You can easily and effectively make a health conscious cookie by substituting a few basic ingredients. Below are the best ingredient substitutions you'll need to make a healthy cookie that is more nutritious and equally delicious.

1. Margarine

The first step to take in making a healthy cookie is substituting butter or lard for margarine. While it's true that the vegetable fats and hydrogen found in standard margarine combine to form trans fats, there are brands of margarine made from vegetable oils that contain less trans fats than normal margarine, butter and lard.

2. Applesauce

If you frequently use canola oil, olive oil, sesame oil or cottonseed oil in your cookie-baking process, you'll be pleased to learn that applesauce can be used in their place. In addition to being laden with saturated fats, these oils frequently have very strong smells for sensitive noses. On the other hand, most types of applesauce are fat free and contain natural fructose, which not only enables it to take the place of the aforementioned oils, but also adds a bit of natural sweetness to your cookies.

3. Dried Egg Powder

If you'd like to cut back on your cookies' cholesterol and calorie content, you should consider using dried egg powder in place of eggs. When adding dried egg powder to your cookie dough, you will generally need to add a little bit of liquid in order to give your powder the texture of regular eggs.

If you don't like the idea of using egg powder in your dough, you can use one of the many readily available egg substitutes in its place. These products generally offer the same taste and texture of real eggs but contain a fraction of the cholesterol and calories. Alternatively, if you're committed to using real eggs, make a point of using only the egg whites.

4. Soy Butter and Sesame Butter

If you're a fan of peanut butter cookies, you should know that you can make a much healthier, similar tasting cookie using soy butter or sesame butter. In addition to containing less calories and fat than most types of peanut butter, soy butter and sesame butter can give people with peanut allergies the pleasure of enjoying a peanut butter cookie without putting their personal health at risk. Almond butter works as well. 5. Light Cream

Although it may strike you as obvious, light cream is a healthier alternative to heavy cream. Using light cream in your recipe will produce the exact same results with far fewer calories. In much the same fashion, skim milk can always be substituted for whole milk without affecting the taste of your cookies.

The next time you're baking cookies, just remember to utilize these helpful hints, and your next batch will be both tasty and health conscious.