#Recipe: Nut Butter Cookies
Put a bowl of cashews or almonds in front of me and you’d better not blink. But for some reason, the butters made of these nuts are too much for me and they sit in the pantry for months. There’s something about the way the taste changes when they’re ground that is too rich for my palate.
This past weekend I hung out with J and his kid at the grandparents’. One of the things best things about going over there is the kitchen. When J and his 9-year-old are ignoring me and doing things that 9-year-olds like better than hanging out with their father’s girlfriend, I use the time to bake.
Lately, it’s been all about cookies.
A few months ago J made an amazing pecan cookie from a recipe in his mom’s old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook; the one in the binder. It inspired me to revisit my own cookie making past.
A personal chef friend of mine has decided to transition to a Paleo diet, a kind of grain-free Real Food diet, if you will. I told her I’d support her by experimenting with not eating bread and products with flour. I’ve limited my bread intake to 2-3 times a week with interesting results, but I will be holding on to my weekly pancake ritual.
With a forgotten jar of almond butter I’d purchased for my dad (he too found the taste to be too much for his palate) and a gift of crunchy peanut butter from Once Again Coop, searched online for a flourless peanut butter cookie recipe and came across this one.
Using this recipe, I substituted brown sugar for white sugar. Forming the cookies were a bit tricky; while this recipe calls for an egg, the chocolate chips did not hold well. I had to force the chips into the balls of dough.
It was even worse for the crunchy peanut butter – both the chips and the chopped peanuts were trying to free themselves from their destiny.
I made three batches of the cookies, almond butter, peanut butter, and almond & peanut butter. The almond butter ones were so good that I was mad I hadn’t made them smaller.
The last batch was just supposed to be just almond butter but I didn’t have enough for the recipe and I also wanted to see if adding an extra egg would hold the chips in. Instead, I ended up with a much wetter batter than I wanted, so I had to add in the remaining peanut butter.
The recipe says to bake for 12 to 14 minutes, but I only baked them for 12. I got a very chewy but slightly crispy cookie. The batch with 2 eggs is a bit chewier and puffier than the first two batches.
This recipe is a great one bowl recipe that takes little time.
I could make this every weekend.
Good thing my oven is broken.
