PUMPKIN PROTEIN COOKIES

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I adapted this recipe from one I found on the Atkins Forum.  Thanks to Thinker and TigerTye.  It's a good way to get in some fat, protein and carbs, not to mention a veggie. 

I am so pleased with these cookies - not all at like a "health food", but like a real cookie.  It made me feel happy to get to have a treat, especially around Christmas, when cookies are part of the festivities.





Pumpkin Protein Cookies


1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 Tbs. coconut oil
56g (or 1 cup before grinding) flaxseed, ground very fine with a coffee or spice grinder
26 drops liquid Stevia
15 oz. canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
7.5 Tbs. IsoPure Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (available at GNC)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1.  Soften butter and coconut oil.  Cream together.

2.  Add half the ground flaxseed and blend well.

3.  Add Stevia, pumpkin, protein powder, remaining ground flaxseed, eggs and vanilla extract, mixing well after each.

4.  Add baking soda, salt and spices, mixing well.

5.  Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

6.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

7.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Doing this will keep the cookies from getting to dark on the bottom, and from sticking to the pan.  It also makes for a super easy clean up.

8.  Drop the dough onto the parchment paper by level tablespoons.  This will produce a thick, cake-like cookie, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  To get a thinner, crisper cookie, flatten them somewhat before baking.  If you flatten them, they will need a shorter baking time.  These cookies will not spread when they bake, so you can place them close together.

9.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until done, and cool on a rack. 

This recipe made around 60 cookies.  If you prefer, you can make the cookies larger and get a smaller yield.

This is the nutritional information for the whole recipe:

2489 Calories
99g Fat
85.4g Protein
1.4g Alcohol
87.8g Carbohydrate
58.5g Dietary Fiber
29.3g Net Carbohydrate, of which 22.1g come from the pumpkin

I wanted to know the information for one cookie, so here is what I did:  When the cookies were cooled, I weighed the whole batch, and it came out to 540 grams.  I put an entry into www.fitday.com called "Pumpkin Protein Cookies" and used the nutritional info for the whole batch and said that it weighed 540 grams.  Now, when I want some cookies, I just weigh the ones I want and enter how many grams they weigh into fitday, and it does the math for me.

If you would rather not weigh the cookies, you can count the number of cookies you made, and then divide the total info by that number to know what the info for one cookie is.  Because I ended up with 60 cookies, this would be the info for one cookie:

41.5 Calories
1.65g Fat
1.42g Protein
0.023g Alcohol
1.46g Carbohydrate
0.975g Dietary Fiber
0.485g Net Carbohydrate, of which 0.37g come from the pumpkin