Soft Coconut Peanut Butter Cookies

As I said before, I am learning how to cook with coconut flour.  It has been challenging in more ways than one.  As I made these cookies today, I was led back to a thought that I had when I lived in Japan.  When I first arrived there, I realized that Japanese "sweets" were not as sugary as American sweets.  When I returned home, it was one of the shocks to my system.  I had adapted to the treats and now I was "over-sugared". 

Today as I tasted the new peanut butter cookie I realized that my brain has an imprint about what peanut butter cookies should taste like.  These were different, not bad, just different.  Very similar to my adjustment in Japan, I am needing to adjust my mental imprint for peanut butter cookies.

My thanks to Pinapple and Coconut at http://www.pineappleandcoconut.com/reicpes/soft-coconut-peanut-butter-cookies/ for sharing this recipe.

1 C peanut butter (no sugar added)

2 TBSP coconut oil

2/3 C honey

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 C coconut flour

pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare cookie sheets with either parchment paper or silicone bake mats (I use a baking stone instead of a cookie sheet.)

Peanut butter cookies with coconut flour

Coconut oil is tricky because is solidifies at room temperature.  This recipe calls for warming the peanut butter, honey and coconut oil in the microwave (30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds and stir again.) Then let cool to room temperature.

Always start with sugars and oils...

Up to this point the recipe was going very well.  The coconut oil blended into the peanut butter and honey very well.  

Peanut butter and honey.  SWEET!

I am pretty sure that I interpreted the next step wrong.  (My pictures are backwards.)  The directions said to blend mixture until creamy.  I had to stop using the blender and move to a smooth to make it creamy.  But the texture felt wrong to me.

Yeah, pretty sure this is wrong.

This is what it looked like when I used the blender.  I think next time that I will add one egg and the vanilla when I begin blending. Then add the other egg and continue blending. Without adding the egg, the oils separated from the peanut butter and honey.  

I think I misunderstood the directions. Hmmm.

After adding the egg and vanilla, I was able to recover and create a smooth mixture.  But it was still very thick and sticky.  There is a note at the bottom of the recipe, "The dough will be a little sticky, do not add coconut flour UNLESS your batter is runny."  (That is after the 1/2 cup coconut flour is added.)

Taking shape <3

Following the recipe, I put the coconut flour, baking soda and salt in a dish and set it aside. When I was ready to mix it into the rest of the dough, I stirred it together first. I wanted to make sure the clumps were broken up and that the baking soda and salt were appropriately mixed together.  


Adding the dry ingredients

Add in the flour and mix only until just combined.  That means "do not over mix". I have noticed that coconut flour will absorb moisture as it sits. So blending longer is not necessary.

Don't over mix!

It looked smooth until I "whipped" the batter off from the beaters. They were right, it was sticky. But since it wasn't runny, I did not add more coconut flour. This was my first try.  I was going to follow the recipe to the "T". 

Finished dough

The directions read very normal, Use a cookie scoop to scoop out a heaping tablespoon, roll into a ball about 2" apart and press gently with a fork crosswise for the traditional peanut butter cookie look.  First of all, they didn't roll (too sticky) which means that they also didn't flatten with a fork because they were too sticky.  I sort of "swirled them" with a fork - no traditional look for this batch.

Strangest dough I've ever worked with.....

I set the timer for 10 minutes.  The directions say, "10 min., just until the edges start to brown." Normally I do not use a timer.  But I wanted to follow the directions precisely on the first run-through.  I gave Dale a cookie tonight or at least a bite of one.  "They aren't crunchy" he complained before even biting into them. For him the only real cookie is oatmeal-raisin with nuts.  His loss!

Success! Peanut butter cookies with coconut flour!

When all was said and done, they tasted okay; different but not bad. I ran the recipe through a calorie calculator and it calculated to 124 calories per cookie about 50% fat and 45% "sugar" which is natural honey. Supposedly, our bodies know how to process honey better than processed white sugar.  I think next time I am going to try stevia.  Then they won't be quite so "sticky"