Sugar-free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

If you're anything like me, the minute you see "sugar-free" you assume the food will be bland, tasteless or have some strange fake-sugar aftertaste. Well push those thoughts aside for this recipe. These cookies taste just as good as a sugar filled version, I swear. During my no-sugar Lent period, I experimented with dozens of recipes trying to find one dessert that still tasted like a dessert. I think I tried every single peanut butter/oatmeal/banana "healthy" recipe on Pinterest. Side note -- don't bother, they all taste the same. One day I decided I would just pull up some recipes for cookies and make the adjustments myself. Lo and behold, we had a winner! I made these one day and decided to be nice to my husband and kids and make them alongside some regular chocolate chip cookies. Just because I made the commitment to sugar-free didn't mean they had to suffer the whole time with me. (Although my husband did end up eating a bunch of yucky ice cream experiments) :)

The weird thing was that Jason ended up eating all of these cookies instead of the regular ones! And if anyone knows cookies, its Jason. I wouldn't exactly call these "healthy" cookies. The recipe still calls for a decent amount of butter. It is a relatively "clean" recipe though, meaning 90% of the ingredients are natural and not heavily processed. So that's a win! Give them a try. If you have kids, or even if you don't, its nice to have a few sweet recipes that aren't loaded with refined sugar.

Sugar-free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Author: Wendy

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 12 mins

Total time: 42 mins

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. butter, softened


• 1/2 c. honey


• 1 large egg


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 3/4 c. all-purpose or whole wheat flour


• 1/2 tsp baking soda


• 1 tsp ground cinnamon


• 1/4 tsp table salt


• 1 1/2 c. rolled oats


• 3/4 c. raisins


• 1/2 c. walnuts, chopped (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and honey until combined. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.


2. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/honey mixture.


3. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.


4. Put the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill. Remove the dough from the fridge/freezer and heat the oven to 350 degrees.


5. While the oven is heating, scoop the dough in heaping teaspoonfuls onto a parchment-paper lined baking sheet. If you don't have parchment paper, just spray with non-stick spray. Press each cookie down slightly with the back of your teaspoon.


6. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes.


7. Take them out when they are golden brown at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

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