I love baking sugar cookies for the different holidays throughout the year. I have amassed quite a collection of cookie cutters. However, I do try to limit the amount of sugar that my family consumes, and my classic sugar cookies have a whopping 200 grams of sugar per batch. I also love experimenting in the kitchen, so I recently played around with my sugar cookie recipe to lower the sugar content. Instead of 200 grams of sugar, I swapped out the full cup of white sugar for 1/3 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce. The modified recipe is pretty close to the classic but contains only about 90 grams of sugar per batch.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup of white sugar
- 1 cup of butter
- 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
- colored sugar
Directions
- Cream together the sugar and butter.
- Add the vanilla, unsweetened applesauce, and egg to the butter and sugar. Mix thoroughly.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flours and baking soda.
- Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients.
- Cover the sugar cookie dough and place in the refrigerator for at least three hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Roll the sugar cookie dough in a fourth-inch sheet on a floured surface.
- Cut the dough using cookie cutters.
- Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Decorate with colored sugar.
- Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until golden.
- Allow the cookies to cool slightly before removing from the cookie sheet.
- Allow the cookies to cool thoroughly.
- Store the lower-sugar rolled sugar cookies in an airtight container.
Also try my classic rolled sugar cookies, dairy-free rolled sugar cookies, and gluten-free sugar cookies.
Image Credits
Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies Recipe © 2018 Heather Johnson
Butter for Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Sugar for Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Applesauce for Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Egg for Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Vanilla for Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Dry Ingredients for Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Dough for Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Chilled Dough for Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Cutting the Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Cut Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Decorating the Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Baked Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson
Tray of Lower-Sugar Rolled Sugar Cookies © 2018 Heather Johnson