Something Deliciously Meatless

I wanted to make something non-chocolatey and fasting/vegan friendly for Rob's birthday party. I find this not only a challenge but a pleasure, because I love trying new recipes and adapting favorite flavors into something that everyone can enjoy.  I also wanted a simple recipe, and I did some research and looked at a bunch of different vegan and non vegan recipes for peanut butter cookies. This is what I came up with...

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter or another nut butter (or a mix of two different butters if you'd like, almond butter works lovely as well)
• 2 Tbs maple syrup
• 2 Tbs applesauce (unsweetened)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 4 Tbs whole-wheat pastry flour (all purpose and white flour work as well)

Directions:

1. In a small mixing bowl, combine peanut butter, maple syrup, apple sauce and vanilla.

2. Add sugar, baking soda, flour, (if using no salt added nut butter, add a dash of salt here as well) and mix well. dough will be quite soft.

3. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.  Remove from fridge and roll into equal sized balls. A rounded teaspoon or a tablespoon measure, melon baller or tiny ice cream scoop can be very useful for this part.

4. Return cookies to the fridge to chill. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

5. When oven is heated, flatten cookies just slightly with the tines of a fork before putting them in the oven. Bake cookies for 8 minutes. They will spread out and may look a little underdone in the middles when you take them out, but don't worry, they will be perfect!

6. Let cool on baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before removing the cookies to a cooling rack. Letting them rest will allow them to firm up just enough so that they don't fall apart when you try moving them.

Notes: At Step 3 when you are rolling the cookies into balls you have an amazing opportunity to add creative deliciousness. Try rolling the balls in a sugar crystal coating before placing them on the baking sheet. Toasted coconut is also a tasty option. Chopped nuts or sesame seeds would also be interesting to try.

If you like a stiffer cookie you can substitute brown sugar for the maple syrup OR add more flour in small bits at a time until you get the consistency you prefer.

For crispy cookies, do not refrigerate, bake the cookies right away. They will spread quite a bit and you may want to cook them another minute or two.

I am excited to try banana instead of apple sauce in this recipe. Also, a drizzle of melted vegan/ nondairy chocolate would fancy these up (or regular chocolate for those that want).

These are not a "health" food. Still, there are worse things out there that you could be eating. I used this Recipe Calculator to determine that if you stretch this recipe to make 24 cookies, each cookie has about 100 calories and 5 grams of fat. I am not sure entirely how accurate that is, but I thought I would let you all know. If craving peanut butter cookies and/or looking to be a little less carnivorous these are a tasty and not super guilt-inducing treat in moderation.

Enjoy!