When you think of stuffed cookies, what comes to mind?  Probably a bunch of good thoughts on the taste and the ooey, gooey filling.  You know what doesn’t?  How many calories are in a stuffed cookie.  You have a cookie AND the  filling.  Depending on the cookie and the filling, the calorie count, as well as sugar, can go sky high.  I’ve had success with the cookies I’ve made so far.  I wanted to see if I could get a stuffed cookie and make it 100 calories or less.  The cookie recipe I am starting with is from Delish for Peanut Butter-Stuffed Cookies.  These cookies use peanut butter in both the cookie and the filling making them over 400 calories a piece.  Yikes!  I bet they are good, but I don’t want a sweet treat to ruin all of my hard work.  I’m going to go with my trusty ingredients of PB Fit, applesauce and sweetener to get this down to a more manageable level.

Here are the original stats:

Here’s what I changed:

• I swapped out the peanut butter with hydrated peanut butter powder to lower the fat and calories.
• I swapped out the butter for unsweetened applesauce to lower the calories and fat.
• I replaced the sugar with sweetener replacements to lower the sugar and calories.
• I swapped out the all-purpose flour with almond and coconut flour to lower the carbs.
• I increased the servings from 12 to 18 to lower the calories.

Here are the final stats:

Here is the final recipe:

Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies

18 Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 375° and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Make filling: In a medium bowl, combine peanut butter powder and water to make a peanut butter.  Add in the powdered sweetener and mix until smooth. Scoop into 18 small balls (about 1″) and freeze until ready to use.
3. Make cookies: In a large bowl, combine peanut butter powder, six tablespoons water, applesauce, and sugars and beat with a hand mixer on medium until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined, then add both flours, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt and mix until just combined.
4. Scoop a level tablespoon of the cookie dough and flatten into a pancake-like circle. Place the frozen peanut butter ball on top. Bring the edges of the dough around the peanut butter ball and pinch the edges together to seal, adding more dough if necessary to cover the frozen peanut butter completely.
5. Roll stuffed cookie dough ball in sugar and place on baking sheet. Repeat until all dough is used, spacing the cookies about 2” apart.
6. Bake until the cookies are golden on the bottom,12 to 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.