vegan peanut butter cookies

Yup, I still have a few recipes left from our little vegan stint to post. These cookies were as good as any peanut butter cookies I’ve made, even without butter and eggs. They were a perfect late night snack with a glass of vanilla soy milk. I varied from the recipe a little because I didn’t have enough maple syrup, so I subbed a little brown sugar to make up the difference. I think I used about 2/3 cup syrup and 1/3 cup brown sugar. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t even notice the whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour). I definitely would make these again!

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
The Incuisition

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, spelt flour, or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
1 cup organic, chunky natural peanut butter
1 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions: Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Place racks in the top third. 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. Pour the flour mixture over the peanut butter mixture and stir until barely combined – still a bit dusty looking. Let sit for five minutes, give one more quick stir, just a stroke or two. Now drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Press down on each one gently with the back of a fork. It’s a loose batter, so if you’re set on doing criss-crosses, go ahead and chill the batter for an hour or so before this step. Bake for 10, maybe 11 minutes – but don’t over bake or they will be dry. Let cool five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.