Easy Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe by Our Best Bites, inspired by Santa’s Sweet Shoppe

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 large or extra large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt

optional: heaping 1/2 cup chopped chocolate or chocolate chips
(I recommend dark or semi-sweet)
optional: sugar for rolling

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat peanut butter and brown sugar until smooth.  Add egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt.  Mix for about a minute.  Shape into balls, and if desired roll in sugar.  Flatten with a criss cross pattern with a fork, or simply flatten with the bottom of a glass.  Bake for 8-9 minutes, don’t overbake, and let them sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Makes 20 cookies.

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Kacy made these cookies for Justin's mom and passed on the recipe. They were delicious! Justin ate a ton of them, which is saying something since he isn't a big treat person. 

Ingredients:

4 cups gluten-free old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup almond flour, or additional 1/2 cup oats
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup coconut
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup raisins

1. In a blender, process 1 cup oats (or 1 1/2 cups oats if omitting almond flour) into a fine powder. Whisk together ground oats, cornstarch, almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. With mixer on low, gradually add oat mixture, beating until combined. Fold in coconut, raisins, cranberries, and remaining 3 cups oats. Refrigerate dough for 20 minutes.

3. In batches, drop balls of dough onto greased aluminum foil lined baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to rack to cool completely.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies


My notes:

I substituted chocolate chips for dried fruit, which was great since I've never been huge on oatmeal raisin cookies. Make sure to refrigerate the dough; Kacy said they were pretty crumbly when she didn't. Also, we tried baking them on the aluminum foil, on a ungreased cookie sheet, and a non-stick cookie sheet. They seemed to do best on the non-stick cookie sheet. We found they stay together the best if you let them cool down (almost completely) on the baking sheet.

Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
3/4 t salt 2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1 c peanut butter
2 c gf oats
1 c chocolate chips 

Mix well. Drop on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes. Makes 3 dozen good sized cookies. The peanut flavor is pretty subtle, and the texture is chewy and not crumbly.

Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c white sugar
• 1 c brown sugar
• 3/4 t salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 c peanut butter
• 2 c oats
• 1 c chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix well. Drop on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 until lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen cookies