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‘Tis the season for sugar cookies! And I happen to absolutely love it. Baking has always been one of my favorite hobbies, but sometimes they can cause a little chaos in your macro budget. That’s why I decided I wanted to share a more macro-friendly cookie option with you this holiday season: sugar cookie dough protein bites!

These sugar cookie dough bites have a lot of things going for them.

• First, they are so simple to prepare. These bites will be ready in minutes and can be prepped in one bowl. If you have ever spent time baking traditional sugar cookies, you know they take HOURS to prepare.
• Second, they have much better macros than a traditional cookie, but we will chat about that later!
• Third, you can eat this sugar cookie dough raw, no problem since it doesn’t contain any eggs.
• Fourth, they make a small batch, so you aren’t left with tons of leftovers. It is easy to double, triple. or quadruple the recipe, if you so desire.

A Little Note

I always feel the need to clarify, but if you are looking to make super special sugar cookies with your kids, this isn’t the recipe. If you have been around here for a while, you know that I am all about eating the food that you love. Although these protein bites taste similar to a sugar cookie, they are not the same as your grandma’s recipe. However, if you are looking for a lighter version to enjoy that still tastes good, this will work perfectly!

The Ingredients

1. Vanilla Protein Powder. To make this sugar cookie bite have a decent amount of protein, protein powder is a must. I used PEScience Gourmet Vanilla flavor, but any vanilla protein will do (although it may change the macro count). I’m thinking the PEScience Cake Pop flavor would also be awesome.
2. Kodiak Cakes Buttermilk Pancake Mix. I used this mix, which I always have on hand, to use instead of flour. I prefer Kodiak Cakes Mix over flour here because it has more protein.
3. Butter. What is a sugar cookie without butter? Butter serves two purposes here. It helps bind the mixture together, and it also gives that irresistible flavor only butter can give.
4. Almond Extract. This one might sound a little interesting, but whenever I bake sugar cookies, I always add almond extract. It gives the cookies and this protein bite a little bit more depth to their flavor. If you don’t have any on hand, you can substitute vanilla, but I highly recommend using almond extract if you have it!
5. Almond Milk. This is the other binder for this dough. Almond milk is a little tricky to add, though, because too much can cause your dough to become too wet. I recommend starting with a tablespoon (15 grams), mixing, and then adding a gram or two at a time until the mixture has a playdough like texture.
6. Sugar. Sugar adds additional sweetness to the dough. It also adds some more calories, so if you’d like to use your favorite sweetener, I’m sure that would probably work too! The macros below are calculated with real granulated sugar.
7.  Sprinkles. These are optional, but sprinkles aren’t ever a bad idea in my opinion. They do add some additional carbs, so if you wanted to slash some more, you could omit them. In the macros below I accounted for 4  grams of sprinkles.

The Macros

Based on the recipe below, the macros for one cookie dough bite are rounded to 3F/10C/5P, or about 84 calories. Macros for a similar-sized serving of store-bought dough are 6F/15C/1P, or 120 calories. Although they do not taste exactly the same as the store-bought kind, it is hard to argue with the macros!