Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

In addition to chocolate, I'm a bit of a peanut butter fiend. If I need a little snack at work, I have been known to eat spoonfuls of peanut butter right from the jar while looking around furtively to see if anyone has noticed.

They do.

Surprisingly, given my love of peanut butter, I don't make peanut butter cookies all that often. I think the lack of chocolate and somewhat muted peanut butter flavor of a lot of peanut butter cookies probably are to blame, but I've been collecting a few recipes to try to find the best one. This was the first one I tried, and coincidentally, it is also gluten free.

You see, I've been feeling a touch guilty about all the sweet treats I bring in to work because my boss has celiac disease and can't eat anything with gluten in it. As most every dessert calls for some measurement of flour, he hasn't been able to enjoy anything I've brought in, so I made these cookies to bring in just for him. Now, you may think I'm majorly sucking up, but I'd already given notice that I was leaving, so there wasn't really any work-related incentive.

Although I gave him all 10 cookies to have just for himself, after trying one, he proceeded to walk around the office offering them to everyone else so they too could marvel at how good a gluten free cookie could be. He was still talking about them the next day, and even joked that he was going to promote me from my cubicle into the VP's office! If only I weren't leaving...

So if your boss happens to be gluten intolerant, or you've majorly offended your boyfriend/girlfriend/hetero life partner, these are apparently a surefire way to get into their good graces!

These were incredibly easy and quick to make and only used a few ingredients that are probably always stocked in your pantry (unless you don't like peanut butter, in which case, we can't be friends). Because there's no need to wait for butter to soften or dough to chill (for very long) you can decide to make these and be inhaling them 45 minutes later.

These cookies had great texture; the middle was nice and chewy and the outer edges were just a teeny bit crisp but not enough to make a crunch, actually very reminiscent of a classic sugar cookie. Plus, the sugar on the outside gave them a great sweet, sparkly, sugary effect. I also loved the way these looked: nice and crackly on the top. They maybe weren't the best peanut butter cookies I've ever had because I think butter or shortening adds some richness and creaminess to typical peanut butter cookies, but for being completely gluten and butter-free, these were promotion-worthy good.

I had wanted to make them into Peanut Butter Blossoms with chocolate kisses in the middle, but they spread too much during baking. Maybe if the balls of dough were smaller, that would work.

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies
Yield: 10-12 cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of kosher salt

Directions:
1. Stir together sugar and peanut butter until well mixed.
2. Beat in egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt.
3. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Form the dough into 2-inch balls and roll in sugar.
5. Bake for about 14 minutes, or until the edges just begin to set. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely.

Adapted from AllRecipes.com