My favorite cookie is the old-fashioned oatmeal-raisin. I can eat just one large cookie or two to three smaller ones and feel satisfied. It must be the oatmeal. Here's a lower-fat recipe I developed.

Some vegetarian cookies are made with applesauce or prunes instead of butter. In this recipe, however, the texture and flavor are better with butter and, here, just five tablespoons are all that's needed.

I also experimented with the sugar. First, I used date sugar, which produced hard, round balls, then rapadura and, finally, brown sugar. The rapadura produced the healthiest and crispiest cookie; the brown sugar produced the best flavor.

Rapadura is made from organically grown sugar cane in South America. Harvesting is by hand without burning the dry leaves first. Rapadura is unrefined; the sugar cane is squeezed, dried and ground, which retains its natural vitamins and minerals. It is high in magnesium, calcium, iron, silicon and manganese and a perfect sweetener for baking. Substitute one cup of rapadura for one cup of white sugar. Store in a moisture-free environment and it will keep indefinitely.

LITTLE-BIT-BUTTER OATMEAL COOKIES