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Gluten Free Salted Peanut Butter Cookies – Made with just a fewingredients,these Peanut Butter Cookies are fudgy, sweet & salty, gluten free and naturally sweetened!
Hello, World!! It’s Friday! Make some noise!!
That was a bit obnoxious, eh? Saying “Hello” to THE world. That’s like saying that the whole world is reading ME… Aaaand, why isn’t it??
Althooooough, according to Mr. Google’s Analytics, I see 1 girl from Johannesburg and 2 boys from Russia dialing in. Um. Dialing in? What is this? 1992??
Speaking of 1992. I HATED Peanut Butter back in 1992. It took me like 16.4 years to finally give in. I was more about the Erokrem, known better as Nutella around these parts. While everyone was carrying aroundPB&J sammiches in their lunch boxes, I was whippin’ out a Macedonian-style sandwich as big as my headslathered with Erokrem. Best.Lunches.Ever. Thanks, Mom! ♥
Then, a few years later, something happened. Actually, college happened. College was about being forever broke and eating cheap. Cheap, as in scrambledeggsfor lunch ANDdinner, and Peanut Butter for dessert. The times that I DID havesome money laying around (how does money just lay around?), I spent it on partying. Err. I mean notebooks!
You should also know that I learned how to make cookies in college. Cookies on the cheap. A.K.A. Betty Crocker’s Cookie-Mix. Buuuut, I really WISH I had known about this Gluten-Free-deal way back then. I would have saved my thighs a few rubs and some carbs here and there, know what I mean?
Anyway. Peanut Butter Cookies remind me of College. So… yeah.
Now that I’m a grown-up (ewwwww! I hate admitting that!), and can make cookies from scratch, I try to include Peanut Butter whenever and wherever I can. Looking through my arsenal, I was inspired to make these cookies after seeing the Samoa Peanut Butter Bars that I made few months back. (Slurrrrp….) Followed up by a few searches, this is what I came up with.
Made with just 3 ingredients,maybe 5, these Peanut Butter Cookies are sweet, salty, gluten free and sugar free. BUT NOT taste-free! That’s what we’re looking for, right? It’s all about the taste, dang it!
With so few ingredients, every step in this recipe isimportant. YES it is. Cookies are temperaMENTAL. Got that? SO, don’t skip over the chillin’ part and then call me to tell me that the cookies didn’t work out, m’kay?? 😉
Go, have the greatest weekend ever and make them cookies!
Love you!
ENJOY!
Katerina | Diethood
Made with just a few ingredients, these Peanut Butter Cookies are fudgy, sweet & salty, gluten free and naturally sweetened.
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
It might sound scary, but xanthan gum is key for successful gluten-free baking. It helps bind together the ingredients, preventing your cookies from falling to pieces.
Another reason is that gluten-free flours, such as almond flour or coconut flour, can behave differently than wheat flour in baking. They may absorb more liquid, for example, which can result in dry or crumbly cookies.
Use a Binder. Binders like xanthan gum and guar gum provide structure in gluten-free baking to make up for the missing gluten. This prevents cookies from being too crumbly plus it also helps with freshness.
There are a few reasons why your cookies are falling apart. The wrong ratio of ingredients, such as too little sugar or peanut butter will make them fall apart. The wrong type of peanut butter may cause them to fall apart. Or using old eggs may create crumbly cookies.
Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters. They may also call for a larger quantity of leavening, like baking powder, to help add volume and lighten the texture.
It serves many roles in gluten-free baking. Because gluten-free flours have less protein than wheat flours and are not capable of forming the same network required to stretch and surround starch granules, they need reinforcement. Xanthan gum strengthens these networks and also makes them more elastic.
Moisture. There are many ways to increase moisture in a recipe. In general, recipes that call for pureed fruit, sour cream or yogurt are ones you can rely on for a moist product. In case your recipe does not call for these things, using brown sugar instead of white sugar to add moisture.
5. And refrigerate the dough if it's too sticky. Gluten-free cookie dough is stickier than standard cookie dough, but chilling it can help. This is because cold dough is less sticky, and it doesn't spread as easily, too.
I add a packet of unflavored gelatin to the dry ingredients before adding liquid ingredients. My cookies have a “normal" texture. The gelatin strengthens the structure of the cookie so it won't be crumbly. It also adds moisture which is good as gluten free baked goods tend to be dry.
Oat Flour. With its creamy, earthy flavor and delicate texture, gluten-free oat flour is a staple of my gluten-free baking recipes. It bakes up soft and smooth, adding necessary starch to many GF baked goods and keeping them moist and tender due to its high fat content and stable protein structure.
Instead of proceeding directly to baking, let the gluten-free cookie dough rest for about 30 minutes at room temperature. This resting period is crucial for hydration, not leavening. During this time, gluten-free flours absorb moisture from the wet ingredients, altering the dough's texture and consistency.
To avoid this, try using as little flour as possible while preparing to roll your dough. Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.
If you don't flatten the cookies first, then the fork does double duty – it performs both functions. One very subtle result of creating the pattern is that the little tips of dough bake up crisper than the rest of the cookie, giving you both a bit of additional texture and deeper taste where the dough is more baked.
The 1932 or 1933 recipes do not explain why this advice is given, though: peanut butter cookie dough is dense, and without being pressed, it will not cook evenly. Using a fork to press the dough is a convenience; bakers can also use a cookie shovel.
One reason could be that you overcooked them. Another reason could be that you didn't add enough moisture to the dough. Finally, your peanut butter cookies might be dry and crumbly if you used a natural peanut butter that doesn't have any added oil.
Put the cookie pieces together on the baking sheet.Gently mush the edges together to "glue" the cookies into each other as they bake. Sometimes gluing the cookies together is enough, if they are interlocked and share enough edges. Sometimes though... you need to add some "tape."
Binding agents are the liquid in the recipe that hold the cookie together. Examples of binding agents are eggs, milk, honey, and fruit juice. Cookies with more eggs will rise more and spread less. If you want a crispier cookie, you can replace a whole egg with just an egg white.
First, try adding more liquid to the dough. This can be milk, water, or even just a little bit of extra oil. If that doesn't work, you can try kneading the dough for a few minutes to help it come together. Lastly, if all else fails, you can always add in a few tablespoons of flour to help bind the dough together.
Refrigerate the dough – Even if the recipe doesn't call for it, sometimes the butter is too soft to hold up to baking, and instead runs. Sometimes chilling the dough before forming the cookies helps the cookies to keep their shape better.
Introduction: My name is Horacio Brakus JD, I am a lively, splendid, jolly, vivacious, vast, cheerful, agreeable person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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