Recipe and Keane's Little Buddy

This little guy's name is Andrew. He is a mixie just like Keane, and they were born the SAME DAY!

He came with his mama for a little visit. Such a sweetheart. Keane and I may be seeing more of him, when his mama has to work.

This recipe for "Almost Fat Free Ginger Cookies" was really good. I get a newsletter from the same recipe guys that I have the widget for on the side. I would like to try those Chalupas, but I don't think I can get all the ingredients here. They are a really moist, and very good cookie. They're up for tomorrow's house group. I did do the Prune Butter thing and besides the cookies being extra sticky, it worked great. Who knows, maybe they will keep us regular. ;)

Almost Fat-Free Ginger Cookies

Based on Cookie Jar Gingersnaps in "The Complete Cookie
Book" by Elizabeth Wolf Cohen

2 cups All-purpose flour
3/4 cup Prune Butter (see below)
1 Tbs ground ginger
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
Sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350F. Into a medium bowl, sift
together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves,
and salt.

In a large bowl with electric mixer, beat Prune Butter
and sugar until well-blended. Beat in egg and molasses
until well-blended. Stir in flour mixture until
completely mixed.

Place a little sugar in a medium bowl. Scoop out
heaping teaspoonfuls of mixture. Using your palms,
roll into 3/4-inch balls and drop into the sugar. Roll
to cover the surface completely; then place balls 2
inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake until cookies are slightly rounded and tops appear
lightly browned and crackles. Remove baking sheets to
wire racks to cool slightly. Then, using a metal
pancake turner or palette knife, remove cookies to wire
racks to cool completely. Repeat with remaining cookie
dough and sugar. Store in airtight containers.

---

Prune Butter Recipe*

To make one cup, combine 8 oz prunes and 6 Tbs water or
fruit juice in food processor. (I used apple juice for
the batch for this recipe.)

A chef commented: "Yesterday I took a cookie recipe
that I wanted to try, and I made exactly according to
the recipe (it was great!) and then I made another
batch, using the Prune Butter technique. For cookies,
the book suggests replacing all of the fat with Prune
Butter, and removing as much sugar as 1/2 to 2/3 the
amount of Prune Butter used, to keep sweetness
consistent with the original recipe. The low-fat
recipe was a difficult texture to work with, and they
didn't spread out nicely when cooking. They remained
little clumps. But they did taste very good. I have a
hard time telling the difference between the two,
believe it or not. Who would have thought substituting
prunes for crisco was a wise choice?"

Notes: The cookies have 39.5 calores (3.6% from fat)
and 0.2g fat each. They also have more dietary fiber,
potassiumn and calcium than the originals, and less
cholesterol. hey were delicious, but rolling them
into balls was a nightmare. They stuck to everything.
They may need more flour. They also didn't flatten out
as much as the originals. They kept their ball shape,
for the most part.

* Prune Butter is from "Secrets of Fat Free Baking" by
Sandra Woodruff. To make one cup, combine 8 oz prunes
and 6 tbS water or fruit juice in food processor. (I
used apple juice for the batch for this recipe.)