Thank U Berry Munch Cookies

These Low Carb Girl Scout Thank U Berry Munch Cookies are perfect! Introducing the most delicious chocolate chip cookie I have, in fact, ever eaten (high carb OR any other). No really. No. REALLY. Cross my cookie and hope to crumble.

Ever have one of those chocolate macadamia nut cookies at Subway? Ahhh… erm…. me neither (brushes crumbs from my cleavage). Imagine that cookie with dried, chewy, delicately sweetened cranberries and you have the Girl Scout cookie sans the guilt. In fact, I’ll bet if you took this cookie to a LARP match, your opponent would immediately be hit by 27 hit flavor points and rendered useless before you. It’s true. It could happen.

Girl nerdiness aside, I’ve adapted the recipe from: cooks.com and added sassy little cranberries. So this recipe isn’t exactly the Girl Scout Cookie. It’s actually better than the Girl Scout cookie. And it’s not exactly the Subway cookie. It’s better than the Subway cookie.

Some thoughts:

• It is important to note that dried, unsweetened cranberries are hard to come by. Like almost impossible. Like picturing a time when Abe Vigoda didn’t have nostril hairs. No worries! Simply foll0w the instructions on this Livestrong site to dehydrate your fresh cranberries.
• Cranberries will not appear shriveled like raisins, but they will be dried, even if they hold their shape.
• Because they tend to hold their shape, I counted a cup of dried cranberries with the same carb count as a cup of raw when calculating for nutritional values.
• Speaking of plump, even though you first dehydrate the cranberries, you’ll rehydrate them in water and 1/2 cup sugar equivalent sweetener and puff them back up to measure adequately before baking.
• Why dehydrate a cranberry to plump them back up again? The texture of the cranberries in this cookie is like raisins–only better. And better for you. And delicious. Chewy. Sweet… It’s a texture and a taste thing. Trust me.
• Want to save carbs? Each white chocolate chip (I used Ghirardelli) is .2 carbs, so plan accordingly. You can elect to not add the white chocolate chips (which add 64 carbs to the recipe @1.5 carbs per cookie). You could also elect to stuff one chip into each cookie instead, saving a total of 52 carbs.
• Added: A friend told me there are Lindt White Chocolate bars available that can be chopped for carb savings with the flavor.
• Want to save fat and calories? Cut down on the amount of chopped macadamia nuts. I predicted that 1/2 cup macadamias would produce about 1/4 cup chopped nuts, but you can use fewer. Cut them out altogether and save 11 calories per cookie and 3.5 grams of fat.

Low Carb Thank U Berry Munch Cranberry, Macadamia Nut, White Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup butter, at room temp
1/2 cup equivalent brown sugar substitute
1/2 cup equivalent white sugar substitute
1 egg
1 tsp rum or brandy extract
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup dried, unsweetened cranberries + 1/2 cup sugar equiv. sweetener
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Cranberry prep:
Add a cup of dehydrated berries to a cup of very hot water and 1/2 cup sugar equivalent of sweetener and allow to sit for an hour prior to use, stirring occasionally. This will help juice the berries back up and make them sweeter in the cookie. Pour off the water prior to measuring for the recipe.

Cookie prep:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sweeteners until smooth.
4. Beat in egg and extract.
5. Combine the flour and baking soda in a separate bowl. Slowly add to sweetener  mixture.
6. Roll into 1″ balls and place on cookie sheet about 2″ apart (cookies don’t really spread).
7. With fingers, slightly flatten each cookie.
8. Bake for 6-7 minutes or until bottom is golden brown. The cookie will look unfinished, but it is.
9. Allow to cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet before moving gently to a cooling rack.
10. Allow to cool for 30 minutes to allow cookies to fully set.

Makes about 42 cookies.
Nutritional Information per low-carb cookie: Calories:  68,  Carbohydrates:  3.3 g, Fiber: 1 g,   Net Carbohydrates:  2.2g,  Protein:  1g, Fat: 1.4g
Nutritional Information for original Girl Scout Thank U Berry Munch Cookie: Calories:  60,  Carbohydrates:  9 g, Fiber: .5g,   Net Carbohydrates:  8.5g,  Protein:  .5g, Fat: 2.5g