RECIPE DOCTOR
Have a heart to heart with your valentine

By Elaine Magee
Knight Ridder News Service

Q. Do you have a less-fattening sugar cookie recipe? I've been looking for one for years now.

A.This was a good recipe to talk about right before Valentine's Day. I know, I know, everyone thinks of December as the prime sugar cookie season. But there is something special about heart-shaped sugar cookies, too.

I started with a recipe for Grandma's Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies and made a few ingredient adjustments. I used half sugar and half Splenda (just to cut the calories from sugar in half). You don't have to do this; you can just double the amount of granulated sugar below and delete the Splenda. I have found that most people like the results better if they use half sugar and half Splenda rather than all no-calorie sweetener.

I also replaced one-third of the butter with fat-free cream cheese, but you could switch to a no-trans margarine with 8 or 9 grams of fat per tablespoon and cut the fat and calories by the same amount.

I replaced the egg with egg substitute. A bonus to using egg substitute is you can taste the dough raw without risk of salmonella poisoning (egg substitute is pasteurized) — and you know you want to. I also used fat-free half and half instead of cream and added some almond extract.

You can make all sorts of fun cookies with this basic recipe. One of my favorite ways to decorate the cookies is to make big and small hearts, then paint the top and bottom of the small heart with red icing and place it in the center of a larger heart that has been decorated with pink sugar crystals. You can also spread some raspberry preserves or frosting between two hearts to make a heart cookie sandwich.

Grandma's Old-fashioned Sugar Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup Splenda (no-calorie sweetener) or 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, finely diced (or use
• 1/2 cup no-trans margarine with 8 or 9 grams of fat per tablespoon and delete the cream cheese)
• 3 tablespoons fat-free or light cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons egg substitute (such as Egg Beaters)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fat-free half and half (plus more to brush on cookies if desired)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder or extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease cookie sheet with canola cooking spray.

Add flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and Splenda (if desired) to large mixing bowl and beat on low to blend together. Add butter pieces and cream cheese (if using no-trans margarine instead of butter, skip the cream cheese) and beat on low speed until mixture resembles cornmeal (about one minute).

Add egg substitute, fat-free half and half, vanilla and almond extract all at once, then beat on low just until a dough forms. Chill dough if desired (it rolls out a little easier if it has been in the refrigerator for a few hours).

On a flat surface lightly coated with powdered sugar or flour, roll dough out to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes. Transfer to prepared cookie sheet. Brush tops of some of the cookies with fat-free half and half and sprinkle with sugar crystals if desired.

Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, or until delicately browned.

Per cookie in batch of 24 (with Splenda, butter, and fat-free cream cheese): 62 calories, 1.5 g protein, 8.5 g carbohydrate, 2.5 g fat (1.5 g saturated fat, 0.8 g monounsaturated fat, 0.1 g polyunsaturated fat), 7 mg cholesterol, 0.3 g fiber, 76 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 38 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids, 0 g; omega-6, 0.1 g. Weight Watchers: 1 point.

Per cookie without Splenda: 70 calories, 10.4 g carbohydrate and 33 percent calories from fat.

Makes about 2 to 3 dozen cookies (depending on the size of the cookie).

The original recipe had 85 calories, 4.5 g fat, 2.7 g saturated fat, and 16 mg cholesterol per cookie in a batch of 24.

Elaine Magee is author of "The Recipe Doctor Cookbook" and "Tell Me What to Eat If I Have Acid Reflux." Magee's new book, "The Flax Cookbook" is available in bookstores and at Amazon.com. Write to her through www.recipedoctor.com. Personal responses cannot be provided.