Quickie Peanut Butter Cookies

Last Spring, these flourless peanut butter cookies kept crossing my path. I forget where I first heard about them, but I kept seeing the recipe. One of the moms in my parenting group even brought them as a treat to our Monday morning meeting. They were so good and the recipe sounded super easy. But I never got around to making them. Then in June, Kim from Stirring the Pot posted the recipe on her blog. I bookmarked it. But still, the rest of the summer flew by and I didn't give another thought to these cookies. Finally, my daughter's first day of school rolled around and in her absence, I suddenly felt this maternal need to have a warm plate of cookies waiting for her when she returned home. I envisioned us sitting across the kitchen table, with the warm afternoon sun on our backs, enjoying this yummy snack and discussing her milestone day. I was short on time and didn't have many special ingredients around the house...and then I remembered this recipe! It was perfect. You just dump the 6 ingredients together. Stir, shape, and bake.

Dump the peanut butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla into a bowl. Stir until combined.



Then mix in the chocolate chips.



Scoop the dough in tablespoon sized portions, roll it into a ball between your hands, and press a cross hatch pattern into the top, using a table fork.



Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and enjoy. That's it! 2 dozen delicious cookies in 20 minutes. Gotta love that!



Here's the recipe as seen on Stirring the Pot:

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Emeril 20-40-60 Fresh Food Fast
Makes 24 cookies
Time: Start to Finish 20 minutes (Using 2 cookies sheets w/ 12 cookies on each)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Position two oven racks in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.

Divide the dough into 24 portions, about one tablespoon each. (I used a small ice cream scooper, which holds about one tablespoon). Roll each portion between your hands to form a smooth ball. Place the balls of dough on ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them 1 inch apart. You should get about 12 cookies per sheet. Using a fork, press on the dough in two directions to form a crosshatch pattern.

Bake the cookies, rotating the sheets between oven racks and turning them back to front midway, until the cookies are puffed and lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheets from the oven and let the cookies cool on the sheets. Then remove them with a metal spatula.