Quest Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Ice Cream

You all know Kelly M. as your Foodie Vitamin Correspondent for the Bariatric Foodie monthly e-mail newsletter (you ARE signed up, right?). But she, like any other post-op, loves healthy yumminess too! I recently sent her a Quest Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough protein bar to play with. Here’s what she did with it.

When Nik sent me this new Quest bar, it was to make protein ice cream with it and document the process. But I realized that I left my icecream maker at my sister’s house. But that’s ok because you know what we say here at Bariatric Foodie — play with your food! That’s why I’m going to tell you both how I made my ice cream this time (just in case some of you don’t have an ice cream maker) and how to make it with the ice cream maker.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Ice Cream

(Makes 3-4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 c. skim milk (use any kind of milk you like, just keep in mind that fat free milk makes ice cream that is less rich and creamy than ice cream usually is)
• 1.5 scoops vanilla protein powder (I used Syntrax Nectar vanilla bean torte protein powder because I think it tastes just like vanilla ice cream. Click the links on the words to see the product!)
• ½ tsp. no-calorie sweetener (I used Splenda, although it’s not pictured)
• ½ tsp. sugar-free vanilla pudding (if you don’t have any, your ice cream should turn out fine without it, but it helps make it a little bit thicker and creamier)
• One Quest chocolate chip cookie dough protein bar

Put all ingredients except the protein bar in a cup with a lid and shake well.  You can also mix them in a blender if you prefer. Personally, I think some brands of protein powder mix up better in a blender, but Syntrax Nectar does just fine when I shake it.

Now, if you have an ice cream maker, pour the liquid in and turn it on. Let it go for about 20 minutes, or whatever the instructions for your ice cream maker say.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, pour the liquid into a glass and stick it in the fridge.

Then chop up the chocolate chip cookie dough protein bar into tiny little pieces.  Or chop it into bigger chunks if you like that better. It’s up to you. And yes, I snuck a little taste (or two… or three…) while I was chopping. Tastes just like chocolate chip cookie dough. I love raw cookie dough.

If you’re making your protein ice cream in an ice cream maker, after about 20 minutes, dump the chopped up protein bar in and let it mix for another five minutes or so.

If you’re making protein ice cream without an ice cream maker, unfortunately, you’ve got a bit more work to do. Every 10 minutes or so, stir up the partially frozen liquid.  After about 20 minutes, mine looked like this.

After about 50 minutes, I had vanilla slush.  I poured the slush into a bowl, added the chopped up protein bar, and stirred well.

I stuck the bowl in the freezer for another half hour and voila!  Chocolate chip cookie dough protein ice cream.  Yum!

Now, the nutritional stats for your chocolate chip cookie dough protein ice cream will vary depending on what kind of milk you use and what brand of vanilla protein powder you use, but I wanted to mention that my entire batch of ice cream had about 70 grams of protein.  I’ll probably get three or four servings out of this, so I’ll get 17 to 23 grams of protein in each delicious serving.

(Never tried the Quest Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough bar? Click here to read Nik's review and then click here to order some AND support Bariatric Foodie at the same time!)

WLS-friendly Cookies: Nik-a-doodles...



I love baking cookies. Mostly because it is the ONLY realm of science I can truly wrap my head around.

Having said that, these cookies were challenging! My mission: a higher protein, lower carb cookie recipe that didn't have 8 million ingredients! My goal was 7-8. I'm going to go through this recipe but also through all the missteps I encountered in hopes that you can figure out how you'd like to approach this process in order to make different flavors!

First, we should go over my personal rules about cookies:

1. I don't make cookies except when I have a plan to share them with others.
2. With the exception of my Christmas Eve party I don't make big batches of cookies. That's why any cookie recipes you see here on BF rarely yield more than a dozen cookies.
3. I hold myself accountable to cookies! I eat them, I gotta report how many and when.

Ok, then. Snickerdoodles! I love them. Especially this time of year. I renamed them because I am vain but forgive me...my African-American soul did not like the sound of "Nikerdoodles." Yeah, yeah...a new day and yadda, yadda. MOVING ON!

Here is the final recipe I came up with for these:

Nik-a-doodles

Wet ingredients:

• 1 stick of low-cal butter substitute (I use Blue Bonnet Light - and yes, yes I know this is blasphemy to some of you. If you want to use butter it's your choice but the calories will be significantly higher than the ones I quote below!)
• Either 1 c. of Splenda or whatever baking-appropriate sugar substitute you like, in an amount that measures to the equivalent of 1 c. of sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. sugar-free Brown Sugar Cinnamon syrup (or, in the absence of that, the same amount of sugar-free pancake syrup and a generous dash of cinnamon)

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 c. Atkins Baking Mix (before you ask, if you want these cookies to come out with the stats I give below - or close - yes you have to use the Atkins Mix. If you're ok with them not being high protein, any low-carb baking mix will do)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar (if you've never used it before it's in the spice aisle)
• 1 additional tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. This was the first discovery I made about these cookies. When I baked them at 350 they came out cakey, almost like a muffin top. They need higher heat!

In a bowl, mix together the butters and sugar substitute (and syrup if you are using it). It won't "cream" like sugar does. In fact, it looks a bit like popcorn. Look:





After the butter and sugar substitute are well mixed, add in your egg, mixing well and, finally, the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift together your dry ingredients. Now you don't HAVE to sift if you don't want to but if you've ever used Atkins mix you know there are some pretty large grains in there (that's what makes it low carb). If your batter is chunky, your cookie will look chunky. So sift!

Tip the wet ingredients into the dry and I'd suggest using a mixer. Again, whatever the consistency of the batter is, the cookies will be the same. My first few batches I mixed by hand and the cookies were "lumpy."

So let's talk about the dough, shall we? It will be soft. You will not be able to roll these unless you refrigerate your dough first. But even then, with non-traditional cookies I find you have to put them in the oven in the shape you want them to come out. So I drop the dough on the sheet and then take a spoon and flatten they out into a round disc. This is how I got the cookies above round and flat. If you don't do that, most likely they won't spread much.

If you used to like them rolled in cinnamon and sugar you can mix about 1 oz. of sugar substitute and about 1 heaping teaspoon of cinnamon in a bowl and drop your cookie dough in that and shake it around before baking! (You still want to flatten your dough though.)

Alrighty then...you guys must be wearing me down on my "no stats" policy (not really...this is just an exception). I ran these through the recipe maker on LiveStrong and here's what I got (if you're on LS, you can click here to see the full stats):

Per cookie:

Nik-a-doodles (per cookie)

86 calories

4.8g fat

4.87g carbs

1.5g fiber

>1g sugar

5.53g protein

Vs. Traditional Homemade Snickerdoodles (per cookie)

120 calories

6g fat

15g carbs

0g fiber

7g sugars

1g protein

So what does this teach us? A cookie, as always, is a TREAT! But you can even play with your treats to add a bit of protein punch to them. Besides this recipe yielded me exactly 12 cookies. That's two (at best) for me - IF I get those before the divas become aware of them - and a few for the divas and even some for the friends they always seem to have hanging around!

You may ask why I did not use protein powder and my answer would be because the consistency of protein powder in baking is more conducive to pies and cake-type things than in cookies. There may be recipes for cookies out there that call for protein powder but they never seem to work well for ME. And if I can't get it right I'm not even going to try to sell you guys on them!

But you know what I always say. Play with your food! If you come up with a recipe that works, send it and a pic to bariatricfoodie@yahoo.com!





No-Flour Almond Butter Cookies



For those who ordered a Survival Kit or attended, the Holiday Food Tasting, this recipe is also on your dedicated page (along with another recipe that is just for you!) and (God willing) so will downloadable recipe cards for them by the end of today!

Many folks shy away from playing with cookie recipes because they are something of a science experiment. Cookies need to have the right balance of starch, fat, flavoring and levening agents to form into the perfectly simple deliciousness that we know as a cookie.

But really it isn't all that complicated. Take these almond cookies. They use no flour. They use no baking soda. In fact there are just a few ingredients, many of which you MAY already have in your pantry or fridge.

Again, this is a small batch recipe, yielding only about a dozen cookies. Because even though these cookies are BETTER for you than traditional ones...cookies just aren't ever going to be health food. Sorry!

Nik's No-Flour Almond Butter Cookies

1 c. almond butter

1 c. Splenda (if you don't use Splenda, use the amount of your preferred sweetener equivalent to one cup of sugar)
1 egg
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. butter extract

OPTIONAL: Raw almonds for decoration

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl with a hand mixer, making sure egg is fully incorporated. Dough will be loose.



Use a large spoon to roll your dough into a ball. Transfer to a sprayed baking sheet then mash down your dough ball with a spoon to form a disc.

Bake about 8 minutes then remove from oven. Place an almond on top of each and press into the cookie while still soft (for a bit of extra flavor, try a lightly sweetened almond from a 100 calorie pack or a cocoa almond!).

Allow to cool on a rack before eating. Cookies will be crumbly...but YUMMY!

BF (No Flour) Cookie-palooza!!!



Ok, first I have to give a big, PHAT (with a P) BF congratulations to Christine, the winner of the "Ho-ho-holiday Photo Contest!" She's won a super cool nutrition label digital scale. Check it out! I have one myself and when the divas and I FINALLY move (read: have a bigger kitchen) I am going to start playing with it more. Heck, you guys might even get a few recipe stats out of that thing!

So...cookies. I've explained my cookie rules before. But this Christmas, I wanted some. I'm nearly 4 years post-op and in many ways my eating life has reached its "new normal" (I've kicked a lot of things out of my life forever and now find I actually CRAVE the healthier stuff...crazy, right?).

I want Christmas cookies to be part of my new normal but not the way I used to have them. You know the deal. Big batches. LOTS of sugar and fat. And the dreaded white flour!!! No way! Not for me!

So this week I'm going to post a few recipes here of cookies that use absolutely no white flour, including one that includes no flour at all!

And for the folks who ordered the BF Holiday Survival Kit (or attended the live event), early next week I'm going to post two no-white flour cookie recipes (and Lord willing, one other yummy no-flour recipe) that I developed especially for the event (but sadly, did not have enough time to make). Look for the recipes AND downloadable recipe cards by Tuesday. If they aren't up by then, feel free to nag me shamelessly.

So on to the business of the day. I should first say that with Christmas cookies...I'm not so much into roll-out cookies that are sparkly. I like good, home-baked cookies! This recipe, and all the recipes, are made with WLS-friendly ingredients (but use your best judgment) but here's the best thing about them: I've tweaked the recipes so that each makes only about a dozen cookies! That means a smaller batch and less "residual temptation." Today's offering: oatmeal raisin!!!

Nik's No-flour Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Dry ingredients:

1 c. quick oats, halved
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Wet ingredients:

1/2 stick low calorie baking butter substitute (equivalent of 1/4 c. or 4 tbsp. I used Blue Bonnet Light)
1 egg
1 c. no-calorie sweetener (I used Splenda. If the kind you use doesn't measure 1:1 with sugar, use the amount your sweetener suggests for a cup of sugar)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Additions:

1/4 c. raisins
1/4 c. chopped walnuts (optional - I didn't use this time)

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Place half your oats in a blender or food processor and blend into a flour.

Place in a bowl and combine with your other half cup of oats. Add baking soda, salt and spice and blend. Set aside.

Cream together "butter" and sugar substitute. Add egg and mix until thoroughly combined (with Splenda this is going to look more mealy than creamy. Finally, add vanilla and mix well.

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until dough forms. Add your raisins in (and nuts if you're using them).



Using a spoon (of whatever size you like, but remember, the smaller the spoon, the more cookies you'll yield) scoop out dough and form a ball. Line your balls up on a sprayed cookie sheet then mash down into a disc with a spoon (like many no-flour cookie recipes, these don't spread on their own).

Bake for about 8-10 minutes. And here they are!

Yes, my baking sheet is a hot mess. I bake a lot. Let's focus on the BIGGER picture here.

This recipe yielded exactly 12 cookies with a small spoon, 9 with a larger spoon. I think I like the larger spoon one better. Three for me, three for each diva! YUM!