Vanilla Chewies (Lower Fat)

These tasty little vanilla morsels come from the German baking book "Cookies" by Christa Schmedes. They are classified as low-fat cookies there and at first I was a bit sceptical about them. But I neednt have worried, they were super! I hope youll enjoy them too for a guilt-free holiday treat. Note: Prep time includes 30 minutes chill time.

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Yields: 40 small cookies

Ingredients

• 50  g butter
• 125  g low-fat cream cheese, 0 . 2% fat
• 80  g brown sugar, more if you prefer your cookies sweet
• 1  egg
• 1  teaspoon  ground vanilla bean
• 250  g flour (I use spelt flour)
• 1  teaspoon baking powder

• Glaze

• 1  tablespoon  organic brown icing sugar
• 1  teaspoon water (or more)

Directions

1. Melt butter in a small sauce-pan.
2. In a big bowl cream the cream cheese, butter and egg.
3. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and vanilla. Gradually add this to the cream cheese mixture.
4. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Now either take small lumps of dough (aobut 1 ts) and roll between your fingers to form a long thickish string. Shape this into a pretzel or a curly loop. Or simply form into balls (size of a walnut).
6. Place on a paper-lined cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 180°C/390°F or until tester comes out clean.
7. If using the glaze, mix together icing sugar and enough water to make a paste. Spread onto cooled cookies.