Flourless Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

For the first time in about a year and a half, I have an in-person meeting at work. We are about to open, although with limited hours, and I am sure that there will be a lot of adjustments that need to be made. We always meet before we open, as things change from year to year. In order to bake for all my work friends, I went looking for dairy and gluten free recipes. While I was assured that I didn’t need to bother, I love trying to find just the right recipe.

I have vegan butter, so that makes it easy to substitute for dairy in recipes, and I have dairy free chocolate chips, but I do have to avoid recipes with condensed milk, cream cheese, and those sorts of ingredients. Avoiding gluten takes more thought, but I do have gluten free flour mixture. There are also cookies that simply don’t contain flour, like these cookies. These use oats, which I learned can be processed in plants that process gluten, so you should be careful.

With all of the right ingredients on hand, these were quick to put together. The dough is quite sticky, but that’s to be expected with no added flour. These cookies are on the oily side, but it’s just good to know that. Since I baked one batch at a time, I refrigerated one batch while the other was baking. I think that the refrigerated cookies turned out a little better, even though they were only in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. These cookies are soft, but that is expected in a flourless cookie. The flavor of peanut butter and chocolate is amazing, and the oats add a little bit of needed structure.

Flourless Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup chocolate chips, dairy free
Salt, for finishing

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla on medium until smooth. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the oats and baking soda. Stir in the chocolate chips.    

Scoop onto the prepared baking sheet and slightly flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand.

Bake for 9-12 minutes, until the edges of the cookies begin to brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle the cooling cookies with additional salt.

Recipe from Ambitious Kitchen