(ZERO-SUGAR) CHERRY COOKIES

 Since I don't have enough to do, I find myself taking on another responsibility at church. Don't take that the wrong way. I feel I can't do enough for my church. AND since I love baking so much, what's another excuse to bake some more? Right? Right!

This time I'm baking treats for the coffee hour. We have two services - a modern one at 9:30 and a traditional one at 11:00. In the welcoming area between the Worship Center and the Sanctuary is an area with small tables and a bar area for making and serving coffee. Before the Worship Center was built, donuts were offered downstairs in the dining room between services. They were very popular, but was stopped when the Worship Center was opened. Then COVID hit and the church was temporarily closed and we moved to online services for a year.

Move to present-day and coffee is now being served in the "Cafe" area. There are no plans right now to bring back the donuts so I offered to bake some cookies, mini-muffins, etc. I've done it three or four times so far. That means I have another opportunity for more recipes to share with you.

One recipe I always try to make is something sugar-free. Many times the recipe I make wasn't a sugar-free recipe, but I made it one by the ingredients I used. That's the case with this one. The good news is you can make it sugar-free or not. Your choice.

This recipe is another one of those that I like because you have so much freedom with it. You can make the cookies for any special occasion by changing the flavor of the jello. With Valentine's Day coming soon, I chose a red jello. Not as red as I would like, but I didn't want to make a special trip to the grocery store when I had one I could use - the black cherry flavor instead of cherry or strawberry that would have been more red.

Another interesting story when I was making them - I wanted to add something else to the cookies, but wanted to keep them sugar-free. I thought about some unsweetened coconut and asked Wayne what he thought. He said personally he would like the coconut but since so many people don't like the texture or taste of coconut, I should not add it. I knew what he meant and decided to not add the coconut. I made two dozen cookies "plain" and had a little bit more dough so I thought I would add a little the coconut. When I formed the cookies, there wasn't any coconut showing on top so I just sprinkled a little coconut and pressed it down on top. I also picked up the stray pieces so they wouldn't burn on the cookie sheet as the cookies baked. Long story short - - they were the first ones eaten Sunday when I placed them out on the tray. They both tasted really good, but I must admit, I really liked the ones with the coconut. 

PRINT the recipe.

(ZERO-SUGAR) CHERRY COOKIES

1      Sugar-free/Zero sugar cake mix - yellow or white (I used a yellow one)

1      box sugar-free jell-0 (I used black cherry but use any flavor you wish)

1/2   cup oil or melted butter (I used oil)

2      tablespoons water

2      eggs

unsweetened coconut (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix and jell-0 mix together with a whisk.

Add the rest of the  ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix well til combined.

I did use the electric mixer to do this and then scraped the sides of the bowl with my spatula.

Using a small cookie scoop - 1 tablespoon size, drop dough about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool about 1 minute and remove cookies to cool

completely on a wire rack. 

Note: If you are adding the coconut to the dough,

press a little extra coconut on top of the dough and press lightly into dough. Remove any excess coconut that falls on the cookie sheet.

Store in an air tight container.