If I have a free choice, I tend to go for cakes rather than cookies. Cookies are too compact for me, often too sweet. I came up with this idea because I’ve been in a peanut butter frenzy for the past few weeks. It actually goes everywhere: in smoothies, in dressings, on bread, with fruit, etc…. Of course, I’m not talking about the sweetened peanut butter with palm oil or other fats. Just peanut pure and a little salt.
Peanuts are an excellent source of glutamine if you avoid meat. One has an increased need for glutamine in autoimmune diseases or leaky gut syndrome*, etc. A highly recommended book on this subject is Energy! by doctor Anne Fleck.
Unfortunately, the sugar in the cookies is probably not that beneficial to your health, but they can be an exception. In a twist off jar or locked box they will last a few days and you don’t have to eat them all right away. I’ve baked them several times, sometimes with xylitol, with coconut blossom sugar or half/half with regular cane sugar. So you can choose what you like. In the recipe is a “normal” sugar specification, so they taste like normal cookies. For me it is too sweet and I bake them with 20 g less sugar, so here only 60 g. If you are also so on it, take also a bit less.
To be able to form balls, the dough must stand for an hour in a cold place. Then you can form it into individual balls with a hollow and fill them with peanut butter. It’s a pretty sticky affair, for me too. This is how it should be, you do everything right. 😉
I have used chopped chocolate and some peanut butter as decoration, but chopped peanuts or cocoa nibs will definitely work as well.
I used xanthan gum as a thickener. Xanthan gum is not always gluten-free and you should also make sure it is food grade when buying it. It is sometimes used for cosmetic products as well. I always use this one, available at health food or online stores. It is an all natural polysaccharide and is usually well tolerated by people with allergies and food intolerances. (Other gluten-free thickeners like locust bean gum and guar gum, among others, cause discomfort for me and for people with histamine intolerance, for example).
Even though it’s a little fiddly to roll the peanut butter into the dough, you don’t have to do it that correctly and the cookies taste just fine, unperfected. I hope you have fun baking and eating them. About comments and experiences, how the cookies turned out with you, I’m happy. Have a fantastic day, Pia
*Anne Fleck, Energy! dtv, 2021, page 266
peanut chocolate cookies
Ingredients
- 100 g food starch corn or potato
- 60 g wholemeal rice flour
- 10 g cocoa powder unsweetend
- 1/2 Tsp Xanthan
- 1 pitch of salt
- 125 g vegan margarine without palm oil or soy if possible
- 80 g sugar alternatively xylit or coconut blossom sugar
- 100 g peanutbutter unsweetend, without palmoil
- 20 g dark chocolate dark
Instructions
- Mix cornstarch with flour, cocoa, xanthan gum and salt. Beat margarine and sugar with the whisks of a hand mixer until white. Stir in flour mixture briefly. Knead everything into a smooth dough. Place in a cool box and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Divide the dough into approx. 14 pieces of approx. 25 g each. Roll each piece into a ball with your hands. (If you think the dough is still too soft, put it in the refrigerator for about 1 hour) Press a hollow in the center of each ball and fill it with a level teaspoon of peanut butter. Close the dough around it. Shape into a round. (yes this is sticky) Place balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper with plenty of space between them. Place a small peanut butter blob on each. Chop chocolate medium fine and spread on top of cookies.
- Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees top/bottom heat (convection oven not recommended) in the lower third for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool on a cooling rack.