Almond Butter Cookies

I think pretty much everyone knows the super easy Peanut Butter cookie recipe which is this:

1 Cup peanut butter
1 Cup sugar
1 egg

Mix together and bake at 350 for about 8 minutes.

My mom makes these and when I typed in "easy peanut butter cookies" the first handful of links were all pretty much this same recipe.  Some versions call for a little vanilla and others add some baking soda.  But you can get nice PB cookies with just the 3 ingredients although I bake mine a little longer because I like somewhat of a crisp cookie.

This morning before I made up a batch of these cookies I realized that a) I needed more than a dozen cookies which is what the recipe makes and b) I hate measuring out peanut butter, especially the all natural kind where the oil separates and you can never get it mixed completely right.  I was also going to use evaporated cane juice instead of straight "white" sugar. 

Evaporated Cane Juice is pretty much the same as sugar except less processed so you still get some trace vitamins and minerals.  It is still 15 calories/tsp like fully processed white sugar but since it a) tastes better and b) is slightly better for you, I think it is the clear winner to bake with in most things.  It is also slightly sweeter than sugar so you can get away with using a little less.  It costs more but using gratuitous amounts of cheap sweeteners may be a good habit for all of us to break anyway...

But back to the cookies.  Here was the recipe I used for tonight's dessert:

1 16 oz. jar of organic all natural peanut butter
1 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice
2 organic cage free eggs

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Nutrition Info:  36 cookies; 117 calories, 6.5 gm fat, 12 gm carbohydrates, 3 gm protein, 0.8 gm fiber and 39mg sodium.

I used the whole jar of peanut butter so I didn't have to measure anything out (it is the equivalent of 1 3/4 cups so I just did 1 3/4 cup of ECJ since it was a 1:1 ratio in the original recipe) and also so I didn't have to stand there and stir in the oil.  When you just use a spatula and put everything in a bigger bowl it's way easier and the oil, ECJ and eggs mix up super easily.  Some people are probably much cleaner about it that I am but whenever I'm first mixing the peanut butter I always have oil spill over the jar. Then it's all greasy and hard to open the next time.  (Even when I store it upside down first before opening.). 

An obvious solution may be to buy a jar of JIF but unfortunately most peanut butters that are already "mixed" have a lot of extra sugar, salt, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup and/or partially hydrogenated oil (trans fat) added to them.  And mixing up peanut butter is really not the hardest thing in the world. 

Anyway, once I made the cookies it kind of hit me that they were inherently gluten free (like the flourless chocolate molten cakes I made last week) and lactose free, two more common food allergies/intolerances.  Since peanuts are another big allergen I thought how easy it would be to substitute almond butter and make them even more allergy friendly.  Also I thought the peanut flavor didn't shine through as much and the cookies could still be great with much less sugar or ECJ. 

So when I ran to the store for those last few items I grabbed a jar of organic all natural almond butter.  A note on almond butter-make sure you read the ingredients because there are several brands that have flax seed, wheat germ, etc. added to them.  While this may taste great and add some more nutrients, it kind of defeats the whole gluten free thing.  (Get it, WHEAT germ?)  It's also close to $10/jar which is about twice as much as a jar of organic peanut butter. 

But for a super easy, versatile cookie that could please anyone with or without a food allergy it's not that bad.  (Ever seen the cost of a box of gluten free cookies?  Non-wheat flours are expensive...)  The brand I bought was straight almonds so no extra sodium either.  Also, almonds are technically a seed so allergies to them are much less common. 

Since these are so easy to make I thought I'd whip up an "experiment" batch right before Reid came home so he could have some warm cookies.  (If they didn't turn out, he could still just have dinner with the peanut butter ones.  And in the end he just had both.  Research, right?)  I might add a tiny bit of sea salt and vanilla to these but they are pretty good as is.  So here is the almond butter/less sweetener version:

1 16 oz. jar organic almond butter
1 cup evaporated cane juice
2 organic cage free eggs

Bake at 350 for 14 minutes.  (For a super soft cookie you can bake them for only 8 or so minutes).
Nutrition: Makes 36 cookies (slightly smaller); 99 calories, 6.5 gm fat, 8.3 gm carbohydrates, 2.4 gm protein, 1.7 gm fiber, 4mg sodium

*Cookie baking hint:  Use parchment paper to line your cookie sheet.  This way you avoid gunking up your pan with baking spray which then turns the pan black. You also don't get any funny taste from the sprays.  If you are making a ton of cookies this especially helpful because you can just slide the whole piece of paper onto the cooling rack and then re-use the parchment for additional batches.  Slide on, slide off.

Enjoy!  I think these are going to come to the Discharge Planning meeting with me on Thursday.  A hospital is a great place to sample allergy free treats, right?

By the way..I'm still working on trying to figure out my new cameras so one day we'll finally have pics back on the blog.  I'm such a slow technology learner...they should probably just give me an instant camera and then let CVS hand me a disk of pictures!