Pt 2 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil

My batch of chocolate oatmeal cookies using unsweetened applesauce instead of butter or oil was tasty, but turned out to be a time-consuming adventure. The less-than-pleasant experiences were dough stickiness and difficulty of trying to use a cooky press. (For recipe-centric info, read  "Pt 1 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil".)

My recipe at "Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies", from July 2012 is indeed easy. This time, I wanted to try adding chocolate chips and also reduce fat calories by replacing oil with unsweetened applesauce. "How to Substitute Applesauce for Butter in Oatmeal Cookies" includes reasonable suggestions for the ingredients and process. The list of subs looked good.

Cookies that work well with an applesauce-for-butter substitution include chocolate chip, oatmeal and peanut butter, as long as you don't mind the cake-like texture. Applesauce would not work well in cookies that depend on butter for both flavor and crispiness, such as butter cookies or shortbread.

As in my previous recipe, I needed to soften a brick of brown sugar (this time, dark). I used the seventh bulleted suggestion from "10 Ways To Soften Hard Brown Sugar".

Need it soft now? Put it in a container and set in the microwave with a small bowl full of water beside it. Microwave for about 1 minute–check. If it’s still hard, try for another 30 seconds. You can keep doing this until it’s soft, but watch that you don’t melt it.

This time, I used a couple of two-minute heating times. After packing a cup of the sugar, I returned the remainder to its bag and fridge. (I'm guessing that by the next time I need brown sugar, I'll need to again resoften it.)

So, how'd my cookies turn out? I'd say B+. Reasonably tasty, chewiness similar to cereal bars.

Why not an A? One reason the dough was difficult to dispense—sticky, sticky sticky! The other reason for not an A was that my easiest oatmeal-cooky results looked nicer. Although the previous batch didn't have chocolate chips, I had anticipated this batch would look just as nice. Dang, wasn't so!

Dough Stickiness

Most of the sites that address dough stickiness talk about the amount of fat in the recipe, too little flour, and needing to cool the dough. Seems several pieces of advice pertain to roll-out dough. (Mine were drop kind of cookies.) As my recipe used applesauce instead of butter or oil, reasonable advice seems to be to lightly wet dough or try other means of dispensing dough.

"Cookie Dough Too Sticky – How To Fix It" recommends wetting hands.

You can handle the sticky dough with wet hands more easily. Keep in mind that you will need to wet your hands repeatedly until you are finished working with the dough to prevent it from sticking to your hands. ... However, don’t do this for too long, as this water will transfer to the dough and make it wetter and therefore stickier.

"Help! My Cookie Dough is Too Sticky & Wet: (exactly) How to Fix It" has some advice that might be helpful another time.

If you’re working with a sticky cookie dough and struggling to get it in the oven, don’t try and get it on the tray with your hands. ... Instead, use a spoon or ice cream scoop or cookie scoop (recommended) to get the dough onto the baking tray. ... This is great for doughs that are okay to be a bit more sticky and don’t need to be rolled out or cut-out.

Initially, I tried my cooky press. I gave that up within three dollops, as the dough stuck in the chamber all three times, which I needed to coax out with a spoon. I switched to using my 1 1/2 T cooky scoop. That worked, but slowly, as dough kept sticking to the scoop's exterior. The spring squeezer was a bit clunky to eject the dollops fast.

I've used the spatula-and-tablespoon method in the past for other cookies. It is a slow method because the dollops, besides, being one a time, requires two-hand scoop/unscoop.

The next batch, I'll try my adjustable measuring spoon. In any case, I'll keep a bowl of water and towel nearby in attempts to prevent dough superstickiness.

Oatmeal for Thought—Quick Oats, Non-quick Oats, ...

Google results for "can i substitute quick oats for old fashioned" show loads of info for contrasting oats and also includes q/a, whether you're curious, or readying to bake with oats.

"Oatmeal Cookies" advocates quick oats—"tend to make the cookie softer. ,,, it’s what I always have in my house. Instant oatmeal also cooks faster (even in cookie form)".

"What kind of oats do you use for baking?" describes rolled, quick, ground, and steel-cut oats. The author advises about making oat flour, with caution.

If using too much oat flour, baked goods may turn out dense, heavy and flat because the lack of gluten prevents the flour from trapping gases that give rise to the dough or batter.

"One-Bowl, No-Mixer, No-Chill Oatmeal Cookies" sounds promising for ease. The list of ingredients and instructions look handy for novice bakers. She advises against using quick oats, that they "have a much different texture than rolled oats and would act more like a flour in these cookies. Your homemade oatmeal cookies would wind up being too dry."

Good luck with feeling your oats!

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"Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies"

"Pt 1 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil"
recipe-centric info

"Pt 2 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil"
closer looks, additional resources