Embrace your inner Cookie Monster.

My niece and nephew were over on Thursday-Friday, and it being Valentine's Day, we made heart-shaped cookies. V-Day isn't a big deal around here, unless you're under 10.

Baking cookies is something I love to do, with or without Emily & Ben. It's a pleasure that shouldn't be overshadowed by guilt over fat and calories. For most of my life there existed a little black scribbly cloud, something you might see over a grumpy cartoon character, every time I baked cookies, pies, cakes, scones... anything that had always been on the "bad" list. What I didn't realize for years was that I started to approach life from a standpoint of damage control: how am I going to get through the holidays? through this party, through my birthday/wedding/summer vacation?

Baking cookies is one small ceremony that I am not willing to give up, nor feel guilt or stress over. Wanting to eat warm cookies, straight from the oven, is not a sign of weakness, or lack of will power, or something to be angry with yourself for. Eat one or two, make sure you get some exercise, and give the rest away if they are really going to torture you by being there. Learning how to bake with less fat and fewer calories is another way to take the edge off; since fat has more than twice the calories of protein or carbohydrate, it's the best way to trim calories. Just please don't think hey, they're low fat - I can eat twice as much of them! That defeats the whole point.

Rolled Sugar Cookies

This is a great basic cookie dough to start with; you can add spices and flavorings to customize them if you like. It’s important when you make rolled cookies to handle the dough as little as possible, and gently re-roll any scraps only once. Handling the dough too much develops the gluten, making your cookies tough.

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 Tbsp. canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, beat butter, oil, sugar and lemon zest with an electric mixer until well combined. Add egg and vanilla and beat for a minute, until smooth and light.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the sugar mixture and stir by hand just until you have a soft dough. Shape the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for an hour or until well chilled.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Roll the dough out between two sheets of waxed paper or on a surface very lightly dusted with a combination of flour and sugar until it’s 1/8”–1/4” thick. Cut out cookies using a 2”–3” cookie cutter or glass rim. Reroll the scraps once to get as many cookies as possible.

Place the cookies an inch apart on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until pale golden around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes 3 dozen 2 3/4” cookies.

Per Cookie: 54 calories, 1.9 g fat (0.9 g saturated fat, 0.7 g monounsaturated fat, 0.2 g polyunsaturated fat), 8.6 g carbohydrates, 9.4 mg cholesterol, 0.8 g protein, 0.2 g fiber. 31% calories from fat

Orange Sugar Cookies with Chocolate: Substitute grated orange zest for the lemon zest. Place 3/4 cup chocolate chips in a zip lock baggie, seal and place in a bowl of very warm water to melt. When the cookies have cooled and the chocolate has melted (knead it with your fingers to make sure there are no bits left), snip a tiny hole in one corner of the baggie. Drizzle the cookies with melted chocolate by squeezing the bag. Adds 1 g fat per cookie.

Lemon Poppyseed Sugar Cookies: Include the lemon zest, and add 2 Tbsp. poppyseeds to the sugar mixture. Mix and bake as directed.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies: Replace 1/2 cup of the flour with cocoa.

Tiny Lemon Curd Sandwiches: Cut rolled-out dough into rounds with a small (about an inch) round cookie cutter. Spread baked, cooled cookies with lemon curd, top with a second cookie and sprinkle with icing sugar.