Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood Cookie Exchange

Hello! In addition to posting Nia, Be Mine Sneak Previews today, I’m participating in the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood Cookie Exchange Blog Hop! Always such a fun time of year!

If you’re just here for the blog hop, and only want the down-and-dirty…the cookie recipe is Sugar-Free Molasses. And if you sign up for my newsletter or my blog (both sign ups on the side bar) and leave me a comment for which you’ve done (or tell me if you’ve already done both) then you’ll be entered for a chance to win an Amazon $10 gift card. (And if you haven’t signed up for my newsletter already, I give away a book of Exclusive Bonus Stories!)

Now…if you want to keep hopping, scroll all the way to the bottom for the next links. If you want the recipe, keep on reading!

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A sugar-free Christmas cookie, you say? Usually, my go to cookie at Christmas time is Russian Teacakes. And if you want the recipe, you can find it HERE.  But this year, for health reasons, I’ve had to go sugar-free, right here at the holidays. I’m happy to say as of this writing I have been off sugar six days and haven’t strangled anyone yet. 🙂

I found this recipe on the blog Wonderfully Made and Dearly Loved. This food blog has a lot of recipes that fit the sugar-free Trim and Healthy Mama lifestyle, so check it out if you’re interested in that health plan. I’ve included a link to her original recipe. I’ve only just made these cookies this week and I’m going to include the recipe below with a few tweaks I plan to make next time.

(Sugar Free) Soft Molasses Cookies

Ingredients:
4 TBS Butter
4 TBS Pyure Organic Stevia All Purpose Sweetener or THM Gentle Sweet (1)
2 eggs
½ tsp Black Strap Molasses
½ tsp Vanilla extract
⅓ cup coconut flour
½ tsp ground ginger (2)
1 tsp ground cinnamon (2)
⅛ tsp ground cloves (2)
1 tsp Glucomannan powder or xanthan gum (3)

Instructions:

Place dry ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk to mix evenly. (4)
Cream together butter, stevia, eggs, vanilla and molasses. (5)
Add dry ingredients to wet until well combined. (6)
Roll dough into balls, flatten slightly(these do not spread) and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. (7)
Bake at 350* for 8-10 minutes

Notes:

(1) First, note on the Trim Healthy Mama site that there is a xylitol free Gentle Sweet for those of you who have pets who like to nip the treats. But don’t confuse it with the THM Super Sweet which would require different amounts. I personally used Granular Swerve (the powdered Swerve is great for frostings) because it’s what I had on hand. It worked fine. If you have some other alternative baking sweetener like Truvia, I think that would be fine, as well. I stay away from sweeteners with aspartame or sucralose though.

(2) I am going to double the spices next time. The cookies just weren’t as spicy as I personally like.

(3) While I had both on hand, I used xantham gum because I’ve seen that at Wal-Mart and figured it was easier to find.

(4) I switched the instructions order and mixed the dry ingredients first so I could re-use the measuring spoons on the wet ingredients.

(5) Original recipe left out the vanilla in the instructions, although it’s in the ingredients list.

(6) First, I tried creaming the butter by hand because it was such a small amount I didn’t want to pull out my electric mixer. Yeah, that didn’t work. I know now why my grandmother had biceps like a construction worker! I ended up using the electric mixer for the butter and mixing the dry ingredients, as well, after I first mixed in the dry ingredients by hand so they didn’t blow all over the place.

(7) You really do have to mash these down and shape them, I was in a rush so they don’t look that great. Oh, and that’s some extra swerve sprinkled on top.

Oh, and today I spread a bit of Nuti Light, a sugar free, dark chocolate hazelnut spread on a cookie and it almost satisfied my very strong sweet tooth.

To Keep Hopping, follow these links:

Heather McCollum – https://www.facebook.com/HeatherMcCollumAuthor/

Lizzie Shane – https://www.facebook.com/LizzieShaneAuthor/

Julia Day – http://www.juliaday.com/

Jennifer Bray Weber – http://www.jbrayweber.com/

Katie Graykowski –  www.facebook.com/katie.graykowski

Lara Archer http://laraarcher.com/

Hope Ramsay – http://hoperamsay.com/rss-christmas-blog-hop-giveaway/

Liz Talley – www.facebook.com/liztalleybooks

Elizabeth Essex – http://www.elizabethessex.com/christmas-cookie-hop-with-the-ruby-slippered-sisterhood/

and here is the main link to the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood blog post:

http://www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com/ruby-cookie-exchange-hop-2/