Cherry Thumbprint Cookies

I have loved to bake ever since my first attempts at cookies at the age of 9. What’s changed over the years is the type and amount of sugar that I use to sweeten my baked goods.

The first step was in 2009 when my kids were starting to eat solid foods and I discovered how bad refined sugar was for the body. This led me to eliminate refined sugar from my home and replace it with sucanat, an unrefined, granulated cane sugar.

While sucanat was better than refined sugar, it is still had a high sugar content and so I continued to search for alternative sweeteners that would keep my cookies tasting great while allowing my family to stay fit and healthy.

Raw honey, pure maple syrup, coconut nectar and coconut palm sugar became staples in my kitchen and in my dessert recipes. Bananas, dates, and other dried fruits were also experimented with. I was finding that removing refined sugar from delicious desserts was way easier than I’d thought it would be.

Now the thought of using refined sugar in my baking was unimaginable.

Time passed and I continued to make improvements to my diet by cutting down on the natural sugars that had replaced refined ones. I was realizing that even natural sugars had an impact on my weight and energy levels. It was time to find an even better alternative to bake with…

This leads us to today, and to this recipe for Cherry Thumbprint Cookies, one of my first dessert recipes exclusively using stevia for sweetener. Stevia is a natural sweetener (derived from a leaf that you can grow in your own garden) that has zero calories and zero sugar content. The benefits are huge to using stevia as a sweetener of choice.

I was a little hesitant when making these cookies. Would my kids like it? Would the stevia taste right? Would I regret completely removing all sugar content? I nervously waited for the cookies to finish baking…and then was pleasantly surprised with how the kiddos devoured them!

If we can make cookies that have zero sugar content but still taste sweet and satisfying then shouldn’t we? It makes us healthier, leaner and more energetic. It helps our kids avoid the pitfalls of sugar addiction and the slippery slope of weight gain and self loathing.

All without sacrificing the joy of having a delicious cookie.

Sure, if you’ve never used stevia then there will be an adjustment period. A time to get your taste buds accustomed to the absence of sugars. But once you adjust then you’ll wonder how you ever handled all that sugar in the first place.

Give these low sugar cookies a try and let me know what you think! Enjoy!