Greek Yogurt Cut Out Cookies

December 3, 2014

I think we can all agree that I’m no one’s epitome of normal. For starts, I fell out of a parked car (sober) a solid week ago and no one was even surprised. I sing songs about my cats. I regularly wear fossil necklaces and even have a shirt with gold glittery dinosaur fossils on it. So really, the fact that I have dinosaur cookie cutters shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone. So let’s try not to dwell on my having literally no other blog appropriate cookie cutters. Mmmkay?

Greek Yogurt Cut Out Cookies

More importantly, let me tell you about my birthday night out at the bar. I was wearing the most obnoxiously shiny, totally sequin covered shirt that I own, naturally. A random girl sits down in the booth with us (it’s a big booth, so it’s only marginally weird) and keeps leaning over to her companions pretending like she wants to pet my shirt and saying how much she loves it. I lean over and tell her where I got it (Old Navy, if you must know) and she instantly takes this as a sign that we’re besties.

Greek Yogurt Cut Out Cookies

Rando immediately starts complimenting everything I own, which includes a $5 pair of moccasins that are basically my “I’ve given up” shoes — not complaining, obviously she’s just being nice/drunk. She insists on getting my number because I’m the most stylish person she’s ever met (see first paragraph re: dinosaur shirt and fossil necklaces) and we need to go shopping together. When I give her my number (confession: I had the ulterior motive of setting her up with a friend, I don’t normally hand out my number like that), she realizes she never got my name. When I tell her, she squees with glee — her name is Kellia. Is that a name? Apparently! And now she’s my new best friend forever.

Greek Yogurt Cut Out Cookies

Only she hasn’t texted me yet. Weird, right?

Not weird? Dinosaur cookies. Those are totally normal. I made these quite a bit healthier than my family’s standard recipe by swapping sour cream for fat free Greek yogurt, subbing in whole wheat flour, and cutting down the butter. I didn’t roll my cookies very thin, because I love when cut outs are puffy and cakey. If you roll them thinner (more like 1/4 inch) and cook a bit longer, you can get a crunchier/firmer cookie.

Greek Yogurt Cut Out Cookies

Author: Kelly Hutchinson

Prep time: 24 hours

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 24 hours 10 mins

Serves: ~ 30 cookies

Ingredients

1½ c white whole wheat flour
½ c whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour)
pinch salt
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ c butter, softened
heaping ½ c sugar (any dry dissolvable sugar can be subbed in)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp. agave nectar or honey
2 tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
¾ c Greek yogurt (I used Chobani 0%)
1 egg
Extra flour for rolling out

Instructions

Whisk together the flours, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
Cream together the butter and sugar in a stand mixer. Add the vanilla, agave/honey, applesauce, Greek yogurt, and the egg. Mix until well combined.
Add half of the flour and stir until almost mixed in. Add the remaining flour and mix until almost combined, switching to a wooden spoon if necessary to combine completely.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours but preferably overnight.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Cover a clean flat work surface with flour, unwrap the dough, and place on the floured surface. Dust the top with more flour (don’t be stingy or it’ll stick!) and roll out to ¼ – ½ inch thickness (Thicker for a puffier, cakier cookie. Thinner for a crunchier cookie)
Using cookie cutters, cut out your favorite shapes and arrange on an ungreased cookie sheet. Combine and re-roll the dough scraps as necessary to continue cutting out shapes until you’ve used as much of the dough as possible.
Bake cookies for approximately 9 minutes until the edges are slightly browned.
Remove from the oven and transfer cookies to cooling racks.
When the cookies are cool, frost with your favorite buttercream or icing. I highly recommend buttercream with a dollop of cookie butter!

Notes

The yield/nutritional estimate will depend on the size of your cookie cutters and how thin you roll your dough.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 cookie Calories: 70 Fat: 2 Carbohydrates: 12 Fiber: 1 Protein: 2

Love cooking with Greek yogurt? Check out Chobani’s recipe page for more inspiration.

Psssst. Here are links to the dinosaur cookie cutters (affiliate link), ridiculously shiny shirts (regular and plus size), and the long since sold out dino sweatshirt.