This post was made in partnership with Stevia In The Raw®. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.
I have teamed up with Stevia In The Raw® one more time to bring you some lightened-up tasty Christmas cookies.. Yes..we all know that time of year is coming and lots of people like to get a head start on baking cookies.. Christmas and cookies just go hand in hand don't they? I mean after all, they are Santa's favorite!
I like a traditional shortbread cookie but I knew I needed to lighten them up to be Weight Watcher friendly, and using the Stevia In The Raw® to replace half the sugar helped bring these sweet jam shortbread cookies to only 2 smart points each..
Stevia In The Raw®  is a zero-calorie sweetener made from the extract from the sweet leaves of the stevia plant, and is perfect for all baking and cooking needs. Stevia In The Raw® Bakers Bag measures cup for cup with sugar, so it can easily be used in any of your favorite recipes to reduce sugar and calories. No conversion from sugar is necessary, as Stevia In The Raw® Bakers Bag is formulated so that 1 cup has the same sweetness as 1 cup of sugar. When using Stevia In The Raw® for baking recipes, it is recommended that you only replace about half the sugar in order to achieve the proper browning, rising and caramelizing that only sugar can provide. Up to 700 calories can be saved for every cup of sugar that is swapped out for Stevia In The Raw®. Bake some of these delicious shortbread cookies for your holiday party, everyone will love them!
Jam shortbread thumbprint cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup light butter I used Gay Lea light must be at room temperature
- â…“ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup Stevia In The Raw® Bakers Bag
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ¾ cup flour
- 4-5 tablespoon no sugar added jam I used raspberry and wildberry
- 2 tablespoon icing sugar confectionery sugar with a drop of water for icing (optional)
Instructions
- Using an electric mixer beat together your butter (must be room temp) sugar, stevia and vanilla.
- Turn mixer on low and slowly add in your flour.
- Shape dough into a ball and wrap with saran wrap, refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper (I also used a little cooking spray)
- Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet, using finger press down into balls to form a small indent in cookie, the dough might crack slightly and that is ok.
- Place a very small amount (about ¼ tsp) of jam into each cookie, do not put too much or you will end up with messy cookies.. For those interested I also made a few using nutella, I am not sure if the points would change, I did not figure that out, but as an option you can change your center filling.
- Bake cookies for approx 15 minutes or until edges are a golden brown.
- Coll on tray, optional to pipe with a little icing drizzle
- Makes 36 cookies at 2 freestyle smart points each on all 3 MyWW programs (2PP, old WW program)
- Nutritional info per cookie.. Calories 72...Fat 4.1g...Sat fat 1.7g...Carbs 7.2g...Fiber 0.2g...Sugars 2.9g...Protein 0.7g (numbers does not incl icing drizzle as that is optional)
Joanne
Hey Kate! I was looking at the full fat version and then I came across yours! Thank you? I was wondering if a little bit of almond extract in the dough might be good?
Drizzle
HI Joanne, sure it wouldn't hurt.. Hope you enjoy them
Helen B
What makes these cookies rise with no baking powder or baking soda?
Drizzle
Well they are a shoetbread cookie, they don't really "rise" so to speak .. you look at most classic shortbread recipes and they will not have baking powder or soda in them
Lindsay P.
Could this recipe be done with only splenda and no regular sugar? I would prefer to not use any sugar at all if possible to make them diabetic friendly for my grandma 🙂
Drizzle
I think so, although splenda recommends swapping out 1/2 sugar for the splenda but I am sure you could try it
Rosemary Little
These are some of the best cookies I've had. Wow! It will be hard to not eat them all.
Drizzle
Yay!! So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Roseanna
I just made the dough for these cookies and the dough is not firm but very soft. Should I add more flour to make the dough firmer.
Drizzle
Sorry probably late on answering this, my dough was fairly firm so yeah more flour I would suggest