For this weeks challenge I went with something a little untraditional. {Untraditional? Me?? I know; you’re shocked.}

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and thought it sounded really interesting & yummy. I like soft chewy cookies. Crunchy cookies? No so much.

I made it two different ways; the first time exactly as the recipe said and a second more healthy. Neither version had the consistency or sweetness of a traditional cookie. Think muffin or cake like texture. Or maybe “spongy” but that doesn’t sound as appetizing and these are really tasty. They’re very similar in texture to a cranberry, banana, or zucchini bread {actually tasted a lot like cranberry bread}.

You want to make them??

Carrie’s Healthy Cranberry Orange Walnut “Cookies”

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup Splenda/Sugar mix
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup egg substitute
1 cup solid pack pumpkin puree
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries sliced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 orange zested
2/3 cup chopped walnuts

First, prep:

Wash the cranberries. It’s easiest to pick out the bad ones if you put them in a colander in a sink full of water.

Then run them through the slicer attachment of your KitchenAid. Or just chop them up by hand. The KitchenAid attachment is more fun.

You want them to be good size chunks. {1/3’s or 1/4’s would work as well.}

Zest the orange.

Now for the mixing.

Blend the wet stuff.

Then all the dry ingredients.

{all the flour, not just 1/4 cup!}

Plus the cinnamon & baking soda.

Finally, stir in {by hand} the orange zest, cranberries, & walnuts.

The dough is going to be kinda sticky. Ok, a lot sticky. But that’s ok! It won’t spread like normal dough, so don’t worry.

Using the 2 spoon scoop method, spoon small blobs of dough onto a cookie tray sprayed liberally with Pam.

If you don’t spray it with Pam {or other brand of choice}, the cookies stick {they don’t have any fat in them}. Then you have to scrape them off with a giant metal scraper while trying not to scratch the pan. At least that’s my theory. Yeah… theory.

Bake on 375 for about 10 minutes.

10 minutes for these size cookies, 15 for larger ones.

{freshly just put in the oven}

{ready to be done}

As you can see, the cookies puff up a little after they’ve been baked but don’t really spread horizontally.

Yummy! Our batch made 56 small 2-bite sized cookies.

Enjoy!!

Feel free to download the recipe and try it for yourself! I’d love to hear how it went. Happy baking!

Don’t forget to head over to Kim’s blog and check out everyone elses yummy creations!!