Recipe: Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Remember in sixth grade when you were awkwardly skinny plus taller than all the boys in school, and your mom made you eat a spoonful of peanut butter every time your twig legs walked you through the kitchen? Right.

Well these flour-less, naturally gluten free cookies are the publicly acceptable, portable equivalent to that spoonful of peanut butter. But by all means, continue to eat right out of the jar in the comfort of your own home. It’s not like I did it last week or anything. (Pangs of hunger + no GF snacks in sight = using a spoon to dodge gluten crumbs in a jar of Skippy.)

These are pretty much as simple as it gets – mix 5 ingredients together in a bowl, portion the dough out on a baking sheet, and pop them in the oven. NO ONE who tastes them will have an inkling something that good could have been that easy.  

Tip: When measuring peanut butter, honey, molasses, or any other ingredient with a high sticky/gooey factor, spray the inside of the measuring spoon/cup with cooking spray first.   

[Recipe from Love, Veggies and Yoga]

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

¾ cup white sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla

Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients with a rubber spatula or spoon until well combined.

Using your hands, roll about a heaping tablespoon of dough into a ball and place on the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, and leave space for the cookies to spread.

Use a fork to push a criss-cross pattern onto the top of each cookie. Do not  flatten all the way. Sprinkle the top of each cookie with a pinch of each type of sugar.

Bake for about 12 minutes. The cookies will still feel extremely soft to the touch, and will darken just slightly in color. After removing from oven, allow the cookies to cool for at least 15 minutes before handling them. They’ll firm up as they cool.