Peanut butter cookies for breakfast?
YES!
Chock full of nuts, oats, and protein. Gluten free and 1-bowl easy!
But they taste good. They don't taste like those horrid GF cookies that are either too bland or too chewy.
These have texture, substance, are hearty and filling. So good!
So before you scroll down and read the ingredients, stay here!
Stay with me--there is toasted coconut in there. Before you say hmm or eww.
It's not ewww, its yum.
If you toast the coconut it will not only add a nice crunch to the cookie. You cannot taste the coconut in there because the peanut butter is overpowering and the sweetness of the coconut is baked out a little bit when toasted. Trust me on this cookie, so easy to whip up; one bowl easy and they go so well with hot coffee in the morning.
And I don't know the exact nutritional ingredients, but I'm willing to bet these are almost like a protein bar, maybe not as much protein, but far less sugar.
If you want to cut back on the sugar, just omit the molasses or keep the molasses and use half the brown sugar.
I made a couple batches, one had cinnamon chips and the other had raisins.
I liked them both, so I left in the recipe ingredients to use either, but I wouldn't go with both at the same time.
A hearty cookie that you can easily have for breakfast when you're strapped for time.
peanut butter morning cookies (GF)
recipe from vanillasugarblog.com
print recipe
2 cups chunky peanut butter (not an oily peanut butter choose a creamy one)
¾ cup dark brown sugar, NOT packed, but loose
2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
1 ts pure vanilla extract
1 TB molasses
½ ts baking soda
1 ts sea salt
1 ½ cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup toasted coconut
½ cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
½ cup raisins (or cinnamon chips, not both or neither)
cook notes:
I would not add in the raisins and the cinnamon chips in the same batch; use either one or none.
I made two batches, one with the chips and one with the cinnamon chips and they were both tasty. For a healthier cookie, omit the molasses and the cinnamon chips.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the peanut butter, the dark brown sugar, the eggs and egg yolk well. Then add in the vanilla extract, molasses, baking soda, salt, and mix again.
Next add in the rolled oats, toasted coconut, nuts and raisins and mix.
Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge about an hour to firm up.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out dough onto parchment lined baking sheets about an inch apart. You can try using your hands to roll dough balls, but dough is very sticky.
Gently press down on the dough balls, do not flatten, just a small push down.
The cookies won’t spread much during baking, but they do rise up a bit.
Bake cookies for 13-16 minutes.
It’s hard to know when the cookies are done, they stay soft and puffy while baking (firm up after cooling )
I looked for almost-crisp, light golden brown edges.
After you remove from oven, let them sit on the cookie sheet for at least 15-20 minutes or longer if you can.
If you try and take them off the sheet right out of the oven they will break apart; very delicate after baking, so let them set up/firm up after baking.
They keep about 3-5 days at best?
Made about 21-25 cookies
5/13/14
peanut butter morning cookies (GF)
4/6/14
almond butter-oatmeal cookies (GF)
With my last batch of flourless peanut butter cookies, I got an email asking if almond butter could be used instead of peanut butter.
What a great question!
I didn't know, but was pretty sure one could easily swap the two.
So after just one experimental batch using almond butter they came out great--more like perfect!
I know a lot of you look for cookies that are gluten free and taste good.
I realize some gluten free cookies you see in the store aren't that great, sometimes you have to travel to a gluten free bakery for really good GF cookies.
But these almond butter-oatmeal cookies are really good.
These are chewy, not quite crunchy.
So if you like gooey cookies, these would be your match because you can slightly under-bake them for a soft center.
One note, since I obsess over what could have been ingredient-wise (with almost every recipe I make), if you do make these, I'm curious to see how they would taste without the cinnamon added.
Should you do this, please let me know.
Just wondering if taking the cinnamon out would make them more almond buttery tasting?
These are the perfect morning or breakfast cookie. They go so well with hot coffee.
And there isn't a lot of junk in there (just sugar) so it's almost healthy, filled with healthy proteins (almond butter and eggs).
almond butter-oatmeal cookies
print recipe
1 jar (16 ounces) honey almond butter (please see cook notes below)
½ cup dark brown sugar, NOT packed, but loose
2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
1 ts pure vanilla extract
3 dashes of cinnamon
1 ½ TB molasses
¾ ts baking soda
¾ ts sea salt
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
cook notes:
I used one whole jar (16 ounces) of honey almond butter. If you use maple flavored, you might want to cut down the sugar amount by 1-2 TB. I know the maple flavored almond butters are sweeter. If you use an almond butter that has no sugar in it, you might want to add in more sugar; make sure to taste-test before baking.
I would definitely add some raisins the next time I make these.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the almond butter, dark brown sugar, the eggs and egg yolk well. Then add in the vanilla extract, dashes of cinnamon, molasses and mix again.
Sprinkle on the baking soda, salt and rolled oats.
Mix well.
Cover bowl and place in fridge for 20 minutes to firm up.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out dough onto parchment lined baking sheets about an inch apart. You can try using your hands to roll dough balls, but dough is very sticky and wet.
DO NOT press down on the dough balls, do not flatten; leave as balls.
The cookies spread a bit during baking.
Bake cookies for 10- 14 minutes. For gooey cookies 10-11 minute mark.
It’s hard to know when the cookies are done, they stay soft and puffy while baking (firm up after cooling )
I looked for almost-crisp, light golden brown edges.
After you remove from oven, let them sit on the cookie sheet for at least 15-20 minutes or longer if you can.
If you try and take them off the sheet right out of the oven they will break apart; very delicate after baking.
They don’t keep too fresh that long, maybe 3 days at best?
Made about 21-23 cookies
3/10/14
2-ingredient cookie
The 2-ingredient cookie.
Have you heard of it?
Have you tried it?
I did.
And my results?
It needs more ingredients.
Who doesn't love a fast and easy cookie recipe?
Even I loved the list of ingredients that read: ripe bananas and rolled oats*.
(*And hey, since I get asked this all the time: rolled oats are the same as old fashioned oats).
So smitten with the list in fact that I didn't listen to my gut when it said "this will suck...there is
no sugar in there...".
Yeah it wasn't good--at all. Tasted like mashed, wet cardboard.
So the first batch went to the round file, and the second batch got an uplift by adding in a little peanut butter, pecans and chocolate. Much better.
Literally you can add in anything--AND I suggest you do.
Chocolate helps--a lot. And my addition of peanut butter helped too.
Where did this recipe come from?
I think it started on Oprah or O Magazine a couple years ago?
I saw it for the first time here at Foodlets.com
2-ingredient cookies
print recipe
cookie base:
2 very ripe bananas
1 cup old-fashioned oats
add in's:
dried cranberries, walnuts, pecans, peanut butter, raisins, etc..
(about 1/4 cup of each)
cook notes:
if you are adding in peanut butter, add in an additional 1 TB of oats for every 1/4 cup
of peanut butter. The cookies do not spread at all while baking, they actually keep the exact same
shape they had in dough form, so you might want to push the cookies down into a uniform circle.
I added in a pinch of salt to the dough if I added chocolate chips.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mash the bananas well. Add in the oats and stir.
Then add in your add in's, mix again.
I covered the bowl and place in fridge to firm up.
Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out balls onto parchment lined baking sheet, about an inch apart. Cookies don't spread at all, so you need to gently push the dough balls down a bit to get them round. Bake for about 11-15 minutes. Hard to know when they are done, but look for set dough.
3/3/14
peanut butter-oatmeal cookies (flourless, GF, 1-bowl easy)
I have to say, most gluten free, flourless peanut butter cookies are so much better tasting then those with flour. Something about that creamy, rich, dense texture that I just love.
If you choose a really good peanut butter (I love baking with the whole foods organic chunky), not an oily one you can create a really good satisfying peanut butter cookie.
With that said, I've wanted to create a semi breakfast version slash healthier peanut butter cookie that I would feel less guilty about.
So I added in a bit of rolled oats, took out some sugar and add topped it all off with some sea salt.
These cookies can be gluten free if your rolled oats are processed in a facility that is gluten free--yes there are gluten free oats out there--I found mine at Whole Foods.
Hands down, this is the best flourless cookie I've made.
They are so rich, so dense, and flavorful. Not 100% healthy because of the sugar, but you can experiment around and use a sugar substitute if you wish.
The cookies are super delicate after baking.
Let them chill on the cookie sheet before removing.
They harden up a bit with a nice wonderful crisp outside.
So good!
Use a chunky peanut for a hint of texture.
See the bottom and tops did crisp up a bit.
I promise you these will be your favorite peanut butter cookie AND it's all one bowl easy.
cook notes:
I swear by the organic chunky whole foods brand peanut butter. It's just the right amount of
creaminess and thickness for making all kinds of cookies & muffins.
Please make sure to chill the dough or the cookies will spread a bit. If you can't chill the dough, then
leave cookie dough balls in ball form--don't press/flatten.
2/8/14
flourless peanut butter-cinnamon cookies for #ElleAPalooza
As many of you might know by now, the food blogging world lost a dear dear friend way too early.
Elle of ellesnewenglandkitchen.com
(See my past post about her passing).
To honor her, her love, her friendships, her mentoring, and most of all her memory, a group of friends who all knew Elle have formed an #ElleAPalooza.
(There is also an auction to help raise funds for her family. Elle leaves behind a wonderful husband, and four children. If you can, please help donate to the fund. You can only imagine, in this economy, how hard things are for her husband now--so please donate, give what you can--any amount is welcome).
If you're interested in joining the celebration of Elle and the #ElleAPalooza, please visit the Facebook page: Friends of Elle.
Bloggers that participate, pick a favorite recipe from Elle's blog, recreate as is or with a twist--all done with loving Elle in memory. Along with the recipe, bloggers reflect back on their memories with Elle, how they met her, what they loved about her, what they learned from her, etc...
I personally never met Elle, but we became fairly close online via facebook and our food blogs.
In fact, Elle was one of the first people to leave a comment on my blog back in 2008 when I first started blogging.
Funny as my first few posts had horrid food photos and the cheesiest words to accompany those photos. So cheesy I swear....I like to think I've gotten better as I've aged?
Darling Elle saw past the cheesy words and always loved the recipes.
She would always tell me how creative I was, and when in the world was my first cookbook coming out?
As the years passed, she, the football Patriot loving friend, soon became someone I loved to share my morning espresso with on Facebook while I was supposed to be writing and working.
Oh it was easy to giggle and pass the morning by with her; she had a great sense of humor.
And always, and I do mean always, was very supportive of any new venture I took or any other food bloggers she knew.
Someone asked me what one thing, one true memory of Elle that stood out ?
Oh that's so easy to answer: she was so SUPPORTIVE.
Supportive to even people she casually knew in the food blogging world; she would encourage, encourage, encourage!
I like to call her the cheerleader of the food blogging world--she was always coaching people on, always sharing cooking contest links to me, pushing me on to enter--even if she was entering to.
She was not selfish at all.
Such a kind, gentle soul...you are so missed my dear.
For the #ElleAPalooza, I choose Elle's flourless peanut cookies, which are made with toffee and chocolate, but since Elle knew me so well, she knows that pretty much everything I do I have to put my own spin on it.
Since I love cinnamon with my peanut butter in the mornings, I decided to add cinnamon chips.
Those cinnamons chips went so well with the rich peanut butter flavor of the cookies.
Oh and a little sea salt on top never hurts either.
This is quite possibly one of the better peanut butter cookie recipes I've come across--it's very rich, deep peanut butter flavor....almost like a really good slice of chocolate cake that leaves you so thirsty.
This is that, but in a cookie. Very satisfying, and no flour used.
Of course, one bowl easy too.
I think what also made these smell and taste so good was the new bottle of tahitian vanilla I bought as a splurge item. Just a little something-something added in the background of the cookie.
I know that the tahitian beans are one of the more fragrant ones, and I can attest to this as the smell these cookies made in the house while baking was strong--almost tropical. Okay tropical mixed with peanut butter, really nice smell.
Don't be tempted to flatten these--they won't be as puffy or tender when baked.
Just a little push down--barely.
If you try and take these off the sheet right after baking they will break apart.
Let them cool at least 20 minutes or longer.
Can't tell you how tasty these truly are...I'm certain Ms. Elle was with me when I created these.
You are missed Ms. Elle, you are missed...
flourless pb & cinnamon cookies
recipe idea from elle's new england kitchen
print recipe
2 cups peanut butter (not oily all natural kind)
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 ts pure vanilla extract
1 ts baking soda
1 ts sea salt
less than ½ cup cinnamon chips
a little extra sea salt for the tops of the cookies
In a large mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients except for the cinnamon chips.
Mix well, then fold in the cinnamon chips
Cover bowl well, and put in fridge for at least 15 minutes.
OR using a 2-inch cookie scoop out cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheets, barely pressing down on the dough balls, then set them into fridge to firm up before baking. (I did the latter).
Put a little sea salt on the tops of the cookies before baking, optional but wonderful.
The cookies won’t spread much during baking, but they do rise up a bit.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake cookies for 13-16 minutes.
It’s hard to know when the cookies are done as they stay soft and puffy while baking (they firm up a lot after baking)
I looked for almost-crisp, light golden brown edges.
After you remove from oven, let them sit on the hot cookie sheet for at least 15-20 minutes or longer if you can.
If you try and take them off the sheet right out of the oven they will break apart; very delicate after baking.
They don’t keep too fresh that long, maybe 3 days at best?
Makes about 21-25 cookies
9/9/13
GF double chocolate brownies with GF oreo's
After making those insanely good double gluten free chocolate muffins, it was only a matter of time before I made brownies.
8/27/13
quite possibly the worlds best GF double chocolate muffins
That's a title you really have to be able to back up isn't it?
It's true though, these gluten free muffins are good. So good in fact, on the few people I tested these on
no one even knew they were gluten free!
I asked them:
does it taste like there is a missing ingredient(s)?
no, it tastes like that "death by chocolate" cake!
Well, that's a good sign right?
Granted gluten free a couple years ago meant hard, dry, and tasteless.
Now it's come a long and more
flavorful way, thank goodness with the popular use of almond meal, coconut flour, rice flour, etc...
I get so many requests for more gluten free creations; I promise to try my best and do more this fall and
winter.
Now you can have your chocolate muffin for breakfast and no crash and burn a half hour later.
I was only to come up with 11 muffins, not 12, only 11.
You need to fill these pretty much to the top as they don't rise that much--just a little.
If you can, please use a high quality chocolate, as they have a higher cacao and give a deeper
and richer chocolate flavor.
Seriously these are really good. Really moist and full of chocolate flavor.
2/19/13
gluten free pecan blondies
After my last post, the recap of the blizzard of 2013, did you know we got another heavy storm one week later?
When it hit cape cod it was dubbed as a semi-major storm, and then as it moved up the coast towards Maine it became a blizzard?
AND, now they're saying we (the cape) might get another weekend storm? So that's three storms.
What is going on?
Tell me this is the prelude to nice, sunny, CALM, spring and summer?
If so I'll take it.
Did I tell you my cabin fever is at an all time high?
Have you ever had cabin fever?
Oh some of my friends in california don't even know the term (poor babies I should educate then firsthand right?)
I tell you, the older I get the harder it is to take these frigid winters with insane amounts of snow.
My bones, they feel weak when that blustery cold keeps hitting the body over and over.
No amount of hot showers can truly penetrate down to the bones, well, maybe a hot tub.
I had hoped to take a tax refund check and put in a bathtub or something similar one of these years, but it looks like we have other plans for that refund.
So with this last coastal storm we learned that we have a few trees that have to come down before hurricane season starts.
It's funny because one of the main reasons I bought this house was the fact that the previous owner had cleared a fair amount of the land of trees.
If you live on cape cod you know that wind is always a factor here and having trees close to the house is dangerous.
We have a couple trees left that aren't right up close to the house, but close enough that if they fell they'd do some damage.
But the main reason that I want to clear more trees is that I saw the aftermath of what fallen trees did to other peoples homes and it scared me. Can you imagine a tree falling on your house? Going right through the home? In the middle of winter, a giant hole in your house?
Where do you go? A hotel? And for how long? And surely your insurance won't cover it all?
It's scary when you really think it through. So all this and more is going through my head; aka the clutter and noise in my head.
With my tax refund I was hoping to save away for a nice half-house generator or a whirlpool tub. Ahhh a tub to soak my old bones...yeah, not going to happen.
How many more days till summer?
With these tasty gluten free blondies keep in mind they are moist, very moist, tasty too.
I might have under-baked a bit, which is fine by me, but just watch the baking times; I think I should have added on another 4-5 minutes of baking time.
You don't have to add in the nuts, I did for texture and the buttery taste of the batter just begged for the addition of the pecans.
To be honest, I prefer the taste of almond meal over flour--it truly adds a nice flavor.
I just wish almond meal wasn't so expensive; I need to make my own.
2/3/13
gluten free peanut butter-coriander snack cake
After only having done a handful of gluten free recipes, I'm actually quite shocked at how good these are tasting.
Sadly I was one of those people that firmly believed that if it was gluten free it meant taste free.
Thankfully only after a handful of creating gluten free recipes (more posts coming) I'm happy to find that gluten free easily means very tasty.
I hope this same theory holds when I start making breads, pastries, cupcakes, and rolls.
Getting gluten free breads to taste just like real bread is a challenge I'm willing to accept!
When I made those gluten free salty peanut butter cookies using that peanut butter powder--I had plenty of powder left. That is where this cake came into play.
If you don't have peanut butter powder you can easily use peanut flour.
Found at whole foods and most health food stores. They have a website: bettylousinc.com
This peanut butter powder is wonderful; just like peanut flour, BUT it has sugar in it.
So if you use this in baking make sure to watch how much sugar you use.
This snack cake is very light, not heavy in texture. In the photo it looks like it's moist and under-done--it's not. It's just moist and almost delicate like.
But the flavor is wonderful. If you've ever had peanut butter with coriander you'll know what I mean.
Those two flavors work so well together.