Day 18: Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

I was a little leery of this recipe. I mean, the only flour-less cookies I'd had were not what I would call tasty. But my friend really thought I should try it. Why not? Snack food that is a tiny little bit better for you than regular snacks couldn't hurt right? The worst that could happen is they'd be flavorless and I'd never make them again. At best, I have a new cookie recipe and one that involves peanut butter! Win-win!

I admit they're not perfect and round but tasty!

They still have sugar, but I bet you could use your favorite substitute and knock them a little more to the healthy side.

What I love about this recipe is that without the flour, the peanut butter flavor really shines!

I happened to make mine look like buttons using a bottle cap and toothpick instead of the usual fork criss-cross pattern:

Also, after these cool, they are awesome with a dollop of your favorite jam or jelly! Or chocolate! Or just about any topping you like paired with peanut butter! (Sorry, no pics of that, you'll have to use your imagination!)

This recipe makes about 45 cookies at this size, but can easily be doubled to fit what you need.

Ingredients:

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling the cookies with after *optional*

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F). Place racks in the upper and lower third of the oven.

2. In medium bowl, mix the peanut butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until well combined.

3. Scoop 1 tablespoon of mixture into balls and place about 1 inch apart onto ungreased baking sheet(s). Flatten the balls (with 2 liter bottle cap) and poke holes in button-style with a toothpick. (I had to make the holes kinda larger than I thought because they closed up when I baked the first batch.)

*Optional* Sprinkle the sea salt on top of the cookies.

4. Bake until golden brown around the edges, about 10 minutes, switching the position of the pans halfway through baking. Transfer to racks to cool.

5. Repeat with remaining dough.