Peanut Butter Cookies

[faevii]

I don't know if you're all aware that it's possible to make peanut butter cookies with just three ingredients. Until recently I wasn't, so I thought I'd spread the knowledge. These are the easiest cookies I have ever tried to make. I was afraid I wouldn't like them because I'm not really a fan of plain old peanut butter in general, but they pleasantly surprised me.

The three ingredients are:

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg

(I chose to use an entire (350g) jar of PB, which I estimated was more than a cup, then filled the empty jar with sugar to get the same amount again and added a second egg. Incidentally, this resulted in just enough dough to fill my whole cookie sheet.)

Instructions:

- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Mix ingredients.
- Make cookie-shaped lumps by either rolling the dough into balls and flattening them or just dropping spoonfuls on your cookie sheet. Both should be easy to do since the mixture is surprisingly non-sticky. I've never had so little trouble handling dough!
- Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes. DON'T wait for them to get hard - they need to cool off for that to happen. My first batch turned out way too dark because I couldn't believe they were done.

Needless to say, this is not a low-cal or low-anything snack. That's why I like them. Once I've made a batch, I don't need to worry about getting enough food inside me for several days because I've got these cookies to fall back on if all else fails. They seem to keep well: even when I just left them lying around on a plate, they still tasted good three days later.

Comments

[killing_rose]

I love these cookies and how easy they are. I will note that I prefer the four ingredient recipe, which also calls for a teaspoon of baking powder.

(The sheer amount of calories makes my friends cry. But, you know, extremely helpful when even heating a box of soup is too much work.)

[faevii]

(The sheer amount of calories makes my friends cry. But, you know, extremely helpful when even heating a box of soup is too much work.)

Exactly! Nobody ever gets that.

[jumpuphigh]

I love these cookies, too. I especially like them after refrigerating them. I'm thinking about adding chocolate chips to a batch. Chocolate in my peanut butter - YUM.

[colorwheel]

i'd like to try these! does it matter what type of peanut butter you use? did you use the natural kind that you have to mix when you first open it, or the kind that has some sugar in it already and never separates?

(there are probably better ways to describe the two kinds of peanut butter, but i can't think of them...)

[faevii]

Uh ... I've never even heard of peanut butter that has to be mixed, so I'm guessing the latter type. :D

[colorwheel]

okeydokey, thanks!

[jumpuphigh]

I've used natural, has-to-be-mixed p.b. The recipe I read said not to but that is all I will eat and it worked just fine.

[colorwheel]

good to know. thanks!

[killing_rose]

I've made it with everything from the natural kind to the more commercialized type to chunky and to chocolate peanut butter. And they work with all of the above.

[colorwheel]

oh cool! thanks!

[jumpuphigh]

I've been thinking about trying it with almond butter as well.

[killing_rose]

I made it with a mix of almond and peanut butter, I think. (It was about a year ago.) It turned out well so I see no reason why straight almond butter shouldn't work.

[stultiloquentia]

Ch-chocolate peanut butter? *researches*

[killing_rose]

http://ilovepeanutbutter.com/shop-online

(I found it in my local Stop and Shop, so there's no reason why you might not be able to find it nearby.) I actually found the damned thing because I needed one without soy and it looked interesting.

[stultiloquentia]

Oh, cool, thanks. My local Stop and Shop is...quirky, but if I can't find it there, the Harvest Co-op is generally all over that kind of gunk. :)

[vass]

I cosign this recipe. It really is that easy.

[birke]

Thank you!

[supermouse]

That's brilliant! How much less sugar can one use and still get something recognisable? I have a definite use for grab-and-eat food, but the less sugar the better. Regardless, it seems worth making a tin of these up the next time I have a good patch, for the next time I have a bad patch.

[faevii]

I'm not sure. One time I actually used a little less and didn't run into any problems, but I don't know how much I left out, exactly. To my own surprise, I discovered that I liked them better with the full amount of sugar. I think the main purpose of the sugar in that recipe is to prevent the cookies from tasting like pure peanut butter ... what keeps them from falling apart should be the egg, right? So I do believe it would work with significantly less sugar, I just don't know if it would still taste good. You might have to experiment!

[birke]

I made them with one cup plain fresh-ground peanut butter, slighly less than a cup raw cane sugar, and one egg. They came out somewhat weird. I don't think it's the lack of sugar; it might be the nature of the sugar, the fact that the peanut butter wasn't salted, or just my own preferences. :shrug: