Healthier Peanut Butter Cookies

So when I’m complaining in March about my weight while running up hills in the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Road Race, some please remind me about these cookies and my decision to make them… and to eat them….
You see, my neighbor has been wonderful this winter in helping me with snow removal.  He has a plow on a truck where as I have only a strong back and a shovel since my snowblower is out of commission currently.  He comes over and plows the drive, and I show up at his door minutes or hours later with fresh baked goods.  But I’m also looking out for his best interests- I try to make healthy desserts for him and his family so that come spring time they don’t shoot me dirty looks/thoughts while working off winter pounds.  So when I remembered that they really like peanut butter cookies that seemed like the logical gift to bake next.  While reaching for the ginormous bag of brown sugar and tub of Crisco I had a flashback to a healthier recipe that I’d seen for the ever-loved peanut butter cookie.  Something a little more hippy-dippy.  And something that I had all of the ingredients for already in the house 😉

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 cup organic, chunky natural peanut butter
1 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
  • In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a separate larger bowl combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, olive oil, and vanilla. Stir until combined. Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and stir until just combined. Let sit for five minutes and give one more quick stir.
  • Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes – but don’t over bake or they will be dry. Let cool five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.


Make 3+ dozen cookies.
Personally, I enjoyed these as an afternoon snack with a hot mocha latte after filing and paying my taxes.  What a perfect combination.

J

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