Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: peanut butter

Welcome to our Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies link up! For the next two weeks, join us every day and add your favorite cookie recipe for that day’s theme. Please follow Lisa and I and check out some new blogs! Happy baking!

I have always loved peanut butter cookies, and really I don't think there is a wrong way to make them... except that they must be made with smooth peanut butter, because having crunchy bits in there just isn't right.

A few years ago, I discovered what might be the world's easiest peanut butter cookie recipe. It has just 4 ingredients, and you can have a batch baked in under 15 minutes. Trust me! This is a flourless cookie, and, I'll admit, I was skeptical when I first saw it. It doesn't seem like there are enough ingredients whatsoever to actually create cookies, but I gave it a try and was (very) pleasantly surprised by the results. One tip though: let the cookies cool almost completely on the baking sheet before you try to move them! Otherwise, they will completely fall apart on you.

[photo credit]

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
From Clare Robinson & Food Network
Makes 18 cookies

Ingredients 

• 1 cup peanut butter 
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten 
• Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling 

Directions 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place the racks in the upper and lower third of the oven. 
2. In a medium bowl, mix the peanut butter, sugar, vanilla and egg until well combined. 
3. Spoon 1 tablespoon of the mixture about 1 inch apart onto ungreased baking sheets. 
4. Flatten the mounds with the tines of a fork, making a crosshatch pattern on the cookies. 
5. Sprinkle coarse salt on top of the cookies. 
6. Bake until golden around the edges, about 10 minutes, switching the position of the sheets halfway through baking. 
7. Transfer to racks to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough.