Low Calorie Vegan Cookies: Chocolate Lemon

I didn’t mean for this to be vegan. Not that I have anything against vegan food (I eat it all time), but, when I’m baking, I don’t usually go out of my way to vegan-ize things because I find vegan + super low-calorie doesn’t usually work out in my favor.

I happened upon this vaguely dietized “butter” at Walmart the other day. I was actually looking for regular light sticks of butter but they only had the spreadable light kind. By the time I got over to the butter (from the cat food and popcorn and duct tape, etc), I was tired enough that I didn’t care and just knew I was going to want cookies when I got home.

As the cookies were baking, I got curious and decided to look at the ingredients on this “butter” that was marketed specifically toward healthy baking. To my surprise, everything on the list was vegan!

So I decided to try a vegan cookie. I’ve always wanted to try flaxmeal as a substitute for eggs and this was a perfect excuse!

Vegan Chocolate Lemon cookies

makes 9-10 cookies

1/4 c. mashed Fiber One Original Bran (mash it till it has the consistency of flour)
1/8 c. (2T.) cocoa powder
1/4 +1/8 t. baking SODA
1/4 t. baking POWDER
1/4 c. applesauce
1 T. flax meal + 1.5 T warm water, mix the two and let stand for a few minutes
1.5 T. light vegan butter or nut butter, melted
3 T. sugar substitute/sugar (the sugar doesn?t really play a part in the texture here so feel free to use sugar substitute packets)
1 t. equivalent brown sugar (I used Splenda Brown Sugar blend for baking)
1-2 T. meyer lemon juice

?Preheat the oven to 350*F.

In a bowl, mix the butter with the sugars. Add the applesauce, lemon juice and flaxmeal paste.

Add the fiber one and mix well. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes. (These kept coming out wafer-thin no matter what I did, which is why I added the fiber one with the wet….it soaks up a lot of the extra liquid from the lemon juice)

In another bowl, mix the cocoa with the baking soda and baking powder.

Add the wet to the dry and mix.

Drop by spoonfuls on cookie sheet sprayed well with nonstick spray and bake for about 15-20 minutes. Since these are so chocolate-y, you’ll have to break one open to see if it’s cooked.

Mine weren’t lemony enough for me (is anything ever lemony enough for me?), so I made little chocolate lemon sandwiches using these cookies and slices of meyer lemon (whose skin is actually edible).

What about all my readers? Any variations on the theme?