First, I’ll start this post off with my good old fashioned sugar cookie recipe. Pretty standard, no frills. Then following it, I’m going to show you how you can mix things up a little to make it a little lower in calories or vegan-friendly.

Your Mama’s Sugar Cookie..

3 1/4 cups of All Purpose Flour

1 1/2  tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup of butter

4oz of cream cheese

1 cup of sugar

1 egg

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375. Beat butter and cream cheese together till fluffy, then gradually add the egg and vanilla till batter is well combined. Finally mix in the rest of the dry ingredients until a dough is formed.

Bake till doughs puffs and edges turn golden.

Skinny Style Sugar Cookie..

To modify this recipe (or your favorite sugar cookie recipe/mix) to be a little more friendly to your waist line, you can make one or all of the following substitutions:

4 oz cream cheese for FAT FREE cream cheese ( you’ll barely notice the difference, I promise) or Applesauce (which will make cookies sweeter and less creamy)

1 cup sugar for 1/2 cup splenda  OR 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup Agave Nectar

You can also substitute the all purpose flour for whole wheat flour but this will effect how your cookies taste slightly. I tend to add flax seed meal to my sugar cookies because I don’t like them too sweet and I don’t mind the slightly nutty flavor it adds because it’s a great source of omega 3′s.

Vegan-ized Sugar Cookies

To make these yummy treats vegan friendly simply trade the following animal products for an equally delicious alternative:

Egg – for each egg needed mix 1 tsp flaxseed meal with 3 tsp of water and beat till gets a gooey consistency

Cream cheese – trade regular cream cheese for tofu cream cheese or applesauce

Butter – Soy butter works just as well but you can also substitute with coconut oil, which can be really tasty if you don’t mind a slight coconut taste to your baked goodies.

Of course, remember this is just a blue print! My favorite part of baking is experimenting with different ingredients and playing around to create some magic in the oven. You can use any of the above suggestions with your personal sugar cookie recipe or with the box of cookie mix you bought at the store! Sugar cookie dough is a great base for lots of fun and creative cookies!