Snow Day Treat

Now that I'm long out of high school, days on which it snows something like a mountain of snow are no longer exciting. That is, until last Friday, when it snowed, oh I'd say about 10 inches between 9 a.m. and noon. The HR person at work sent out an email that we would be able to leave work at 3:30 p.m. (whoopie) and that they were ordering pizza. So they didn't want us to drive in the snow, but the Valentino's delivery guy ... no big deal. We were actually excused from work around 2:30, though it did take me an hour to get home. But I spent the rest of Friday vegging out with a book and watching chick flicks. It was more fantastic than a barbecue in July ... well, maybe not. But I love how illness and weather conditions are always the perfect excuses to not do anything. Oh and I baked some winter-appropriate gingersnaps.

Nothing says winter like molasses. Here's the batter, mid-drip: And voila. Perfectly soft, chewy and fat-free gingersnaps basking in the sun. Yes that's right, I said fat free. I used David Lebovitz's recipe which substitutes the butter with applesauce and uses egg whites only. So healthy one would think I am preparing for spring break in Panama City, Fla., not true. I'll be spending three days in St. Louis in March, hoping it doesn't rain. Almost as good, right?

Nonfat Gingersnaps: 1 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup applesauce 1/3 cup molasses 2 large egg whites at room temp (if you're conserving, use your yolks for hollandaise or aioli) 2 1/4 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (you should have seen me grinding these fresh with a pepper mill, the only cloves I could find were whole in a container of mulling spices) 1/2 teaspoon black pepper (fortunately we have two pepper mills) 1/4 teaspoon salt In a mixing bowl, add brown sugar, applesauce and molasses and mix with mixer until its mixed (3-5 minutes). Add egg yolks to mixture and mix again for 3-5 minutes. Sift together flour, baking soda and spices (all the rest of the ingredients). Add to sugar/molasses mixture and blend until batter has uniform consistency. Chill in fridge while you stare out the window at the freshly fallen snow. Remove batter from fridge. In a separate, smaller bowl toss in about 1/2 a cup of granulated sugar and a sprinkling of cinnamon. With a spoon and washed hands, roll a large teaspoon of batter in the cinnamon-sugar. Throw it on a baking tray. The oven should have already been pre-heated to 350 degrees (you shoud have known this through blog osmosis--I am in such an obnoxious mood today). Bake those cookies for 13 minutes. Let cool and stuff your face--they are fat free.