Description
When amazing descriptive words like: soft, buttery, and healthy are combined with the word cookie, then you know it’s gonna be a good day! This beauty right here is what peanut butter cookie deliciousness is all about. These Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies are easy to make and sure to become your new favorite! Lightly sweet with a delicate peanut butter accent topped with a creamy chocolatey-peanut butter icing is all you’ll need for cookie nirvana. Perfect for any holiday, bake sale, or any day of the week. Guaranteed to get rave reviews, these cookies will be gone in a flash!
Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups almond flour *
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch *
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt *
Wet Ingredients:
- ½ cup unsalted peanut butter *
- 1/3 cup organic maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Optional Topping Ingredients:
- Drizzle melted semi-sweet chocolate chips *
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing *
- Chopped peanuts
Optional Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips *
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted peanut butter
- 2 Tablespoons organic maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon unsweetened plain plant milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place oven rack in the center position, avoiding the lower oven rack placement.
- Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat (or parchment paper).
- Place all the Dry Ingredients into a bowl, whisk to combine.
- Add the Wet Ingredients to the dry ingredients, stir well to combine (no electric mixer required).
- Take 2 tablespoons of cookie dough and roll it in your hands to form a ball, then place the ball onto the silicone mat (or parchment paper) lined cookie sheet. Try to keep the cookie size uniform. Continue until you have rolled all the dough into balls and placed on the baking sheet.
- Then flatten each ball into a round disk about ½ inch thick, then place the baking sheet (space them far apart as they spread) into a preheated 350 F oven and bake for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, remove from the oven, allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet(s) undisturbed for 5 minutes to firm up, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
- Enjoy warm, soooo delicious! Or allow to completely cool, then drizzle with melted chocolate or ice with Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing (icing instructions in notes) and sprinkle with chopped peanuts.
Notes
*Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing Instructions: Place the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and maple syrup into a small bowl. Microwave (or melt in a small pan) in 10 second intervals, stir vigorously in between intervals to help melt the chocolate. Repeat in 5 to 10 second intervals – just until the chocolate is completely melted (do not overheat or the chocolate separates) and the mixture comes together, then mix in the plant milk, stir vigorously until everything is smooth. Allow to slightly cool, then ice the cookies and sprinkle with chopped peanuts. We used Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Mega Chocolate Chunks.
*Traditional Crisscross Pattern: We tried the traditional peanut butter cookie crisscross fork pattern and it works perfectly and tastes great. The crisscross fork pattern creates a slightly more dense cookie; we preferred to not do this and allow the cookie to rise naturally in the oven as we preferred the texture better. Both versions are amazing.
*Peanut Butter: We use Fresh Thyme’s Creamy Peanut Butter (the grocery store chain). We absolutely love the flavor of their peanut butter. The only ingredient is peanuts. Do not use a peanut butter with added oils or sugars. For this recipe, do not pour off the natural oils that rise to the top of the jar. Simply mix it back down into the peanut butter. This ensure that your peanut butter is free flowing (with a little help from a spoon) and not a hard brick lump of solid peanut butter.
*Peanut Butter Substitutions: You can substitute the peanut butter with another nut butter or seed butter. Keep in mind the note listed above about the peanut butter apply to the nut/seed butters. The only exception would be tahini, which tends to be too runny and could be too bitter. Keep in mind that different nut and seed butter will influence and change the flavor and consistency. We have not tried any of these substitutes, but we believe that they should work well.
*Almond Flour: This recipe was specifically designed for almond flour. We do not have any substitutions. Additionally, spoon the almond flour into the measuring cup. Do not pack it in.
*Cornstarch: This is a drier/shortbread style cookie. If you want chewier cookies, reduce or eliminate the cornstarch.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Serving: Makes approximately 14 to 16 cookies.
*Storage: Use within 5 days. Freezes well (no icing).