevia?
Yes, we have quite a few left, come on over!
I have considered stevia, but you can't really do this type of cooking with it because you use so little of it.
True. It's not really for baking, just sweetening.
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