Holiday cookie ritual extends to new generation

Holidays, food and families have woven themselves together, like braids on a loaf of challah or strands of colored beads on a Christmas tree, since time now forgotten. That continues to be true for me.

When I was a kid, this season's parade of holidays always stepped-off with Thanksgiving, and since my folks couldn't decide whether we should be with mom's or dad's family we settled on -- both. This didn't happen just once, but for many years. If you ever wondered how I got to weigh more than 300 pounds, knowing just that bit of holiday history should be enlightening.

I don't know when Grandmother Mauer began her tradition of baking cookies for Christmas gifts, but I do know the only thing that could stop her ritual required she no longer answered "here" at earth's daily roll call. I can hardly conceive of the thousands, literally, of cookies she made, baked and stacked in tins that line her back stairs during the weeks and days leading up to Christmas.

For decades before I came along, my maternal grandmother, Nana, made what most folks now know as "the dreaded" fruitcake for Christmas gifts. I am told rows of them were lined up, wrapped tightly in waxed paper, mellowing with time and spirits until just the right moment when they could be given away.

Both my grandmothers believed in gifts from the heart, which is why it has been a long time since I bought anyone an expensive holiday gift. For 13 years following Grandmother Mauer's passing, my wife, Susan, and I made cookies and candy from her recipes and gave them as gifts to family and close friends every year.

Making a batch of Grandmother Mauer's cookies refreshes memories of Christmases. Over the years I've tinkered with Grandmother Mauer's recipes doing my best to lower the fat and calorie count. It may seem obvious, but after all that experimentation, I don't believe it's possible to cut all the fat out of Christmas cookies and endw up with anything that tastes better than the proverbial lump of coal.

However, I have found great success with many cookies by using half the fat and substituting an equal amount of drained, unsweetened applesauce. This technique alone makes significant amounts of fat and calories vanish into thin air. For holiday cookies that call for nuts I've learned to lightly toast half of the nuts to reduce the fat and calories while minimally decreasing an important flavor note.

Another way to cut calories is to cut the eggs. If a recipe calls for more than one whole egg, I suggest using one of the whole eggs and replacing each of the remaining whole eggs with one egg white.

Try this recipe: My gift for you today is Grandmother Mauer's Frosted Oatmeal Cookies. This cookie may seem a tad plain for a holiday cookie, but it's fairly easy to make, looks nice when it's frosted and tastes better than almost all other oatmeal cookies.

Grandmother Mauer's Frosted Oatmeal Cookies

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1½ cups quick oatmeal

½ cup chopped pecans

Frosting

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted after measuring

1 tablespoon strong coffee

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the oven rack in the lower-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray cookie sheets or jelly roll pans with vegetable oil. Set aside.

Add the flour, salt and baking soda to a medium mixing bowl and whisk together until combined, about 30-45 seconds. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars on medium to medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes until the texture becomes light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix on medium for 25 seconds.

Stop the mixer, add the flour mixture, oatmeal and nuts and mix at low speed until moistened and combined, 30-45 seconds.

Drop the dough by the teaspoon-full about 2 inches apart onto the prepared sheets or pans (about 15 cookies to the sheet or pan). Bake 8-10 minutes until light brown around the edges. Remove the cookies from the pan onto cooling racks, continuing to bake until all of the dough is gone.

For the frosting: While the cookies bake, add the butter, coffee, cinnamon and vanilla to a small mixing bowl. Add the confectioner's sugar and, with an electric mixer, mix together until smooth. Spread about ½ teaspoon frosting on top of each cookie (I like using a small rubber spatula). Cool completely. Store in airtight containers or freeze.

Makes about 60 cookies.

Lean variation: To trim fat and calories from this recipe here's what to do: Use ¼ cup butter and drain about ½ cup unsweetened applesauce to have ¼ cup drained applesauce. Beat the drained applesauce with the butter and the sugars just like the recipe describes. Also use ¼ cup chopped pecans, but toast them lightly in a small skillet over medium heat and cool them before adding them to the batter. These changes reduce the calories from fat to 30 percent.

Nutrition values per cookie: 59 calories (44 percent from fat), 2.8 g fat (1.3 g saturated fat), 7.9 g carbohydrates, 0.3 g fiber, 0.6 g protein, 9 mg cholesterol, 28 mg sodium.