almost doesn't count

I found a recipe for No Bake Oatmeal Cookie Balls on a blog the other day. I had (almost) all of the ingredients already and the recipe was quite simple so I decided to make them myself. I did want to tweak the recipe a bit though. I substituted Splenda for sugar and only added half of the butter it called for (I just couldn't put in a whole stick-as a baker i'm going to have to get over that ;) To add moisture (from the lack of butter) I put in a few teaspoons of applesauce. The recipe also called for peanut butter and I only had natural peanut butter (a little different consistency and not quite as sweet as regular). The recipe was very simple to make and took little prep time. The longest part was letting the cookies cool in the fridge for 20 minutes. With my substitutions they only had about 40 calories each, but I wasn't impressed with finished product. They weren't bad, but they didn't have much flavor (probably because they were lacking the good stuff-fat!). Below I'm posting the original recipe incase anyone would like to try the 'real thing.' Oh well, can't win 'em all ;)


No Bake Oatmeal Cookie Balls
adapted from allrecipes.com

2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, combine the oats, sugar and cocoa. With clean hands, mix in the water, vanilla, butter and peanut butter to form a dough.

Wash hands, then roll the dough into balls 1 to 2 inches in diameter. Roll balls in confectioners' sugar until thickly coated.

Chill 20 minutes before serving.