Monica and Daria say:

Would you believe that 90% of all American households have a jar of peanut butter on their pantry shelf most of the time?

If you live in our homes, we usually have at least two….we just LOVE peanut butter!

Peanut butter cookies have been around since the 1910s with the first recipe appearing in a cookbook of George Washington Carver’s. Now if you remember your history, Carver was a botanist and inventor who devised many uses of the peanut. His cookies called for chunks of peanut to be placed in cookie dough. Peanut butter cookies, those made with peanut butter, made their appearance in households in the 1930s and have been a favorite ever since!

 

Why do peanut butter cookies have the famous criss-cross marks?

It could be one of several reasons.

It might be that a tradition was established in 1936 when a recipe from a Pillsbury cookbook had the criss-cross marks in the instructions….or it might be that placing the marks allows for uniform baking of the cookie….or it might be that the marks originated to warn people who were allergic to peanuts, not to eat these cookies!

No one knows for sure, but the criss-cross marks make the peanut butter cookie unique!

Wanting to use natural peanut butter and use less sugar than most peanut butter cookie recipes have, we came up with this recipe! Enjoy!

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Yummies

 

Dry Ingredients

1 ½ cups oat flour*

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ cup chopped peanuts

Wet Ingredients

1/3 cup shortening

½ cup creamy Natural Peanut Butter

¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 large egg (should be @ room temp)

1 tsp pure vanilla

1/8 cup granulated sugar for making criss-cross marks

*Oat flour can be made by placing 1 ½ of gluten free oats in a food processor – yield 1 cup of flour

Cookie Making Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚. Cover two baking pans with parchment paper.

Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.

Cream the shortening, natural peanut butter, and brown sugar in a large bowl.

Add your egg and vanilla and mix until smooth and thoroughly incorporated.

Next add your dry ingredients and blend until a dough forms.

Roll dough into balls of about 1 tablespoon each.

Place dough balls on baking sheet at least one and a half inches apart.

Dip a fork into a bowl with granulated sugar and make a criss-cross on each cookie with the fork tines, as you flatten it.

You can sprinkle a small amount of sugar on each cookie to top it off!

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on wire racks for at least 3-5 minutes.

Yield almost 3 dozen delightful cookies!

Happy Baking! And eating, of course!

© 2014, Monica & Daria of glutenfreedoubletalk