I love cookies. Who doesn’t? But just because I love them it doesn’t mean that I eat a lot of them.

Cookies are that perfect combination of sugar, fat, and salt that exemplifies addictive foods and I find that the more I eat, the more I want to eat.

Still, I treat myself to cookies occasionally, especially at this time of the year. My favorite is homemade iced sugar cookies made with butter because if I am going to eat a cookie, I want something baked from scratch.

The mass-produced, packaged cookies on the grocery store shelf come with ingredients you would never use in your home, like preservatives, fillers, artificial colors, etc.

For example here is the list of ingredients in a very famous chocolate chip cookie: Unbleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {vitamin B2}, Folic Acid), Semisweet Chocolate Chips (Sugar, Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Dextrose, Milk, Soy Lecithin), Sugar, Canola Oil, Palm Oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Leavening (Baking Soda, Ammonium Phosphate), Salt, Artificial Flavor, Caramel Color, Natural Flavor.

You would never use palm kernel oil, high fructose corn syrup, or artificial colors and flavors in cookies you bake at home. Consuming these ingredients is proven to have health consequences, and we should steer clear of them.

When I crave a cookie, but I don’t want to blow my diet, I like to use recipes like this one. It’s just two ingredients, not counting the salt, and the recipe only makes six cookies. Almond flour is calorie dense, but it provides protein, healthy fat, and fiber. Since it’s the only flour used, it also makes these cookies gluten free for those who avoid it.

Almond Cookies (gluten free)

• 1 cup almond flour – fine grade
• ¼ cup real maple syrup
• Dash of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet by covering it with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with cooking spray. Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Scoop rounded portions of dough onto the cookie sheet using a small cookie scoop or tablespoon. Spray fingertips with cooking spray and pat the dough into discs. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are golden. Cool for 30 minutes. Makes 6 cookies; 143 calorie per cookie.

Enjoy!

Sherry DeWalt is the healthy lifestyles coordinator for the CGH Health Foundation in Sterling.