Reworking favorite cookies a labor of love

Over the last 16 years, one of my most difficult kitchen tasks has been taking cookies from fat to lean.

Of all things baked, cookies may be the toughest to make well. Since they're made from such small dough amounts, mistakes seems amplified. Too much baking soda or sugar, too little flour or baking powder, or too high an oven temperature can mean disaster.

My favorite homemade cookie has always been chocolate chip, followed closely by soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. I'm a fool for chocolate; without it, life would not be the same.

After losing 100 pounds 18 years ago, I promised I'd figure out a way to make an incredible chocolate chip cookie that fit my lower-fat, lower-calorie food plan. That promise took years to fulfill.

Over time I've improved on that cookie to the point that I now believe it's almost impossible to tell the difference between my puffy, half-the-fat chocolate chip cookies and the high-fat, high-calorie ones made from the recipe on a bag of chocolate chips. Here's how they came about.

When I first started working with chocolate chip cookies I eliminated all added fat. If you want to find out how flavorless and tough a chocolate chip cookie can be, don't add any fat. Some shortening's always needed; it just doesn't have to be a large quantity.

I tried a few shortening substitutes and found unsweetened applesauce was just marginally acceptable. Later I learned draining it makes a big difference for the better.

I also used two egg whites for every whole egg to trim fat. But backed off that finding that a single egg yolk from a whole, divided among 24 cookies, netted negligible fat amounts. And, reduced-fat chocolate chips; now no longer available.

Over the years I learned that beating shortening, drained applesauce and sugar created millions of microscopic air bubbles that the baking soda or baking powder inflated with carbon dioxide. Only recently did I understand that adding a touch more baking powder to cookie dough helped balance applesauce's acidity (remember, it's a chemical equation).

When vegetable shortening finally got the heart-healthy message and reformulated without trans fat did using it begin to make sense. Vegetable shortening has nitrogen bubbles already in it, and just like the air bubbles beaten into margarine or butter, they help cookies reach new heights.

Then I learned all about cake flour, a very soft (low protein) wheat flour that creates a delicate cookie interior, much better than all-purpose flour.

Combine 16 years, numerous recipes, bowls of ingredients and racks of cookies and you have a huge effort just for a batch of decent, leaner cookies. Today, you try this recipe for a cookie that will delight everyone who tastes it.

Half-the-Fat Puffed-Up Chocolate Chip Cookies

5 tablespoons drained, unsweetened applesauce (from about cup undrained)

1½ cups cake flour (measured by the dip and sweep method)

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons (¼ cup) butter-flavored, trans fat free, all-vegetable shortening (such as Crisco)

1 cup minus 1 tablespoon light brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

6 ounces (about 1 cup) mini-morsel, semisweet chocolate chips

Place a strainer over a bowl deep enough to keep the bottom of the strainer from touching the bottom of the bowl. Add applesauce to the strainer and set aside to drain for 15 minutes.

Place the oven rack in the lower-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees.

Add the flour, salt and baking powder to medium mixing bowl; whisk or stir until well combined. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer beat shortening at medium-high speed for 2 minutes, until light. Measure and add 5 tablespoons drained applesauce to the mixing bowl and mix for 2 minutes, until creamy. Add sugar and mix for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add vanilla and mix for 15 seconds. Reduce speed to medium; add egg and mix for 20 seconds, or until combined.

Remove the bowl from the mixer stand, scrape down the sides, add the flour mixture and chocolate chips and with a wide rubber spatula fold until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

Very lightly, spray a shiny cookie sheet with vegetable oil. Drop rounded tablespoons of cookie batter about 2 inches apart on to the sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the edges just start to brown. Remove from the oven; cool on the sheet for 3 minutes before removing the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about two dozen cookies.

@Recipe nutrition:Nutrition values per cookie: 100 calories (29.1 percent from fat), 3.3 g fat (1.5 g saturated), 17.3 g carbohydrates, 0.2 g fiber, 1 g protein, 9 mg cholesterol, 75 mg sodium.