Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I'll be honest, if you're looking for a gluten free peanut butter cookie recipe, you'll routinely find the same one all over the internet. It's the flourless one, and I've made that recipe once before since joining the gluten free club. It was pretty decent, except it didn't have a lot of depth. Well, more complexity than depth, I guess. It was really rich, because well, peanut butter mixed with sugar (and some eggs) is pretty rich.

I prefer my cookies to have a little chew. The flourless peanut butter cookies were crispy, which was nice, but seriously, it's all about the chew.


Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

2 cups gluten free flour (you can use your favorite mix, or follow my lead on a higher protein mix)

• 1/3 cup almond meal
• 1/3 cup sorghum flour
• 1/3 cup soy flour (this is high protein, and the uncooked batter will taste a little metallic, but it does have good nutritional properties. The finished cookies don't have the "interesting" soy flour taste)
• 2/3 cup brown rice flour
• 1/3 cup tapioca starch (or any other starch)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 cup butter, softened (at room temperature, at least)
3 large eggs
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. I know it sounds cool, but these babies are best made low and slow.

In a bowl, combine the gluten free flours, soda, xanthan gum and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large bowl with a hand mixer), blend sugars together. Add butter and mix until combined, and butter gets a little fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl, and add eggs, peanut butter and vanilla. Continue mixing until fluffy.

Add the flour mixture and mix at low speed until the ingredients are just mixed. Be careful not to overmix.


Get out your muffin pan (with 12 muffin spots). It doesn't need to be greased, if it is no-stick. Using a spoon, drop small amounts of the batter into each muffin spot. (We're not actually making muffins here, keep the amount of batter small.) Bake 12-13 minutes or until the cookies are just beginning to brown. Because of the nature of the cookie, it will puff up during baking, and then fall in the middle. So, your cookies will be like a cup with sides. Remove the pan from the oven, and pour a small amount of chocolate chips into the center of each cup. After a few minutes, the chocolate chips will have melted. You can swirl them around with a fork, or leave them there, or really, just put the cookie straight into your mouth. Loosen the cookies from the pan and continue cooling on a wire rack.

Notes:

• These kept just fine on the counter on a plate. If they are going to disappear within a few days, they don't really need to be wrapped tightly or refrigerated.
• It's important to bake these in a muffin tin, since they spread all over when you bake them on a regular pan! Believe me, I tried that with my first batch, before coming up with the muffiny-cooking concept.
  
• I hope you just bought another gallon of milk!