Flourless AND dairy-free peanut butter cookies, I should say. These cookies are a great option for my gluten-free and dairy-free friends, but I love them just because they’re just so incredibly easy. These peanut butter cookies are rich, soft, and perfectly salty-sweet. And because they’re so easy to make (no mixer required), they’d be a fun weekend project for me.
WHAT’S IN FLOURLESS PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES?
Flourless peanut butter cookies have been around for a while and the concept is simple: peanut butter + egg + sugar bakes into a tasty, sweet, and soft cookie. Most flourless peanut butter cookies use peanut butter-like JIF or Peter Pan, which has a fairly solid texture at room. I prefer natural peanut butter, which is a little runnier, so I had to adjust the formula a bit to help the cookies keep their shape.
To account for the softer, almost liquid-like, texture of natural peanut butter, I substituted some of the regular sugar in the cookie for powdered sugar. Powdered sugar has an incredible thickening property that worked perfectly for helping these cookies hold their shape the soft peanut butter.
CAN I USE OTHER NUT AND SEED BUTTERS?
While I haven’t tried other nut butters in this recipe, I would expect them to work so long as they have a similar texture to the natural peanut butter used here. Almond butter sounds great, as does sunflower butter. I bet tahini might even be interesting! Just keep in mind that if your nut butter has added sugar.
WHAT ELSE CAN I ADD?
These peanut butter cookies would be so fun to add some mix-ins or toppings! I originally planned to drizzle a little melted chocolate over my cookies (after they’re cooled), but realized too late that I was out. You could also mix in some chocolate chips, nuts, or crushed pretzels into the dough.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup natural peanut butter
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven and Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and stir until it forms a cohesive dough. It should be firm enough to away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is still too soft, add a tablespoon or two more of powdered sugar to further firm up the dough.
The cookie dough into twelve pieces. Roll each piece into a ball then flatten it slightly. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and then use a fork to create a corss hatch pattern on the top of the cookie.
Bake the cookies for 12 minutes in the oven. After baking, allow them to cool for about five minutes on the baking sheet, or until they’re firm enough to lift with a spatula.Transfer the cookies to cool completely, then serve and enjoy.
OATMEAL PUMPKIN COOKIES
