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I've recently found that I no longer particularly like sweet things, though I crave cookies with tea and coffee. I made a bunch of chocolate chip cookies using a recipe that I've used for years and now find them unpalatably sugary. I've also found that when I make jam, I've had to cut back the sugar as much as I dare and make up the difference with lemon juice, etc.

The one alternative I know of that I like is biscotti. I also like my low sugar jam on scones. Anyone else have a not-too-sweet cookie recipe (that doesn't use artificial sweeteners I might want to try?

Have you tried Russian teacakes? They are usually rolled in powdered sugar, but you can drop that from the recipe.

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 1 cup butter
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup chopped walnuts
* 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream butter and vanilla until smooth. Combine the 6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar and flour; stir into the butter mixture until just blended. Mix in the chopped walnuts. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. When cool, roll in remaining confectioners' sugar.

A family recipe for pineapple/coconut cookies (I'm the 4th generation making them) which are much less sweet than many standard cookies, and get a lot of their sugar content from the pineapple involved:

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar (light or dark, doesn't matter)
4 cups flour
4 eggs
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3.5 oz flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cream butter and brown sugar
Beat in eggs, 1 at a time.
Mix in blended dry ingredients. Batter becomes very thick.
Drain the pineapple, saving the juice.
Stir in pineapple and coconut.
The mixture should be moist but able to hold together. If it appears too dry, add some of the pineapple juice; if it appears too moist, add more coconut.
Using a spoon, drop cookies onto a piece of parchment paper.
Bake 10 minutes; will develop a light golden color.
Let set for 1 minute, then move to cooling rack.

This recipe will make roughly 6 dozen cookies.

As a note, these are one of the few cookies that are better cold than warm. Also, they remain extremely moist; one friend described them as miniature cakes rather than cookies. When I calculated out the ingredients, it's approximately 75 calories per cookie.

Well, you could always switch to something like a meringue or a macaroon, both not particularly sugary. The most obvious answer I can give is use less sugar in the recipe of your choice and add more chocolate chunks to offset the bitterness of the dough.

In terms of jams, just make a compote instead. A compote is comprised of a fruit(s) of your choosing, lemon or orange juice (freshly squeezed), corn starch, vanilla extract, and a dash of honey. It uses the sugars already found within the fruit so it's a lot less sweet than a jam, and I think it tastes better.

The good old fashion oatmeal raisin cookie is always good. I made some last night. Follow the receipt from the bottom of the lid on regular Quaker oats and they're great.

While they do have all the butter and sugar, the oats are healthier than all the flower in others. And i don't find them to be overly sweet. Try substituting the rasins for other things such as coconut, or cocco powder for chocolate oatmeal (the bittersweet chocolate will take away some of the sweetness). Add health nuts (myself excluded) - the combinations are endless.

MSUBionerd - I'm going to try your recommendation. It sounds good, sort of like a bite-size pinapple upside down cake.

Oatmeal Raisin or Oatmeal Cranberry cookies ... they're not too sweet and are wonderful little pick-me-ups

jrs1 said
Oatmeal Raisin or Oatmeal Cranberry cookies ... they're not too sweet and are wonderful little pick-me-ups

this is what I was going to suggest. The oatmeal tones down the sugar taste greatly. I have a recipe for Oatmeal Craisin cookies that is very very good. I use this recipe for a base for two others, white chocolate oatmeal craisin (won a local competition with it) and health-nut oatmeal-crainsin where I throw in 2 scoops of soy protein powder to make them not so guilty. I have a batch on my counter now if you would like to taste.

"A cuppa flour, a cuppa sugar, a cuppa fruit cocktail with the juice, mix and bake 'til gold and bubbly."

Too sweet?

A lorna doone is not a cookie. It's a low-sugary, buttery taste festival.

Healthy Cookie Recipes

Do you like Ma'amoul - a cookie filled with dates? I love it. Ma'amoul is a cookie-like, date filled pastry. It can be filled with a date or nuts. This recipe is not only easy, but delicious!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:

* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 1 cup semolina
* 2 sticks salted butter, softened
* 1/2 teaspoon allspice
* 1/4 teaspoon orange blossom water
* 1/4 cup pitted dates
* 2 tablsespoons milk

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour and semolina. Set aside.

In a smaller bowl, beat together butter for 30-45 seconds. Slowly add in flour mixture untill combined. Stir in milk, allspice, and orange blossom water. Roll dough into 12 pieces.

In a small bowl, combine dates and sugar or no sugar. Set aside.

Grab your dough and push into 2 inch circles onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Place about 1 teaspoon of date mixture on top of dough. Fold and press dough together to seal the filling. Repeat with remaining dough and nut mixture.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Dust with powdered sugar while warm if you want.

You can also have dates-pistachios filled if you like:
Ma'amoul (Dates & Pistachios Filled Cookies)

Pinny said
I have a recipe for Oatmeal Craisin cookies that is very very good. I use this recipe for a base for two others, white chocolate oatmeal craisin (won a local competition with it) and health-nut oatmeal-crainsin where I throw in 2 scoops of soy protein powder to make them not so guilty. I have a batch on my counter now if you would like to taste.

How about sharing your recipe? [Can't believe I'm asking that on a 'jock' site.]

These are peanut butter cookies made with splenda instead of sugar and no flour. They have the texture of butter cookies.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/magical-peanut-butter-cookies-recipe/index.html

You can also substitute splenda in place of sugar in recipes. It works REALLY well for sweet potato pies.

Another alternative is to follow the Quaker Oats recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies, but drop the raisins and add about a 1 1/2 cups of chopped apple and a cup of diced walnuts. I also add about 1/2 a teaspoon of nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon of allspice.

For non-sweet coffee snacks, I like oatmeal cookies. Or peanut butter cookies. Or madelines.

Timberoo saidHave you tried Russian teacakes?

I LOVE these!! My aunt makes them during the holidays, they are essentially the same as Mexican Wedding cookies. They are my one HUGE weakness, the only thing I can eat myself sick with. I feel like a cat with cat nip, I'll have a cookie in each hand and hand over hand put them in my overflowing mouth. "YUM!!!"
Everyone in my family thinks I'm too skinny so they all sit around laughing and smile while I binge. They're like crack to me... I'm shaky just thinking about them!

EasilyDistracted said

Timberoo saidHave you tried Russian teacakes?

I LOVE these!! My aunt makes them during the holidays, they are essentially the same as Mexican Wedding cookies. They are my one HUGE weakness, the only thing I can eat myself sick with. I feel like a cat with cat nip, I'll have a cookie in each hand and hand over hand put them in my overflowing mouth. "YUM!!!"
Everyone in my family thinks I'm too skinny so they all sit around laughing and smile while I binge. They're like crack to me... I'm shaky just thinking about them!

I'm like that with my mom's cut-out cookies.

BostonVball said

A lorna doone is not a cookie. It's a low-sugary, buttery taste festival.

I loved that sketch!!!