(holiday music)
- You can't just eat half a cookie.
No way.
Hey, HealthNuts.
Welcome back to my channel.
I am so excited to share with you guys
three healthified holiday cookies.
So the thing is, yeah, you can make cookies
out of like oats, dates, and banana,
but I really wanted to share with you guys some recipes
that you can make for your loved ones this holiday season
that are gonna taste like a real cookie,
so they're healthified but they still have
like I said, sugar, butter.
They're still a treat, and for me,
I feel better eating these types of cookies
because they're made with real ingredients,
no artificial processed sweeteners
that are super refined and are just gonna
spike your blood sugar.
And when I use things like butter I look
for good quality, free-range, organic.
I don't know if there's free-range butter,
but I look for organic butter and for me,
I just feel better eating those types of ingredients
when I am making more indulgent recipes.
But honestly, when I eat cookies
I never feel bad about it.
I just personally like to make ones at home
that are gonna be ones that are gonna nourish me
in a way, even if that means it has chocolate chips in it.
So these three cookie recipes I'm gonna share are,
number one, a Linzer cookie
which is basically sugar cookies sandwiched together
with some jam in the middle.
They're so pretty and delicious.
Then we're making my Peppermint Double Chocolate Cookies.
They're so good.
They're like brownie texture inside.
They're so delicious, and there's no butter in those ones.
And then last but not least we're making
good old-fashioned gingerbread men cookies,
which I've had an old recipe on my site a long time ago.
I've totally revamped it.
You guys need to make all three of these cookies.
You're gonna love them.
Your family is gonna love them.
No one is gonna know they're healthy.
They're just gonna eat them and love them
and you're gonna be like, everyone's gonna give you praise,
so you welcome.
Now before we hop in, pause this video, subscribe.
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so lots of content for you guys to binge watch.
And without further ado, let's hop right in
to the cookie creations.
So the first cookie we're gonna make are the Linzer cookies.
First we're gonna start by mixing our dry ingredients.
I have a large bowl here with a sifter placed over top.
I'm adding in some light spelt flour.
You can use regular spelt flour as well.
I get a lot of questions about it,
but the light is just more fluffy and good
for pastries and cookies.
Adding in some baking powder and sea salt.
And then all you have to do is just kind of shake it
to sift all the dry ingredients together,
and it'll just kind of help get rid
of any lumps in the flour.
Set that aside while we work on the wet ingredients.
In another large bowl we're gonna add in
some softed unsalted butter.
Creamed honey.
Now this is what we're using to sweeten these cookies,
and I prefer the creamed honey
'cause I find it just kind of whips up nicer
with the butter, but regular honey would work as well.
Add in your vanilla extract,
and then just whip it all up with an electric hand mixer.
You can also use a whisk and just put some arm muscle
into it, but you basically just want to do this
until you get a nice, fluffy texture.
Next, crack in your egg.
This is gonna help bind everything together.
And then just mix it again until well incorporated.
At this point the texture may look a little funny,
but I promise it's all gonna come together.
Now you can add in your dry ingredients.
I like to do half of it, mix it,
and then throw in the rest and mix it.
This not only prevents the flour from going everywhere,
but I find it just kind of mixes a little bit better.
Afterwards I kind of just go in there
with a rubber spatula, scrape down the edges
and just make sure that all the flour is well incorporated.
Flour your surface before placing your dough on top
just to prevent it from sticking,
and then I just like to kind of knead it
a couple more times just to really make sure
everything is well mixed.
Form it into a ball and cut it in half.
I'm taking each half and I'm just gonna shape it
into a flat, rounded disk.
And do this with the second one,
and then just wrap this up
and we're gonna refrigerate each one
for about an hour to help the butter chill
before we start cutting it into cookies.
Once your cookie dough is done chilling,
you can flour your surface again,
as well as flour your rolling pin,
and then just roll it out into kind of a circle
until you get about 1/4 of an inch thickness.
Then, taking your cookie cutter,
I will try to find the ones I'm using
and link them in the blog post.
You're gonna cut some fun little cookie shapes.
This one has a little scalloped edge
but you can really just use a round one,
or even a cup, anything you have in your kitchen
that will make circles.
Then you're going to need something
that is a smaller circle, because these are Linzer cookies,
so the tops of them will have a little cutout
to allow the jam to kind of peek through.
Since we're gonna sandwich these together
you only need to cut a second hole
in half the amount of cookies so they go on top.
And then you can transfer these to a baking sheet
lined with parchment paper.
Repeat these steps with the remaining dough
until you've got all of your cookies cut out.
Pop these into the oven to bake
and get slightly golden on the bottom.
This is what it looks like when they're out of the oven.
They should still be white on top,
but just slightly golden on the bottom.
I'm gonna transfer them onto a cooling rack
to fully cool before we start putting them together.
Honestly they're so cute and really delicious on their own.
You don't really need to do the other extra steps,
but since these are for the holidays,
I thought it would be great to go that extra step.
Now for the filling you're gonna take your favorite jam.
I'm using a delicious raspberry jam
from my friend's jam company.
I will link them down below.
They're incredible.
And then you're just gonna place the one
with the hole in the middle right on top
to sandwich the jam in between, and repeat.
Optional, if you want to get extra fancy
you can just sprinkle some powdered sugar right over top.
I'm using an organic sugar one,
so it's a little bit less processed,
and there you have it, naturally sweetened Linzer cookies.
Next up with have my Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies.
We're first gonna start by mixing our dry ingredients.
Again in a large bowl with a sifter
we're gonna add in our light spelt flour.
Cocoa powder.
To help these rise we have baking powder and baking soda,
and sea salt because you need sea salt
when it comes to chocolate.
And then just sift it all together.
Set that aside while we mix together our wet ingredients.
In another large bowl we're gonna mix together
some creamy almond butter.
This is gonna replace the butter in these cookies,
so there's actually no butter, which is great
if you're trying to avoid that
or you want it to be dairy-free.
Next we have coconut sugar,
avocado oil,
and the star of the show, peppermint extract.
This stuff smells and tastes amazing.
Make sure you get a really good quality one.
I will link my favorite one in the blog post.
Take your electric hand mixer and just mix that all up,
or you could use a whisk
and put the muscle into it like I said.
And then we're cracking in a couple of eggs,
which is gonna help bind it all together.
Mix it again until well incorporated.
Get in there with your rubber spatula
and just scrape down the edges
just to make sure everything is well mixed.
Now you can add in your dry ingredients.
I like to do half at a time as I mentioned,
just to kind of help it not make a mess
and just incorporate a little bit easier.
Keep mixing until you get a bunch of like little lumps,
and then you're ready just to go in there
with the rubber spatula and bring it all together
to form a dough.
Once everything is well mixed you can add in
your chocolate chips.
This is why it is a double chocolate cookie recipe,
because it has the cocoa powder in it
and we're adding the chocolate chips.
Now we're ready to get scooping.
This cookie recipe is a little bit different.
There's no butter.
It doesn't need to chill.
You can just go straight from the bowl to the baking pan.
I'm taking an ice cream scoop and I'm just gonna scoop out
all my cookie dough balls and just place them
evenly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Ice cream scoops have been a long-time favorite
in the HealthNut Kitchen, especially when it comes to baking
and we actually now sell them on the shop.
A link will be down below
if you guys want to check them out.
I also roll them into a smooth ball
before placing them on.
And then at the end I'm just gonna lightly press
them down with my fingertips
just to help them form a better cookie shape when they bake.
These cookies are so delicious.
They're almost like a brownie batter inside
and they get nice and gooey from those chocolate chips.
And then all you have to do is pop them
into the oven to bake.
Once they're done let them sit on the baking sheet
for about five minutes before transferring them
over to a cooling rack to cool fully.
These cookies look like your average chocolate cookie,
but when you bite into them you will be able
to taste that delicious peppermint aftertaste
and it's such a nice surprising treat during the holidays.
Everyone will love these cookies.
Last but not least, we are of course
making the traditional gingerbread cookies,
because it would not be the holidays without them.
In a large bowl we're gonna start
by mixing our dry ingredients into a sifter.
I have my light spelt flour,
almost flour,
baking powder,
and we're gonna spice things up with of course cinnamon,
and to give it that gingerbread taste
we have ground ginger, nutmeg, and clove spice.
Add in your salt and then
shake shake shake everything together.
Set aside while we mix together our wet ingredients.
In a large bowl you're gonna add in
your softened unsalted butter,
coconut sugar,
and vanilla extract.
Mix it well until everything is nice and fluffy.
You'll know it's ready when the color
actually lightens up a bit.
Take your rubber spatula and just scrape down the sides.
And then we're adding in molasses,
which is the star ingredient in gingerbread cookies.
You want to make sure to look for a good quality one
with no sulfur.
I will link my favorite one in the blog post.
Crack in an egg, and then whisk everything together.
You're gonna get a nice, creamy, smooth batter.
You're almost gonna want to eat it at this point,
but I promise, wait.
They will taste even better when we bake them.
Add in your dry ingredients, half at a time,
until everything is well mixed.
You want to stop using the electric mixer
once everything just starts to come together.
Otherwise it kind of gets a little too sticky.
I like to go in there with my rubber spatula
and just kind of finish the job and form it into a dough.
So same thing as the Linzer cookies.
We're gonna flour our surface.
Place your dough right on top.
Knead it a couple times and then form it into a round ball.
Slice it right down the middle in half,
and we're gonna take each half
and form it into a flattened round disk.
Wrap it up and then chill it in the refrigerator
for one hour for the butter to chill and harden.
Once your dough has chilled,
place it onto a floured surface, flour your rolling pin,
and roll it out into something that looks like a circle.
Mine doesn't really look like that,
but you want it to be 1/4 of an inch thick.
Now comes the fun part.
You're gonna take all your festive Christmas cookie cutters
and you are just gonna start pressing them into the dough
and creating your cutouts.
Now is the time to challenge yourself
to see how many cookies you can cut
out of one rolled-out dough.
Once you used up all the surface,
you can just peel away the excess dough,
re-roll it, and repeat.
Place all of your cookie cutouts onto a baking sheet
lined with parchment paper
and pop these into the oven to bake.
This is what it looks like when they're done.
They lighten up in color.
They rise slightly, and they just look and smell incredible.
Let them cool slightly on the baking sheet
before transferring them over to a cooling rack
to fully cool.
We're gonna ice these so you want to make sure
they are fully fully cooled before you get icing.
In a large bowl you're gonna add in your icing sugar.
I'm using an organic one.
And then all you have to do is add in
some unsweetened almond milk and vanilla for some flavoring.
You're gonna take your electric hand mixer
and just whisk it all up until you form an icing.
You may need to add a little bit more almond milk,
but do so sparingly because I promise
it does kind of come together into an icing
and if you add too much it's gonna be too thin
to ice your cookies.
Pop your icing into an icing bag and just go ahead
and start piping on your icing right onto your cookies.
I'm not gonna lie.
I'm not the best icing artist, but I did get my practice in
for these cookies so I can be extra prepared
when I make these for my family during the holidays.
I mean, I feel like the key is just to follow the perimeter
of the cookies, but if you have a better way to do it
please let me know in the comments down below.
There you have it, delicious,
warm spiced gingerbread cookies
with a delicious icing right on top,
very festive and definitely a cookie
that needs to be on your desert table this holiday season.
There you have it, three healthified holiday cookies
I know you guys are gonna love.
Your friends, your family members,
everyone's gonna love them,
and I have the Linzer cookies here.
They're so pretty.
They remind me of just like, I don't know,
they're like a little work of art.
Now you can put the powdered sugar on top.
You don't have to.
I just did it more so because it looks really pretty.
They're so pretty.
I'm gonna take a little bite
because we have to taste test at the end here.
I probably have powdered sugar on my lips.
Mm.
These remind me of, I'm gonna put a photo here,
of those like little jam-filled cookies
that I used to eat in a package.
Okay so, I'm gonna enjoy cookies until Christmas
because I have so many now in my kitchen,
but I want to also let you guys know before you hop off
that if you guys didn't know, right now
there are so many giveaways happening
on my Instagram account.
Between December 13th to Christmas
I am doing a giveaway on my Instagram every single day,
so if you guys want to enter for a chance to win
some awesome items,
make sure you are following me on Instagram.
Make sure you follow along to see when the giveaways go up.
Oh my God, I'm like drooling 'cause these are so good.
So, make sure you follow me there
so you can enter to win some free stuff, guys.
It's just a huge thank you to you guys
for supporting me and just being awesome, really.
So make these cookies.
The recipe will be linked down below.
And let me know if you guys make them.
Be sure to send me photos on social media.
I love seeing all your HealthNut food recreations.
I always reshare them when I can on my story,
so keep those coming, and happy holidays.
I'm gonna keep eating this half-eaten cookie,
'cause that's like, you can't just eat half a cookie.
Oh my God.
I am a nut. (laughs)
They're so good.
I'm gonna cry, I'm gonna cry.
Make these.
They're so good.
Bye, guys.
I'm gonna go eat these. (laughs)