Peanut Butter Cookies, Three Ways
A couple of weeks ago I started seeing this recipe all over the internet. It caught my eye for three reasons: it only has five ingredients, one of those ingredients is peanut butter, and it makes cookies.
Sometimes I just want something to satisfy my sweet tooth without a lot of fuss. These peanut butter cookies fit that bill perfectly. With four ingredients that you’re almost guaranteed to have sitting in your kitchen right now, they’re perfect for whipping up on a weeknight, throwing together for last minute guests, or even for getting the kids involved in the kitchen.
Warning: Peanut butter cookies may be hazardous to your pants.
Oh, and if they weren’t hazardous enough on their own, I decided to get all experimental with them. I baked half the batch like thumbprint cookies, filling half the centers with raspberry jam and the other half with Nutella. Oh yes, I did.
Unfortunately the cookies didn’t come out as pretty as I’d hoped. I think I mashed down too much. But who cares? They won’t be around that long for me to look at because they taste too good!
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
From The Gourmet Cookbook, via Joy The Baker
Makes about 1 1/2 to 2 dozen cookies
1 cup all-natural chunky or smooth peanut butter (non-natural Jif also works)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Line two baking sheets with Silpats or grease with butter.
In a mixer, beat peanut butter and sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add egg and baking soda. Beat for another 2 minutes until combined.
Using your hands, roll the cookie dough into walnut sized balls. (Resist the urge to make them bigger. They will spread in the oven!) For traditional peanut butter cookies, push lightly on the dough balls with a fork to create a crisscross pattern. For thumbprint peanut butter cookies, instead of using a fork use your thumb to create a small cavity in the dough ball, then fill with jam or nutella. (It may help to soften the jam/nutella in the microwave for a few seconds.)
Bake at 350° F for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. No matter how good they smell, let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet to firm up. Devour.
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This is so cool! I’ll have to send this recipe to a friend of mine, who is allergic to gluten. Needless to say, she is really thin. You’d be amazed on how much food contains wheat products, so she can’t always pig out on junk food. :)
These look perfect. And all the more tempting with Nutella! How’s the texture like? It’s surprising how amidst all the jazzed up cookies out there, nothing quite pulls you back like pb cookies. I’m definitely giving this a go!
Yes, the Nutella is a great compliment to these cookies! The texture is a little on the crumbly side, much like the regular flour pb cookies, but Joy mentioned on her site that you will have better results with natural peanut butter than you will with the non-natural stuff (like Jif). I just used what I had in my pantry :)
I love peanut butter cookies. These look great.
I made these with the only pb in the house at the time – my natural pb with cinnamon and raisins. They came out super soft and crumbly and stayed that way, even after storage, and weren’t bad at all! I would have rather used regular pb but didn’t have any on hand…will definitely try it again though, soooo easy!
These look delicious – I may have to give them a try. Just curious though… what’s the deal with Jif exactly? I think we usually have skippy PB at home – now I’m paranoid about having inferior peanut butter!
Sorry, didn’t mean to give the impression that you have to use Jif! There’s nothing magical about it. It’s what I had in the pantry, but any PB you have at home should work :)
Thank you for clarifying – I feel much better now. :). It is my understanding afterall that choosy moms choose Jif – I’d hate to think they’d been mislead into choosing inferior PB.