Think Thin Tuesday: You’re looking slender Cookie!

I had written a fairly negative, ranty post the other day on an airplane.  While I tempered it at times and tried to blunt my tongue as often as possible, I am hesitant to share it for fear of offending many people I hold near and dear.  It’s so hard to know how honest you can be on the internet and not offend people.  I’m not attacking any person in particular with it but I am highly critical in it.  While I mull over what to do with a post like that I turn instead to happier things…like National Cookie Day!  Everyone loves a cookie right?

But wait…it’s Tuesday.  I should be posting a weekly skinny post for you.  Well here’s something you can love even more: a low calorie but all natural cookie.  How about that huh?  Huh?  Okay I admit I cheat a bit, they aren’t huge honkers and whenever you make a portion small enough it’s going to be low in calories, but these are delicious, chewy cookies great for sitting with a cuppa and pontificating.  Should I share some of my more unpopular thoughts with the world or are these kinds of harsher criticisms better kept to small company where my intentions and tone won’t possibly be misconstrued?  What would Georgia Mason do?  What would Tim Gunn advise?  Truth or tact?  Should I use my words for harsher truths or hold back and observe some level of societal kindness?  It’s so hard to know.

So for today at least let’s just talk about these cookies.  They are dainty in size but jam packed full of flavor thanks to a healthy, heaping few tablespoons of anise seed.  Oh don’t know what anise is do you?  It’s an herb from the carrot family that has a very similar flavor profile to licorice—though the two plants are totally unrelated.  Licorice is a member of the bean family and is considered to have more depth to its flavor—but it’s also more expensive, harder to find and unlike any documentation I’ve found about anise, has just as many health detractors as it does benefits.

Licorice and anise are both naturally very sweet plants but where anise is 13 times sweeter than sugar, licorice is 50-100 times sweeter…so while it contains roughly the same number of calories per ounce, you can use a significantly smaller amount to sweeten something.  The problem with licorice the glycyrrhizin (the acid that provides the sweetness) has been shown to contribute to high blood pressure.  Studies have shown that consumption of as little as 2 oz a day over a two week period can significantly affect your blood pressure.  It’s a popular candy in Scandinavian culture and quite loved by a certain vegetable hating, hypertension suffering stepfather of mine who won’t be happy when Mom finds out that his favorite candy is so bad for him….  It has plenty of positive health applications as well—treatment for any number of stomach maladies and a promising anti-viral component that is of interest to hepatitis studies make it particularly of interest to researchers.  It also causes liver toxicity and ups cortisol production in the kidneys which lead to the aforementioned blood pressure problems…

Enter my anise seed cookies!  Anise seed gets its flavor from a different kind of chemical and has not turned up any significant health concerns in my searches.  Actually I have a sneaking suspicion that since both anise and licorice have phytoestrogen, both have this effect on blood pressure but the quantity in anise is much lower and so it is likely a safer choice to eat. It mimics the basic flavor of liquorices well enough and you can find it easily in most spice aisles.  It’s used more extensively in Greek cooking and it’s one of the primary components to flavor ouzo.  Star anise, which is a totally different herb of another color, also has a similar flavor and is cheaper to produce so you’ll see that in market even more than anise seed.  It’s used frequently in Asian (specifically Chinese) cooking but I don’t think it would work as well in this recipe.  Please don’t mistake the two.

Anise Chews

From King Arthur Flour’s Cookie Companion

• 1 stick butter (4 ounces) sofetened
• 5 ¼ ounces light brown sugar (about 2/3 cup)
• 1 large egg
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp anise seed
• 6 ¼ ounces flour (about 1 ½ cups)

Preheat the oven to 375f.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium sized bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Beat in the egg, baking soda, salt and aniseed.  Mix in the flour.

Drop the cookies by rounded spoonful – about 1 tsp of dough – onto the baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.  They will spread out into perfect little circles, I was amazed by how perfect they spread and baked.  Cool completely before eating.

Nutrition information (serving size 2 cookies): 80 calories | 4g fat | 2g protein
12g carbohydrates (6g sugar)