Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
This I Used To Believe
I believed that if I wore a stretched out paperclip across my front teeth I would be one of the cool kids with a retainer. It turns our that retainers only seem cool when you don’t actually have to wear one.
I believed that if I sunk down in my chair low enough in Honors Algebra, I wouldn’t be called on the answer questions that I didn’t have answers to. I didn’t have answers to any… aaany of the questions. In reality, that posture was like a giant, neon, blinking arrow pointed right in my direction.
I believed that if I stayed up all night chewing gum, I was bound to get the part of Violet Beauregarde in the sixth grade performance of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. That part went to my best friend Lindsay. What does it say about me if I still think about that from time to time?
I believed that Dylan would never leave Brenda on Beverly Hills, 90210. Um… remember what happened in the pool? With Kelly!? Brenda’s best friend!? Yea… so that didn’t work out.
I believed that really good cookies simply had to have at least a few cups of all-purpose flour flour in them. These Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies changed my mind. Seriously. I know you’re thinking They’re better than you think. Way way better. These are great!
This post was inspired by last weeks episode of This American Life which, in turn, was inspired by the international essay project, This I Believe. Yaaaaay for public radio!
Believe me when I say that these cookies will surprise you. They’re exactly everything I wanted from a peanut butter cookie, without the flour. With only four ingredients (5 if you add the chocolate) I had perfectly chewy and flavorful peanut butter cookies on my table. With a glass of cold milk… my goodness… swoon! Trust me. Try them!
These cookies aren’t the type that you throw in your purse for an afternoon snack. Because they don’t have flour, they’re just a bit more delicate. If you use all-natural peanut butter, you’re cookies will hold up a bit better than if you use the fake stuff. K?
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
The Gourmet Cookbook
makes about two dozen cookies
1 cup all-natural chunky or smooth peanut butter
1 cup sugar (1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar)
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet with butter and set aside. In a mixer combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add egg and baking soda and mix for another 2 minutes. Roll into walnut sized balls and create a cris-cross pattern with a fork. If you’d like, add a few chocolate pieces to the top of the cookies. Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a baking sheet for two minutes, then transfer to… your mouth.
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i had the braces…i always wanted a black eye?!
sweetcharity – what do you put in your really good pat-in-pan tart crust?
i’m imagining something chocolatey-banana-ish…
did you ever try these with chocolate chips in the batter? i wonder how they would hold their shape?? this looks delicious!
I just discovered your blog today through Times Online Real Food – Meet the blogger and it’s brilliant!! I can’t wait to keep visiting….
I love that your cookie sheet is well worn and wears the patina of many great recipes that have gone before.
These, too, look amazing.
these look amazing – I want them now !
I haven’t made these in ages. love the memories of the ways we thought when we were kids. I used to put bandaids on my nose just so I could look like those girls who had nose jobs, crazy huh? lol
Those are cute, especially with the chocolate disks on top! I’m a freak who doesn’t like peanut butter in desserts (especially not with chocolate, I KNOW) but I would definitely try this with almond butter, or even cashew butter. Plus, just 4 ingredients, proving simpler is totally better!
oh. my. word. i thought i was the only goober (no offense intended) who made a fake retainer with a paper clip. i’m blushing just thinking about it. and yes, i did end up with my very own, very real retainer, and it wasn’t nearly as exciting as i’d hoped. :)
on to happier things–your cookies look stellar, especially consider the short list of ingredients! thanks for sharing. :)
I used to make these growing up, but I don’t remember the baking soda. They are yummy and peanutty! And the chocolate, what a great idea! Thanks!
Thanks! My husband pointed this recipe out to me, plus he included a link to you… http://boatbits.blogspot.com
These look SOoooooo EASY! We live on a small sailboat so easy, no-fuss baking is important.
Any recommendations on the peanut butter? We used to be able to buy sugar-free Jif peanut butter but it is no longer available here on the island of St. Martin.
We have a jar of “natural” peanut butter which we haven’t used because it separates with an oily layer and is too much of a pain to deal with, but perhaps it will be good for these cookies and we can use it up :)
Happy Robin Knox Johnston day!
Sheila
LULZ I did the same thing with a paper clip! I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Your posts always make me laugh, thank you for that :)
ps – the cookies look divine with the chocolate melted in the middle yummmm
Hi Joy! I just wanted to say that I love your blog…absolutely Luuvvv it! I’m sorry, but I needed to tell you that.
I’ve made these once before, but instead of using chocolate to top some them I used preserves. Chocolate sounds like a better idea though since you can’t go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter. I’ll have to try the chocolate next time :)
Ha! I was one of those kids with a retainer who would’ve given anything to take the damn thing off and be like other cool kids..those who didn’t need to wear a retainer! I think I was like one of like three kids who wore retainers in my school. We were the weird ones… No wonder I hated junior high :)
But these cookies. are something I have to try out right NOW. They look so delicious!
Oh.
Mah.
Gawd.
Be still my flapper heart, those look scrumptious. What kind of chocolate pieces are those??? I want those exact ones. :)
These cookies are awesome. They are pure pb to the max.
Oh woman, you are pure evil. I am going to have to make these and then when my husband asks about my no sugar pact I will tell him that it is all your fault. Pure evil. ;)
I deliberately left this sitting in my reader for a while before I read it because I love PB far too much. After reading this, I know I need to make these. Soon!
Yeah! I’m so excited. My daughter will be thrilled to make these. I will be thrilled to eat them! :) Thanks!
Joy, I wish I had seen this startlingly simple recipe before I made peanut butter cookies last night. Mine had way too much flour and were pretty powdery, unfortunately. Thanks so much for sharing this!
you lead into your recipes very nicely.
i got a fresh jar of the all natural peanut butter 2 nights ago. i am excited to try this out.
Ha ha ha – sounds as if we shared many of the same beliefs (especially that one about the paper clip…until I got my “real” retainer and found it not so envious after all). Have been meaning to try flourless peanut butter cookies – they looks so yummy!
They look SO good! I’m definitely a peanut butter lover and will surely try these very soon! Thanks!
I have to admit that I wanted to make these cookies so bad that I went to my kitchen straight away and tried to make natural peanut butter so that I could…Yeah, that didn’t go so well! I still wanted to make them, so I used Jif, and they were great! Great story too, btw.
I was the same way about the retainer thing – yeah, then I had to wear braces for four years. Not so great after all. Anyway, these cookies are so delicious! And I really, really love your blog. It just makes me happy.
Hi Joy~ These looked so yummy and simple, I just had to try them! In fact, they are in the oven right now! I had one problem though, I could not make the criss crosses with a fork, because the dough was just to sticky. I had to use a reduced fat, all natural pb because it was the only kind I had on hand. Do you think that caused the stickiness, even though it was still “all natural”?
What? I thought I was the only one who stuck a paperclip across my teeth to emulate a retainer (it was held in place with gum on the roof of my mouth). What freaks we were.
I will definitely try these.
I’ve made a similar recipe I found in Shirley Corriher’s Bakewise — she says the peanut butter acts as a nut flour. I added some honey roasted peanuts and toasted pecans to mine, but the chocolate feves are a stroke of brilliance.
I love peanut butter almost as much as chocolate. Only 5 ingredients and no flour? I won’t believe it until I’ve tried it myself. I must try it.
You guys crack me up! I had no idea there were so many of you out there who pulled the paperclip trick too!
For those of you allergic to peanuts, you should totally give almond butter a try. I haven’t tried it myself, so I don’t know how they’ll turn out, but it’s worth a shot, right!? Let me know how your experiment goes!
Also, those chocolate pieces are Valrhona 70% Chocolate discs. Beyond good!
a) I’m making these soon.
b) I did the paper clip trick too. And my dad was a dentist, so there’s a chance I could’ve had the real thing if I’d asked. And, I did end up with brace & a retainer when I was 18. Not as cool then.
My father is convinced he’s allergic to peanuts. (Or maybe he is, but it’s totally mild.) Of course, this isn’t enough to curtail his love for the nut, and this sounds like the PERFECT little treat to make for him. Death by cookie? Not a bad way to go.
It wasn’t until Algebra II in the 9th grade where I realized that the best way to avoid being called to the board to do the homework problems were to look busy (but not too busy) checking my answers against the ones in the book. It wasn’t a perfect system, but I know I was called on far fewer times!
i love flourless baking – this recipe looks so good and tasty
yum!
Can’t wait to make these! I LOVE PB cookies! And these will be awesome to share with a few loved ones who can’t eat flour!
Also, I have a question. In SO MANY recipes that call for peanut butter, the recipe writer clarifies to NOT use natural peanut butter. I’ve always assumed it’s because the hydrogenated oils add something. But I don’t know. And you just now suggesting that the natural stuff will make these hold up better has left me wondering if you know why…Are there recipes that you make for which you do recommend using the fake stuff?
Joy, I was wondering…peanut butter is really an american thing. I guess it would be very difficult to find someone in the US who doesn’t like it… but in France…wow!! not so much!! BUT. we have Nutella. Ok, nothing similar in taste, but i’ve always considered it as the european peanut butter. You know, you have to grow up with it to truly get it…
So, do you think something like Flourless Nutella Cookies could work??
I’m celiac so no flour anything is like a godsend and I can’t wait to try these! Admittedly, I’ve already got a recipe for flourless pb cookies, but yours is considerably different! This’s mine:
1 cup flour
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips
I made these yesterday and they are fantastic! Thanks for sharing the recipe! :)
Haha! I am listening to that episode as I read this. How appropriate! These cookies sound amazing–I am going to test them out!
Joy, I discovered your blog two days ago, and have been back and read almost every entry (and nearly killed my laptop from drooling on it!).
I’ve already made the cinnamon bun muffins (HOW GOOD!?), and I am a sucker for peanut butter, so these are next on my to-do list.
Thanks for such a lovely, entertaining, and yummy blog!
Loved reading your former beliefs. And I’m wishing I’d had this recipe a week ago when I promised someone I’d make cookies to take to a friend and then went to make them at 10 o’clock at night and only had 3/4 cup flour due to a roll making extravaganza earlier in the week. Oh well… I’ll try them now. :)
Hahahah! I thought I was the only kid who did the paperclip retainer thing!
Peanut Butter & Chocolate & Cookies……OH MY!
these were “orgasmic” (as my grandmother would say, haha). so good that i had to destroy them with dish soap because i ate 6 within minutes of taking them out of the oven!
p.s. i totally rocked the paperclip retainer too!
Thank goodness I have all-natural peanut butter on hand and oh how the hubby wishes for the processed stuff! I’m hoping these cookies will change his mind.
Yes! I make something similar for a friend who is on a gluten-free diet, but I use only brown sugar and add lots of chocolate chips before baking. Yum!
Mmmm, those look so good and so easy!
If you knew me, you would know that my world revolves around Peanut Butter – it’s my heaven. Sad, but true. I made this recipe last night and completely fell in love! What a fun snack….and breakfast, shhhhh.
I just tried these. I really was having a bad sweet tooth and nothing to make and came across this recipe on the The Sweetest Kitchen blog. The dough was really weird and oily, but the baked up very nice. I need to try again. I think my peanut butter was weird and affected the dough a bit.
I can’t wait to try these. They look and sound delicious. I might actually try them with the almond butter just for kicks. thanks
These cookies were great. I thought they tasted a teensey bit plain, so I added a sprinkle of salt and a splash of vanilla to the dough. They turned out so delicious — I also put a glob of marshmallow fluff on top of the cookies after they baked…MMMMMM so good!!!
I would have appreciated it if you had given a “yield” to your recipe. I would like to know how many cookies this amount of dough being baked at this specific time would yield. Thanks.