Saturday, January 30, 2010

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

(about 24 cookies)


My mother found out she had celiac disease a year or two ago and complained about how awful some of the gluten free products were. Initially I tried out various store bought cakes, cookies and breads. In the process, I came across a wonderful bakery outside of Seattle, Wow Baking Company which makes some of the best cookies I've tasted. I can tolerate gluten just fine, but sometimes I can't resist picking up a tub of their Ginger Molasses Cookies. They are simply amazing.

I've also started to experiment in the kitchen a bit. This peanut butter cookie recipe appears to be quite popular on the internet. What bothered me about it though was the amount of sugar used. One cup of sugar to one cup of peanut butter. Too sweet for my taste. I cut the sugar by half, added a tablespoon of cornstarch and the cookie turned out great.

1 cup chunky peanut butter, unsweetened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1 large egg

1 - 1 1/2  3.5 oz bars of semi-sweet chocolate, broken into pieces (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine the peanut butter, sugar, cornstarch and baking soda in a bowl. When it's well mixed, add the egg and continue to mix until the egg is well incorporated. The dough will also lose it's sticky, gooey consistancy.

Shape small walnut sized pieces into balls, place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart, and flatten with a fork or the bottom of a glass. Place a piece of chocolate onto the centre of each cookie, if using.

Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned; the centre should still be soft. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on the cookie sheet.

13 comments:

TasteStopping said...

I have never considered chocolate to be optional! :D However, your version of this recipe sounds delicious, so perhaps I could forgo the chocolate just this once. Then again, they play together so nicely! I love that you worked this recipe into something that suits your tastes. It takes a bit of courage to try your own spin on a recipe, especially when it comes to baking. Thanks for sharing.

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Salem said...

I just love your gorgeous photo of this cookie with the way the chocolate square just pops out! I think it's fantastic that you made something positive out of your mother's difficulty this way and at the same time offer an alternative to the many people who require a gluten-free diet. And I'm with you on the sugar!

Salem

Anonymous said...

Why did you need to add the cornstarch after subtracting the sugar?

Thanks and cheers,

*Heather*

Jennifer said...

These sound SO good! I love the simplicity of them!

Gerlinde in Washington said...

In retrospect, I probably didn't need to add the cornstarch. I thought that the sugar in some way behaved as a dry counter to the gooey peanut butter, and that perhaps the cornstarch might help lighten the crumb.

Never having made these before, I hadn't realised that the addition of the egg would take care of the very sticky mixture in my bowl, and that the result would be a nice dough which could easily be shaped into balls.

Anonymous said...

thanks!

*heather*

Anonymous said...

Just made them, so easy and so tasty. I just added 2 or 3 chocolate chips to the top for a little bit of chocolate, thanks for the recommendation

Anonymous said...

My son and I made one of the popular internet recipes recently, and I completely agree - waaaay too much sugar. Too sweet! I was hoping for a chewier, peanuty-er cookie, so maybe I'll give yours a try. Nice photo!

Gerlinde in Washington said...

Thanks!

The resulting cookie wasn't chewier, it had a tender crumb, but it did seem "peanuty-er" to me.

The peanut butter I used was made from just salted, dry roasted peanuts, and that flavour was quite pronounced.

Kathy said...

I made these today sans chocolate (I didn't have any on hand) and added some jelly on top; they were so soft and melt-in-your-mouth! I did reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup since I can eat very plain desserts (if it was a meal, then that's another story) w/o a problem :)

http://milk-and-tea.blogspot.com

anna said...

Just made these. This is THE BEST PB cookie I've ever made! Many thanks :)

Julia A said...

I will be making these. Very excited about the lower sugar. All other recipes I've ever seen always have the 1:1 ratio of peanut butter to sugar. The just seems unnecessary.
If I can get these kids to bed on time I may make these tonight :)

Elliott Broidy said...

Looks delicious!

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