My need for cookies the other day was strong.  I don’t know what it is about the holidays that makes me want to enjoy a good Christmas cookie.  Christmas cookies come in those different flavors that you don’t really experience year round.  I’m here to tell you I want to make those cookies but I didn’t.  I just made a good ole chocolate chip cookie and a sugar cookie.

I blogged about how you shouldn’t suffer for holiday indulgence guilt so if you want to eat the cookie, eat the cookie.

There are a few things I don’t keep in the house. I don’t keep real sugar in the house because it’s just not something that we use often. Long story short, I also don’t keep butter in the house and I sometimes wondered if I could make cookies with the butter substitute “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” and stevia. I know baking is science so I didn’t know if the butter substitute would cause a problem. I usually use the lighter version of ICBINB but I thought I would play it safe use the original version.

I found a recipe for the chocolate chips cookies on the ICBINB website and followed it directly instead of using my standard recipe. I did use the Splenda brown sugar blend and the knock-off stevia.

I loved that it was quick and I didn’t need to put out the mixer to do it. The cookie dough looked legit. At this point, I was pretty sure the cookies would come out semi-decent.

I baked those cookies up and they came out the same way I plopped them on the baking sheet.  Those cookies didn’t spread at all.  The second batch I did smash them down for this reason.  Don’t expect these cookies to spread. DESPITE the cookies not spreading out during the bake, the cookies turned out great and light. I expected a dense cookie but these turned out fluffy. I will definitely make these cookies again.

Now the sad truth about the sugar cookies. Don’t make sugar cookies with sugar substitutes. I tasted the batter (oh the horror!) before baking and it had a chemical taste to it. I was hoping that it would bake out when I made the cookies. That taste did not bake out. I’m telling you now, just don’t do it. If you want a sugar cookie, just use regular sugar. Otherwise, I suggest you make another cookie. Maybe I should have used the mixer on this recipe to cream the “butter” and the sugar together better. But something went wrong with this substitution. These cookies tasted like chemicals.

This weekend I will try to make some actual Christmas flavor cookies.  Hopefully, those cookies will turn out better than the sugar cookies.  I’m just not sure what kind of cookies to try.  Maybe I’ll try something like gingerbread or a molasses cookie. I will keep you posted.

What’s your favorite cookie?