Skinny Triple Chocolate Cookies

With the new year upon us, I know many people have made new years resolutions to eat better, work out more, tone up, and improve their overall health. These are goals that I aim for year-round, but the start of a new year seems like a great reminder to get my diet and workout routine back in line. The few pounds gained from all of the holiday treats consumed are another pesky reminder to get back into the gym.

Fortunately, eating better and losing weight does not mean giving up all things delicious. There are many ways to reduce fat and calories in your diet without sacrificing flavor. These cookies are a prime example of this. These Skinny Triple Chocolate Cookies have about 100 calories per cookie and only 3 grams of fat. And, believe it or not, you would never guess that they are skinny! The trick to fooling your taste buds is using quality ingredients and substituting healthier ingredients for the fats, oils, and processed items. In this recipe, I eliminated all of the fat and used pumpkin puree to add moisture. Applesauce, fat free yogurt, mashed bananas, and pumpkin puree are all great substitutes for fat and oil in recipes-just a little bonus tip! I also used half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour, but feel free to use all whole wheat flour to make this recipe even healthier. To keep these cookies from tasting like a skinny cookie, I used high quality dark and milk chocolate chips. These chips provided bursts of richness and flavor throughout the cookie dough without adding an insane amount of calories and fat.

Another great thing about this recipe is that these cookies are mixed and baked in under an hour. And there is no mixer required. One bowl and good arm muscles are all you need to whip up a batch of these rich, fudge-y, cake-like, skinny cookies. Plus, since you aren't using a mixer, you burn a few calories mixing the dough! Skinny cookies that are easy to make, only require one bowl, and force you to burn a few calories while mixing? Sounds like every new years resolutioners' dream recipe!

Skinny Triple Chocolate Cookies (adapted from Une Gamine Dans La Cuisine)
(about 3 dozen cookies)

3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, add the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Mix ingredients together until sugars are incorporated into the pumpkin. Add eggs and vanilla and beat into pumpkin mixture. Add both flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt to pumpkin mixture. Slowly mix ingredients together until fully incorporated, careful not to over mix the cookie dough. Gently fold in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with a Silpat mat or parchment paper. Spoon tablespoon size balls of cookie dough onto prepared cookie sheet. The dough will be very sticky. Gently flatten each ball with the back of a spoon. (You do this because the cookies do not flatten or spread at all.) Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cookies are set on the outside and still soft on the inside. Remove from oven and cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

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Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 36
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 105.8
Total Fat: 3.1 g
Cholesterol: 11.0 mg
Sodium: 43.7 mg
Total Carbs: 21.9 g
Fiber: 1.5 g
Sugars: 13.4 g
Protein: 1.7 g

Pros:
-Delicious, rich, fudge-y, cake-like cookies
-Easy to make-no mixer required!
-Low fat cookies that don't taste skinny
-Versatile-add different flavors of chocolate chips or candies to cookie dough

Cons:
-Dough is somewhat hard to handle because it's so sticky (consider spraying spoon with cooking spray before spooning the dough onto cookie sheet)

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