Before I had to go gluten-free, I used to love peanut butter cookies, and I made them fairly often. Over the past three years, I have tried a few times to create the perfect peanut butter cookie, but I failed every time. My cookies always turned out super chalky and dry. Eventually I gave up trying other people's recipes, and decided to come up with my own. I decided I wanted to make my cookies a little more exciting, and add some chocolate chips, and make these egg free. These turned out so well!! I couldn’t be happier with this recipe, I love that it’s egg free, and that the only dairy I used was from butter. I try to stay away from dairy as much as I can, but vegan butter is so expensive that I usually use normal butter, and use non-dairy milks for baking. These cookies were so soft, and the peanut butter flavor and chocolate chips blended together so well.
Tips for baking gluten-free cookies
Always use an all-purpose flour that contains a binding agent. Gluten is a binding agent, and of course when baking gluten-free, you don’t have gluten to bind everything together. Xanthan gum, psyllium husk powder, and guar gum are great binding agents. Xanthan gum is a great gluten-free binding agent that is very common, and a lot of gluten-free flour blends contain it. If your flour blend doesn’t contain xanthan gum, you can buy some separately. Xanthan gum is pretty expensive, but you only need ¼ tsp per cup of gluten-free flour.
Refrigerate your dough. If your dough seems too sticky, you can chill it for about half an hour, and it should be easier to roll out, or roll into balls. I personally don’t find that I have to do this often, and when I do, it’s usually when I’m making a cookie with a lot of butter, or something sticky like peanut butter.
Cover your cookie sheet in parchment paper. Because gluten-free cookie dough is stickier than normal cookie dough, the cookies will usually stick to the cookie sheet. The best way to make sure they don’t stick is to cover your cookie sheet with parchment paper, or use a nonstick baking mat. I’ve never used a nonstick baking mat before, but I have heard good things about them, and they are reusable.
Your cookies might seem too soft after baking. Something I’ve learned about gluten-free cookies, is that they sometimes seem way too soft once I’ve baked them for the amount of time the recipe calls for. I’ve learned not to be afraid of that, and that as long as they are golden brown on the bottom, then they should be done. Once they cool, they will harden more, and if they are still too soft after they have cooled, you can always bake them for longer.
Don’t be afraid to add a little bit more flour or liquid. Sometimes my cookies aren’t consistent. Every once in awhile I will make a recipe that I’ve made a million times, and they turn out too wet, or too dry. If they are too wet, I just add a little bit of extra flour until I get the right consistency, and if they are too dry, I will just add a little bit more of the liquid the recipe calls for or some almond milk. I live in a high altitude environment with weather that changes constantly, so that might be part of why I don’t get a consistent cookie, but I never had these problems before with normal cookies. I'm pretty sure it's because they're gluten-free. If you run into any of these issues, just play around with your dough until you feel like you have the right consistency.
Flatten your cookies. Gluten-free cookies don’t really spread when baking, so once I’ve rolled my dough into balls and placed them onto my cookie sheet, I always flatten them. You can use a glass, or your hand to do this.
Once I gathered all of my ingredients, and preheated my oven to 350 F, I melted my butter, then put it into a large mixing bowl. Then I added my peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the bowl and mixed it all together. After that, I added my all-purpose gluten-free flour and mixed it together as much as I could, then I started to add in the almond milk. I used ½ a cup of almond milk , but I started with a ¼ cup and then added more because I felt like my dough was a little bit too dry. I mixed everything together until smooth, and then added my chocolate chips.
I lined my cookie sheet with parchment paper so that the cookies wouldn’t stick, and to make cleaning up easier. Then I rolled my dough into small balls, placed them onto the cookie sheet, and flattened them.
Gluten-free cookies don’t spread much when they bake, so I always flatten my cookies with my hand, or the bottom of a glass or measuring cup. Once they were done baking, I let them cool, then stored them in an airtight glass container.
Ingredients
1 stick softened unsalted butter
½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
1 tsp salt
¼-½ cup unsweetened almond milk
¾ chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and peanut butter together in a large mixing bowl.
Add in flour and mix together. Then add in the almond milk milk and mix together until smooth.
Mix in the chocolate chips.
Cover your cookie sheet with parchment paper, then roll dough into small balls and place them onto the cookie sheet. Take either your hand, or a glass, and flatten the balls of dough.
Place them in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. They should be done when they are slightly golden-brown.
Makes 18-20 cookies.