Lighter recipe.

We love cookies. There is nothing my family collectively enjoys more than a good cookie. I have a handful of recipes in my collection that I keep in rotation. For a few weeks I have been experimenting with lightening up these recipes. Most of the recipes call for between one and two cups of butter. They also call for between one and two cups of sugar. I have found that I can successfully substitute half of the butter with unsweetened applesauce with little impact on the taste or texture of the recipe. Substituting entirely applesauce does not work in my recipes. I have also found that in most cookie recipes that have chocolate chips in them it is easy to cut back on the sugar. Today I cut the sugar that the recipe called for back by 1/2 cup and they were still sweet. I would encourage you to try experimenting with your own favorite recipes in such a way. I have also found that many cookie recipes can easily be made with equal proportions of oatmeal in place of white flour. Today I used oatmeal in place of half of the flour. The end result was a cookie that for all purposes tasted like our favorite recipe but had 25% less sugar, 50% less fat, and more healthy grain and fiber than usual.