I am so excited to finally reveal this post!
I’ve had this post written for about 3 weeks.
Since even before my photography trip to Mexico City
And even before I announced that we were moving
And before we moved into our new house this past week.
These cookies are long gone.
But they are such great little memories.
Must.make.more.
Step-by-step photos:
Combine everything in one bowl
Look at all that glorious peanut butter!
Stir to combine
The dough will be sticky but workable.
It seems like a sticky blob and I thought I was going to have peanut butter everywhere and it would be really hard to work with but all was well. Something about the oil in the peanut butter plus the sugar seemed to keep the dough from being un-workable or too messy.
If it really does seem too messy, I’d add a tablespoon or two extra of sugar to soak up the sticky + moisture factor.
Roll dough into balls or drop onto a cookie sheet with a spoon.
Or, if you want to refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes or so before you roll the balls, great. But I didn’t bother.
Lightly press the tops with a fork.
But don’t squeeze the Charmin too much and flatten them into little pancakes.
I like this picture. And I like raw dough balls.
Sprinkle with a pinch each of brown and white sugar.
Bake and allow to cool.
I had read on various websites with similar recipes that they don’t really spread much at all. Mine actually did spread a bit, so keep that in mind.
Impress everyone with how easy these are and how good they taste!
The active prep time on these is about 2 minutes to make the batter and about 8 minutes to roll into balls.
So 10 minutes of work
10 minutes to bake
And in 20 minutes you can be chomping away.
It’s the simple things in life like cookies that just make me so happy.
And bonus to the extremely minimal amount of cleanup and dishes. One bowl. Love it.
The taste is full of peanut butter flavor and full-bodied.
You definitely know you’re eating a peanut butter cookie and not a sugar cookie which is the problem with lots of peanut butter cookies, I find.
Most cookies are not peanut buttery enough for my liking but these are full-bodied peanut butter flavor for all PB fiends like me.
They are rich and satisfying. Not some little light airy cookie.
I can feel just a little oil from the peanut butter on my lips when I eat them. <– To me, that’s a turn on. Means they’re full of good.stuff. Like 1 cup of PB!
You can just see by looking at the center of the cookies that they are going to be moist. I always look at cookie centers to see if they are a touch under-baked and moist looking.
And because of all that PB, they’re not dry. I despise dry cookies and baked goods. Not worth my chew. These are anything but dry.
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Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies (Gluten Free, with Vegan Option)
3/4 c white sugar
1/4 c brown sugar, packed
1 c peanut butter
1 egg (replace real egg by combining 1 tbsp ground flax seeds + 3 tbsp warm water in a small bowl and stirring. Allow a “jelly” to form after a few minutes and use this as your “egg”)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients in one bowl and stir by hand with a spoon.
Directions:
Form into 1 inch balls (I rolled mine with my hands but you could just drop them on a cookie sheet with a spoon) and place on cookie sheet (I used parchment-lined for easy cleanup).
Optional: Lightly press each ball with a fork to make criss-cross patterns
Dust each cookie with a pinch of white and brown sugar before baking
Bake at 350F for 10 minutes or until barely browned. They can go from raw to burned in about 90 seconds so watch them.
Allow to cool well and they may not look very well done after 10 minutes, but that’s ok. Take them out of the oven anyway and allow them to cool.
Yields 18 cookies (mine were a bit thin and farily small. Reducing to 12-15 thicker/bigger cookies may work even better which I will try next time)
Edited to add January 2013: There is an updated (and even better) version of these cookies Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies (gluten-free) – My new favorite Peanut Butter Cookie recipe
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Related Recipes:
Edited to add January 2013: There is an updated (and even better) version of these cookies Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies (gluten-free) – My new favorite Peanut Butter Cookie recipe
If you love peanut butter as much as I do, you may want to check out my Peanut Butter Recipes compilation post
Including 2 Minute Peanut Sauce + Raw Vegan Spring Rolls
No Bake Nutella & Peanut Butter Graham Bars with Chocolate Frosting
Questions:
Do you like peanut butter cookies?
I have Raw Vegan Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls
Peanut Butter Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies with Peanut Flour (Vegan, GF)
And all the peanut butters recipes and ideas linked in one place.
Yes, I really love peanut butter cookies!
Edited to add January 2013: There is an updated (and even better) version of these cookies Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies (gluten-free) – My new favorite Peanut Butter Cookie recipe
omg, I so want on of these cookies right now!! I loooooooooooooooooooooooove pb and these cookies seem to be absolutely devine and are so simple!
Beautiful shots, I love the dishes you used for the cookies.
best thing I did over the weekend: I attended a street festival in Mulhouse, France, and it was fantastic!
Gorgeous pictures! I’m surprised they did spread that much, I’ve never made a pb cookie that has changed shape whatsoever in the oven!
We used to make pretty much these exact cookies ALL the time growing up and they’re the BEST!
These are amazing. No butter and no flour and such an easy prep and they look incredible to boot!!!! You are a genuis!
These look great! This is day 1 of my gluten free experiment and I am so so excited to see that I Can still Have a new baking project: )
yes you can!
Oh man, peanut butter is my favorite food, and moist cookies are the only way to go. Definitely trying these!! I can’t wait til I’m grown up to participate in the recipe exchange!
Yayyy! The club is so much fun! I get excited to find out who my new blogger is every month! The cookies look fantastic. I definitely like PB cookies. Weekend on this side was good! Got some things done and spent lots of time with family and friends. Went on a date night (possibly our last before peanut??). It was good stuff!
we can do a secret handshake now that we’re both club members :)
Your cookies are beautiful- love that they are naturally gluten-free. Ps your trip to Mexico with Penny looks like it was amazing…very jealous over here!
it was such a great trip!
Peanut butter cookies are my favorite!! And how easy are these. Thanks for the tip on how to turn flax into “egg” I had no idea!
It’s great to meet you too on Instagram! I just joined about a week and ago and boy am I hooked :)
Oh yes, I am wayyyyy hooked on IG too. It’s my new addiction. Never really got that into Twittter but IG, I could spend all day. :)
I love peanut butter cookies and I LOVE this recipe… so simple, and sounds so good! Peanut butter cookies were the one cookie my mom never made when I was younger (no idea why), so it was always such a treat when I got to have one at my grandma’s place, a friend’s, or out somewhere.
My dad’s side of the family used to do a sort of Secret Santa for Christmas, where we’d all pick a name from a hat, and the whole family (like 30 of us), would all go into town and buy gifts. We’d get back to my grandparent’s house, wrap the gifts, eat dinner, then exchange them. It was actually really fun since the people participating obviously knew you pretty well!
you definitely were intriguing me last night with this recipe and now I know why! Can’t wait to make the, seriously!
yes we were under STRICT orders not to post early!! or late! she runs a tight ship :)
Amazing- they look so rich, chewy and moist! And the photos are gorgeous, Averie! :)
My mom used to host a cookie exchange every Christmas, where everyone brings a few dozen cookies to share and copies of the recipes, and then people make their own mixed boxes of cookies and pick the recipes they’d like to try. So fun!
thanks for the photography compliments :)
Yum these look soooo great! I love PB cookies!
what a fantastic post! so good on so many levels. Your blog has very quickly become one of my very favorites :-)
and this made me LOL:
“…but usually I get back something like a headband with blue stars and yellow moons on it. Not that it’s not lovely and all, but you know”.
haha, totally been there! too funny
aww, thank you for the compliments! :)
Are you feeling okay? I see you’ve used the word “moist” not once, but twice! haha, just playing ;)
The cookies look great – and I love this Secret Recipe Club! I love a fun challenge and am thinking I need to apply, myself!!
PB Cookies…you know, strangely, they’re not ones I’ve had very often! I think choco-chip was more prevalent growing up, so even into my adult-hood (lol) I haven’t made them often. Or…at all. Needs to change ;)
I figured I just needed to get over it b/c it is the perfect word for so many things, even if it does make me shudder a bit :)