Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Cookies

You want to know the tragedy about peanut butter cup Christmas cookies?  The peanut butter cup is often gone in one bite!  I like cookies that have the goodness in every bite, personally.  This cookie recipe has peanut butter and peanut butter cups, so it is not paleo.  However, you could sub sunbutter for the peanut butter and replace the top with your favorite flavored chocolate bar….or….you could make paleo almond butter cups and chop those up if you are feeling really ambitious!  I tried a few different versions of this recipe, and I’m here to tell you that butter is where it’s at!  So, don’t mess with the butter!
Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Cookies
Ingredients:
  • 2 cups almond flour
  • 1/4 cup grassfed butter, room temp
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 3 Tbsp pure maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp salt
  • coconut sugar
  • 2 packages Justin’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups, frozen, chopped
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix together almond flour, butter, peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, salt until well-combined.  Create tablespoon balls and roll in a shallow dish of coconut sugar and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes or until the coconut sugar starts to brown.  Immediately after removing from oven, press peanut butter cup pieces into the top.  Let cool.  Enjoy!

PB&C Chip Cookies

If you are a peanut butter fan, then you need to get excited!  I often substitute sunbutter products for peanut butter since peanuts are a legume; however, sometimes people I love really like things with peanut butter.  When I saw a healthy option for peanut butter chips, I knew I had to make a cookie to combine chocolate chips and peanut butter chips!  I left it at that, but these would probably be really great with some nuts, too.  Macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts.  The possibilities are endless. If you want a sunbutter/chocolate chip cookie recipe, click here.
PB&C Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups almond flour
1/4 cup grassfed butter or coconut oil, melted
3 TBSP pure maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla (recipe for homemade here)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup peanut butter chips
1/4 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix all the ingredients together and fold in PB and C chips.  Drop balls of dough onto a baking sheet and press down slightly.  Bake for 10-15 minutes or until slightly golden.

Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam Pancakes

I had some frozen strawberries that were literally staring at me for months from the freezer.  I didn’t feel very inspired to find a destiny until I found these peanut butter chips at the store!  Pancakes that are peanut butter and jelly?  Sold.  Peanuts are technically a legume, so these are NOT paleo.  However, you could make them strawberry and use sunbutter like in the picture for the same effect.
Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam Pancakes
Ingredients:
2 cups strawberries
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
4 eggs
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
Directions:
Place strawberries in a saucepan and cook until they breakdown and can be smashed into a thick jam consistency.
 Combine the pancake ingredients and add the strawberries and peanut butter chips. Cook about 3 minutes on each side.  Double the batch for freezing or for grab-and-go breakfast throughout the week.
 

PB and Macadamia Nut Cookies (gluten free, dairy free)

I recently had a friend that had to have surgery for an athletic injury, and I felt so bad for him that I said “I feel like I should make you dessert or something.  What do you like?  He said “Cookies, peanut butter macadamia nut are my favorite.”
Well, I don’t normally eat peanut butter because it is a legume.  It also tends to have mold considerations.  However, when someone says peanut butter, they expect peanut butter. There are substitutes that come close, but nothing tastes EXACTLY like peanut butter.  So, if you don’t eat peanut butter, you could easily substitute sunbutter or any nut butter instead.
This recipe is one I used to make all the time when I was getting my doctorate, and what I loved about it was it was simple, the texture is moist, and it’s quick. Since I used a natural peanut butter (and if you sub nuttbutter), I refrigerated the dough for an hour before baking just to make sure they wouldn’t spread too much, but if you’re impatient, go ahead and live on the edge.
PB and Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup natural peanut butter, oil stirred in
1 egg
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all the ingredients together until a dough forms.  If it seems really wet and sticky, place in the fridge for an hour before baking.  Once cold, scoop little balls onto the baking sheet (golf balls or so).  Bake for 6 minutes, then press the dough down with a fork and bake for another 2-4 minutes.  I like mine moist and doughy, so I say bake less.  If you want it more dry and crumby, bake more.

Paleo “Peanut butter” Chocolate Chip Cookies

whirlgig

This is the same awesome cookie from my previous blog with a couple little tweaks.  My mom and I were trying our best to replicate the traditional log version we had every Christmas.  She verified that the dough is pretty much the same…which is bad news for us because they were a pain in the you-know-what to roll up!  So, simplify.  Make a regular cookie and forget about the log!  These are one of my favorite cookies!

Paleo “Peanut butter” chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup grassfed butter, room temp
  • 3/4 cup coconut sugar (Meijer actually has this!)
  • 1/2 cup sunflower seed butter
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 1/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp real salt
  • 1/2 package of dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix everything together except the chocolate chips.  Then mix in the chocolate chips.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until slightly golden on the edges.

Notes:

1. Make a double batch, you can thank me later (and you can freeze them for later!)

2. The dough is slightly sticky so just plop it on the cookie sheet; no need to make balls.

3. You could probably use coconut oil instead of butter but  I can not tell you how it will taste or turn out because I used BUTTER.

4. I did not try using a non-granulated sugar.  If you do, let me know it goes!  I was trying my best to mimic a recipe that used granulated sugar in the original.

5. The original recipe called for the dough to be chilled; however, I am impatient.  Chilling it would make it easier to handle.

6. If you use sweetened sunbutter, then reduce the amount of coconut sugar you use or they will be too sweet!