Peanut butter cookies

If you speak to any of my friends, they will tell you that baking cookies is not my forte. I tried so many different recipes, and they either ended up uncooked or hard, crunchy and horrible. My poor family had to endure so many terrible cookie batches.

That has all changed now though and this has become my most requested recipe. It’s simple to make, quick and produces the best cookies, time and time again – brown on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Perfect for the whole family!

Make 12-15 cookies, depending on how large you like them.
Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter*
1 tsp vanilla extract or Vanilla Powder
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup brown rice flour**
½ cup your favourite choc chips, buttons, or roughly chopped chocolate bar

* Fresh, natural peanut butter works best. The only ingredient you need to have the creamiest, most delicious peanut butter is peanuts! Added flavours, oils and sugars are not necessary and just pro-long shelf life (you can keep your natural peanut butter in the fridge if you like). You could also use any other nut or seed butter if you like.
** If you’re not coeliac/gluten intolerant, you could also use wholemeal rye or spelt flour.

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180ºC (356ºF)

Combine the peanut butter, vanilla extract, maple syrup and baking powder together in a bowl. Now add the flour, in two or three batches to ensure well combined. Fold in chocolate.

You want the mixture to be very soft, not thick and dry – indicating too much flour, and will result in a dry, cumbly cookie (I would know, I used to be the queen of over floruing my cookies).
Now simply roll a mixture into small balls (use approx. a tablespoon of mixture at a time). Lay on a baking paper lined tray and flatten each ball slightly.
Bake for 7-10 minutes. You want the outside to brown, but still be very soft to touch. They will harden slightly when cooled.

Varation: 
Add 1/4 cup, plus 1 tablespoon flour (not 1/3 cup) and 1 tablespoon green tea powder (matcha). The creamy-ness of the nut butter and the sweetness of the chocolate is then balanced by the bitter taste of the matcha powder – it’s delicious! This variation has been a huge hit with friends (even those who don’t like matcha or green tea).