Easy Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

We all need cookies sometimes. And a soft peanut butter cookie is one of my very favorites. So when I saw this recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies on Shockingly Delicious, I headed to the kitchen. Check out her fabulous recipe for baking this cookie at sea level!

Cookies are generally not considered a healthy food. So I look for ways to make them as healthy as I can. This starts with peanut butter.

Is Peanut Butter Healthy?

Yes, peanut butter can be healthy, but some varieties are healthier than others.

First, the healthy part. Peanut butter offers heart-healthy fats, and is loaded with protein for vegetarians and vegans. It also boasts decent protein, B vitamin niacin, iron, potassium, and vitamin E.

Keep in mind, however, that most of peanut butters' calories come from fat. It's primarily monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, but it's still a calorie dense food.

As for how to identify the healthiest peanut butters:

• Look for brands that contain only peanuts. Steer away from peanut butters with added sugar and / or salt.
• Palm oil is often added by manufactures to a) keep the peanut butter oil from separating out, and b) a filler to improve their margins. Palm oil has questionable nutrition, and has a negative impact on the environment.
• Some markets are set up so you can make your own peanut butter, which I highly recommend. But you can also make your own at home with a food processor and peanuts. If you must add some sugar, go with a little honey instead of granulated sugar.

Baking Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies at High Altitude

Often cookies don't need any adjustments when converting a sea level recipe to baking it at high altitude. But we live above Lake Tahoe at 7100 feet, and I like moist cookies. So I usually make a few easy changes.

Add a little moisture. Sometimes I add an egg white, but for this recipe I added 2 tablespoons of vanilla Greek yogurt to the batter. Plain yogurt will work too. I had vanilla yogurt on hand and knew it would work since the recipe calls for vanilla.

Cut back on chemical leaveners. But not by as much as for a cake or bread recipe. For example, for this recipe I cut the baking soda back by 1/8 teaspoon. That might not sound like much, but at 7100 feet it can make a difference. At 5000 feet and lower, no adjustment is needed for this recipe.

Reduce the amount of sugar. Sugar becomes more concentrated at high altitudes due to the increased evaporation of liquids. For this recipe, I cut the sugar back by one-quarter.

Pro-Tip: The Difference Between Baking Sheets and Cookie Sheets

The terms baking sheets and cookie sheets are often used interchangeably, but they're not the same.

Baking sheets have 4 raised rolled edges, making them ideal for roasting veggies, jelly-roll cakes, and sheet pan dinners. The uniformity of the raised edges also helps prevent warping.

Cookie sheets have only 1 raised edge, used as a handle of sorts for sliding the sheet into and out of the oven. This open sheet design provides several benefits you might not be aware of:

• Slipping the cookies from the pan onto a cooling rack is much easier than with a rimmed baking pan.
• Eliminating 3 of the raised edges frees up more space for more cookies.
• A flat sheet without edges provides increased air circulation. This promotes evenly baked cookies.

So next time you bake a batch of cookies, reach for a cookie sheet instead of a baking sheet! You won't be sorry.

Tips for Success in Making Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Use a type of peanut butter that doesn't include sugar, palm oil or added salt. It should just be peanuts. And the peanut butter should be creamy, not chunky.

The amount of yogurt is small enough that it doesn't matter if you use Greek yogurt or regular. I used Siggi's strained (Greek) yogurt. Feel free to use plain or vanilla flavored.

I always weigh my cookie dough before arranging the cookies on the cookie sheet. A trick I learned from Alice Medrich years ago in culinary school, this is another way of ensuring evenly baked cookies.

Any kind of chocolate chips works here, and many of you may prefer milk chocolate chips with the peanut butter. It's all good, but I admit I prefer Guittard Chocolate Chips over others.

I like to top cookies like this with Maldon Sea Salt Flakes as they stay on the cookies much better than kosher salt or other coarse salts.

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