Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Throughout my entire childhood, I maintained the fact that I hated peanut butter.  I wouldn’t eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I avoided peanut butter cups like the plague, and I wouldn’t go near peanut butter cookies.  I did, however, like peanuts themselves, so as a teenager I reformed my standpoint to be that I only liked peanut butter in savory applications.
After I went vegan, I was often drawn to cookie recipes that contained nut butter, and one night when I had a sweet tooth but was out of almond butter, I reluctantly decided to use peanut butter instead.
It was something of a revelation.  I didn’t hate peanut butter in desserts at all!  I couldn’t believe how many years I had spent missing out on something so delicious.  So, I was naturally intrigued when I came across a recipe for “Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies,” on the Desserts Magazine website.  Since I had all of the ingredients on hand to make a slightly-modified, vegan version of the cookies, I decided to give the recipe a try despite my initial hesitation.  The consistency was not like any cookies I had eaten before, but my general impression was that the cookies were surprisingly good!

Here are some of my thoughts after having made numerous batches:
The kind of peanut butter you use will make a big difference in the final texture of your cookies.  Smooth or chunky peanut butter should be fine, but if the base of the butter isn’t creamy then the cookies may end up being gritty.
It’s better to make smaller-sized cookies.  Maybe because I use ground flaxseed as a binder (it’s my favorite egg replacer), the cookies end up being somewhat breakable.  If you make them too large, they tend to crack and fall apart.
Not all nut butters will work the same way!  I made a batch of the cookies with hazelnut butter once when I was visiting my family, and the cookies turned out completely different.  The dough spread so much that the cookies were completely flat, and they ended up looking like lacy cookies instead of standard chocolate chip cookies.  On the bright side, the cookies were still absolutely delicious, and after reducing the baking time to prevent burning, they were a huge hit!  The Hazelnut Lacy Cookies were even more fragile than their peanut butter counterparts, but that just meant that they made an incredible addition when crumbled into some homemade vegan ice cream.
These cookies are quick, easy, and they’re even gluten-free!  After all my years of adamant refusal to partake of peanut butter desserts, I’ve been doing my best to make up for lost time by eating these cookies whenever I get a chance!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 2 dozen

1 cup unsalted peanut butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal + 3 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

In a large bowl, combine the peanut butter, sugar, flax mixture, baking soda, and salt, then fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop teaspoons of the dough onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 12-14 minutes and enjoy!