Easy peanut butter cookies recipe (3 ways)

Are these cookies healthy?

I prefer to call them healthy-ish because they do contain sugar. Specifically, this recipe requires 4 tablespoons white sugar and 4 tablespoons maple syrup and makes 16 cookies.

Since the sugar content is not very high, these peanut butter cookies can certainly find their place as part of a balanced diet. They're also ideal for people who follow a gluten-free diet, because as mentioned above they're completely flourless.

The flavors: Classic, salted dark chocolate, and cinnamon white chocolate.

All 3 flavors are amazing.

The classic cookies have pure peanut butter taste, while the salted dark chocolate will certainly remind you of peanut butter cups. The cinnamon and white chocolate flavor will probably be the least familiar, but it's equally delicious, especially if you love white chocolate.

Ingredients

Peanut butter: Store-bought smooth peanut butter works best with this recipe. Try to find a brand that's almost 100% peanuts.

Many brands contain other ingredients like salt, sugar, oil and emulsifiers (lecithin). This is okay as long as they're in small quantities. I wouldn't recommend peanut butter brands that contain less than 90% peanuts or brands with hydrogenated fat.

Homemade peanut butter will also work but the texture will be a bit softer. If you want to know how I make my homemade peanut butter watch this video for how to make almond butter and just replace the almonds with roasted, unsalted peanuts.

White sugar: I tried this recipe with coconut sugar instead of white sugar and the taste was disappointing. I also tried it with maple syrup only, and the cookies came out soft like brownies.

Using just 4 tablespoons of white sugar allows us to achieve the desired texture while still being able to say that these cookies are healthier than your classic 3-ingredient peanut butter cookies.

Maple syrup: Maple syrup has a lower Glycemic Index (GI) compared to sugar which means that it doesn't raise your blood sugar levels as high, something that makes it a healthier substitute. Grade A Golden maple syrup is recommended for this recipe.

Egg yolk: Instead of a whole egg, an egg yolk is used in this recipe. This lets us substitute half of the white sugar with maple syrup without affecting much the texture of the cookies. The texture is definitely not dry. Crispy edges and soft, chewy center.

Instructions

These cookies are very easy to make. You just need a bowl and a hand mixer, but a fork or a wooden spatula will also do the work.

Start by mixing the peanut butter, the sugar and the maple syrup. Then add the egg yolk and continue mixing until you notice that the cookie dough is starting to come together and it's not sticky any more.

Take full tablespoons of the dough, form balls and place them on a baking pan. Make crisscross patterns with a fork (optional) and bake.

There's no need to refrigerate the peanut butter before using it.

Salted dark chocolate peanut butter cookies

What can I say about this variation? This is probably one of the most amazing things you're going to taste!

If you like Peanut Butter Cups you're certainly going to LOVE these chocolate covered peanut butter cookies. They're just as good as these Greek chocolate covered honey cookies (melomakarona) which are my favorite. And this says a lot!

Cinnamon and white chocolate variation

Cinnamon and peanut butter pair very well together and foodiecrush.com proves it with these cinnamon-sugar flourless peanut butter cookies.

Cinnamon also pairs perfectly with white chocolate. Just try these fluffy cinnamon rolls with white chocolate icing and you'll know what I mean.

Can you tell where I'm going with this?

Peanut butter, cinnamon, and white chocolate. These ingredients are meant to be together.

Again, the only thing you have to be aware of is to temper the white chocolate before using it.