healthy-ish Whole Wheat Ginger Snap cookies

We have been sick as dogs around here. It seems like the colds keep coming and the noses keep running. Growing up; we always drank ginger ale when we came down with a cold or flu. I'm sure it really did nothing at all, but something in the ginger taste made being sick a little easier. So With all the colds and sickness in our house I decided it was time for the ginger. BUT I have also had a major major craving for cookies and sweets lately (which has equaled many extra workouts) so I decided to make ginger snap cookies with a twist.

I found this recipe on a cupcake blog http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2010/04/gingersnap-cookies-making-them-is-snap.html I often frequent and decided to to change it up and add a bit more health so I didn't feel too guilty chowing down on 6 of them while watching America's Got Talent (which by the way is a another guilty pleasure of mine - I mean how can you not heart random people with stupid talent).

The lowdown: I switched up the butter for half butter and half unsweetened applesauce. I cut the sugar in half, and used whole wheat flour instead of white flour. I was almost out of molasses, and having the actual amount would have made it more ginger snap like. We were also out of fresh ginger which would have tasted much better then the ground stuff - but what can ya do; I NEEDED cookies

Recipe:

2 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour
1 Tablespoon of fresh fresh ginger
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1.5 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of suagr
3/4 cup of butter and unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
1/4 cup of dark molasses
1/3 cup of cinnamon sugar

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
In a mixing bowl sift four, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt (if you don`t have a sifter just use a mesh strainer)

mix butter in another bowel - I filled up the 3/4 cup half full of butter and filled the rest with the apllesauce and then mixed mixed mixed until it was super creamy and add the sugar, continue mixing

Beat in egg and molasses

slowly add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar concoction and continue mixing

**I had to add a bit of extra flour as my dough was a bit sticky. Also I refrigerated the dough before rolling it into balls as it was super sticky

roll into tiny balls - about 1 inch diameter wise and then roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture

Bake for about 8-10 min depending on how chewy or crunch you like them.

JUST for the record I didn`t follow any of these instructions and they came out great - I would add a bit more ginger next time since I am a snappy kind of girl.

Alright now where is the darn remote..............

PS My mother has offered to send me a short email with my common grammatical errors, so please be fair warned that I may be stepping it up word wise since I will have been edumacted....