Christmas Cookies and Pies and stars in your eyes

I got a question this am from a friend who has a friend who has a friend that is diabetic, about cookies.    It was typical, until this year, that I made all sorts of cookies and truffles every Christmas with the intent of giving them all away to my friends and family.  And some of them even made it out.  But mostly I ate them.  So obviously this year, my first officially diabetic Holiday season, making a bunch of cookies and truffles wasn't in the cards and I've had to revamp my gift giving ideas.  So you're all getting steak rub.  There, I said it.... 


Shortbread is great for diabetics, although kind of high in fat.  It's low in sugar though, even if  all the butter kind of kills it.  Although you don't eat this stuff all day, every day, nor should you.  But I might.  So I am going to tweak things around and try and get it a little lower in the fat arena. 

I'm a fan of...say it...neufchatel cheese.  Not only for the fact that it's cool to say....come on, say it with me...neuf-cha-tel.  Although I must admit when I just went to check just now that I spelled it right, I find that I have cream cheese, not...say it...neufchatel cheese.  Ah well, cream cheese has 9g fat for 2 tbsp (...say it...neufchatel is half I think so 4.5g), compared with a whopping 22g fat for butter.    That and butter is like nine dollars a pound and cream (...say it...neufchatel) cheese is like a dollar fifty.  'nuff said

So here follows the recipe I'm going to use today to make some lovely shortbread cookies.  Thanks Linda!  Link to original recipe is below this post.  I'll put my tweaks in red throughout the recipe, as usual.  I should also add that I've not made this particular recipe but I'm a fan of allrecipes.com and this one comes at nearly 5 stars from about 549 reviews.  I'm going to use the handy dandy cookie press I hooked up this year at a yard sale but you could do anything, even roll them out and use a cookie cutter if you want, making sure to reduce the cooking time, Just don't roll them thin, that's no bueno.  They need to be a little on the thick side, like 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick.  I likes me the thick cookie and these just don't cook well if they are thin.  I'm going to make 2 batches, one with just....say it....neufchatel cheese, no butter, and one with half and half butter and...say it...neufchatel cheese.  As usual, if you cut the sugar and replace with sucralose, use only half the called for amount.   

Melt - In - Your - Mouth Shortbread

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened *replace half or all the butter with...say it...neufchatel or cream cheese
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar *use 1/4 cup sucralose .  Taste the dough, if it's not sweet enough, just add more 
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour*try rice flour  BUT, if using regular flour, use white flour not whole wheat.
• zest of a whole lemon, or orange is awesome
• try adding some unsweetened cocoa powder here, maybe a couple tablespoons 
• No liquids!  Trust me.  It's bad.  And you don't want to eff up your awesome cookies.  So no vanilla extract or anything like that.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). I'm using a cookie press here, so will decrease the heat to 340 degrees, these do better low and slow.
2. Whip butter with an electric mixer until fluffy.  Beat the hell out of it. The more you beat, the better your cookie texture.  Plus it's gratifying to beat the hell out of something this time of year, since you clearly can't beat the hell out of the dude in that giant stupid truck who flipped you off.....aaaahhhh.....ya, so focus, back on track. Stir in the confectioners' sugar*splenda, cornstarch, and flour. Beat on low for one minute, then on high for 3 to 4 minutes. Drop cookies by spoonfuls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Roll out and cut, or use cookie press.  PLUS if you roll or use cookie press, you can have more than one cookie, bc you will have made smaller cookies than the recipe calls for.   Score!
3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Watch that the edges don't brown too much.  These things don't brown really at all, you want to pull them when they still have a little give, or they get dry.  But if they get dry, you can always dip them in your coffee or tea or whatever. Cool on wire racks.

Nutritional Information **based on original recipe**

Melt - In - Your - Mouth Shortbread

Servings Per Recipe: 24
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 111

• Total Fat: 7.8g
• Cholesterol: 20mg
• Sodium: 55mg
• Total Carbs: 9.7g
•     Dietary Fiber: 0.2g
• Protein: 0.9g

Nutritional info above is based on the full butter version.  Removing the sugar will reduce the carb count some but since these are pretty low sugar anyway, it won't make a huge difference.  


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Melt---In---Your---Mouth-Shortbread/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=50385235&prop26=DailyDish&prop27=2010-12-20&prop28=CompleteYourMeal&prop29=FullRecipe1&me=1