Cookies, Ice Cream and Fudge… Healthy right?

Ice Cream Sandwiches and Marshmallow Fudge

One of my guilty pleasures is dessert. I love anything ice cream and chocolate, so when I started trying to eat healthy again this was one of the hardest things for me to give up. I haven’t done very much giving up of the sweets, but instead have found better alternatives to eating ice cream and such without the guilty after feelings.

This week I found two great Weight Watchers® recipes for Ice Cream Sandwiches and Marshmallow Fudge. Now I know what you might be thinking, Weight Watchers® food is diet food how can that taste good? I thought the same thing when I first started the program. 13 pounds lighter, I realized that the program actually worked. Now that I’m back at it again, it’s helping me balance eating healthy, exercising, and my cravings for desserts. While these recipes are using lower fat ingredients you can always substitute to your heart’s content to make them the way you like them.

 My boyfriend joined me in the kitchen to make these delectable desserts. One of our favorite couple activities is to bake or cook together. He’s usually the chopper and the general knife user, where as I’m more of the stir or mixer. For these desserts we started by making the cookies, then made the fudge while the cookies were cooling, and finished up putting together the ice cream sandwiches. It was nice to have an extra set of hands in the kitchen to stir the fudge mixture while I was taking trays of cookies out of the oven.

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

You can find the original recipe at https://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/recipepage.aspx?recipeid=50344

Ingredients:

• Cookies (Whichever kind you wish)
• Vanilla Ice Cream (Or another flavor you like)
• Sprinkles

Directions:

1. Place a scoop of ice cream on one cookie
   
2. Place second cookie on top and press lightly
3. Run the edges of the ice cream in sprinkles
   

Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner I decided to use Valentine’s sprinkles. For the cookies I decided that we would use freshly made Nestle® Toll House® chocolate chip cookies (recipe to follow), using the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. This is one of the ways that you could change these to be anything that you would prefer such as sugar cookies or peanut butter cookies. 

Nestle® Toll House® Cookies:

https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18476/original-nestle-toll-house-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar 
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 2 large eggs 
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy.
   I chose to use light butter to make the fat content in the cookies a little less.
   
   Note: You don’t need to use an electric mixer, but it will make a nice smooth cream of the butter and sugar. 
   
   
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
   I always crack the eggs into a separate bowl because if a piece of shell falls in you can remove it before it goes into the mixture. If you look close to the top right,  you can see the bit of shell that fell into the dish. 

   

4. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
   I use a small ice cream type scoop to get them even in size
   

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
We had to use some more flour to make them thick enough after using the light butter so they came out more cake like. With the different consistency the cookies needed to be taken off the cookie sheet immediately after coming out of the oven to prevent them from sticking.

Chocolate Marshmallow Fudge

You can find the original recipe here at https://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/recipepage.aspx?recipeid=59401

I always love fudge. It’s a sweet decadent treat that you don’t need much of to satisfy your sweet tooth. This was a really nice recipe for not too many points on Weight Watchers®.

Ingredients:

• 1 spray(s) cooking spray 
• 1 2/3 cup(s) sugar
• 2/3 cup(s) fat-free evaporated milk
• 2 Tbsp reduced-calorie margarine, or light butter
• 12 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 14 large marshmallow(s)

Directions:

1. Coat an 8 X 8-inch pan with cooking spray.
2. In a medium saucepan, stir together sugar, evaporated milk and margarine (or butter); bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes.
   
3. Chop the chocolate into small pieces.
   
4. Stir in chocolate and marshmallows; remove pan from heat and stir until smooth.
   
5. Pour mixture into prepared pan and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. Cut into thirty-six 1 1/3-inch squares and serve. Yields 1 piece per serving.
   I hope you enjoyed my “healthy” desserts, I know I sure enjoyed them!