Today I’m going to give you a recipe for one of my favorite flour-free, five-ingredient cookies. In the early 1970s my mom, who is a fantastic baker, was diagnosed with a wheat allergy. Ironically, we lived in wheat country—wheat fields to the doorstep. At that time, alternative flours were rare. We had pea flour (makes really bad cookies), corn flour (really grainy cookies) and not much else in the grocery stores in Moscow, Idaho. We focused on candy after her diagnosis, but every now and again we’d find a recipe for cookies that didn’t call for flour. These cookies are delicate, but delicious. Here’s the recipe:
Flour-free Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup creamy peanut butter (you can use chunky if you want)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate chips are optional
Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix the peanut butter and sugar. Add the egg, salt and vanilla. That’s it. You’re done, unless you want to add chocolate chips. I just wing that.
I put parchment paper on the cookie sheets, then form 1 tablespoon size balls and place them a couple
inches apart. Use a fork to crisscross the cookies.
Bake for 10 minutes–no longer. You do not want to overbake. Let them cool completely on a rack before trying to handle them.
If you want, you can melt chocolate chips and frost the cookies, or just eat them as they are.
Pictured below are three varieties: chocolate chip peanut butter, chocolate frosted peanut butter and plain peanut butter.
Again, these are delicate, but delicious. I hope you try them. They’d be perfect to make with kids and grandkids.
Enjoy!
