Low-Fat Peanut Butter Cookies

By Hklbrries

Editors recommend Skippy Reduced-Fat Super Chunk for these cookies.

Cookies will keep in an airtight container for 3 days.


“You’ll never guess what’s in this” is not exactly the most inviting thing your dinner guests could hear as they belly up to a feast at your home. It’s part challenge, part dare, with just a little bit of “Fear Factor” thrown in.

But, as long as you’re not spiking your lasagna with live grubs, there is a certain wow factor to whipping up a tasty dish with an unusual, unexpected ingredient.
In fact, Christopher Kimball, founder and editor of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, says one such recipe with a you’ll-never-guess-it-in-a- million-years ingredient is his favorite ever created by the magazine’s test kitchen in its nearly 15-year history.
“I’m just mad I didn’t come up with it,” Kimball says.
The creation is simple enough: Pie dough.
But the addition of the secret ingredient – a quarter cup of ice-cold vodka – makes it ultra light and flakey, arguably the perfect pie crust.
“I’m a big pie maker,” Kimball says. “It’s the hardest thing to do well in the kitchen.”
Plus, it’s just kind of fun to let your guests guess how you made such a wonderful pie crust.

There are many World War II-era recipes that call for unusual ingredients to get around rationing and shortages. (Ever tried mayonnaise cake?)
And there are other recipes that came en vogue not long after, as an increasing number of convenience products came on the market.
“Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, a lot of food editors were hired as consultants of big food companies,” Kimball says.

Nancy Patrykus, a Spokane resident who moved here from Chicago following her retirement a couple of years ago, considers herself a recipe collector.
“I’ve got a roomful of recipes,” Patrykus says. “I always saved all my old cookbooks … I could sit and read recipes.”

But she has a particular affinity for the unusual recipes gathered from old relatives and church cookbooks.
She’s not sure how she came across the instructions for Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake, but she knows it tastes great.

“Don’t tell people,” she says. “They’ll think it’s coconut.”

Sometimes the key to recipe success is thinking outside the box. And that often means using ingredients in unexpected ways.

Marcie Jabbora of Spokane likes to spike her pumpkin pie with Chinese Five Spice Powder, instead of the routine spice combination. (She also tells a story about accidentally spilling parakeet food into her pumpkin pie batter nearly 20 years ago. Her son still asks if she’ll be making “bird seed pumpkin pie.”)
Bird seed not included, the cooks in Kimball’s test kitchen have become masters at finding new ways to use old ingredients.

Here are some recipes that include unexpected ingredients. Test them out on your guests and see if they can figure out your secret.”

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups Cap’n Crunch’s Peanut Butter Crunch cereal
• 1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 5 tablespoons reduced-fat crunchy peanut butter
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon water

Preparation

Step 1

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Pulse cereal and 1/3 cup flour in food processor until finely ground. Add remaining flour, baking soda and salt and pulse to combine. With electric mixer on medium speed, beat softened butter, peanut butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in melted butter, egg whites and vanilla until combined. Add flour mixture and mix on low until incorporated. Add water and mix until absorbed.

Roll 1 1/2 tablespoons dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and space 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Press each dough ball into a 1/2-inch disk with the back of a measuring cup or a flat bottomed glass. Using a fork, make a crosshatch pattern on top of each cookie.

Bake one sheet of cookies until edges are lightly browned but centers are soft, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. Cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining cookies. Serve.

Nutrition Information:
Per serving
130 calories
4 grams fat (2.5 grams saturated, 27 percent fat calories)