Monster Cookies

Dear baking world,

 When I realized I hadn't baked for my gluten free little sister in weeks, and she might not have had a proper baked good in that same amount of time, panic set in. I couldn't deprive her of delicious sweets. Her sad comment of "I won't get to eat good desserts again" echoed in my head and I knew I had to make something extra delicious.

The answer? Flourless peanut butter cookies with oatmeal and chocolate chips. What a delicious combination.

My question for these cookies was, "How do you work?" There is no flour or butter in the recipe. As far as cookies go, these aren't terrible for you. So, what is the science behind flourless cookies? Well, the peanut butter acts in a multitude of ways. First, peanut butter is full of delicious oils, which make it so high in calories. These oils act in the place of butter. Second, peanut butter is extremely high in protein. In a flour cookies, the gluten in the flour acts as the protein, but gluten isn't as important in cookies as it is in cake. (If you don't have proper gluten formation in cake, your cake will be a large, globby puddle.) So in these cookies, the peanut butter's protein acts as a semi-efficient gluten.

These cookies were positively delicious. I may have under baked them, but I am a believer that under baked chocolate chip cookies set and cool off and then they're perfect. (Do not under bake Snickerdoodle cookies. They're horrendous.) (I'm also a bit of a chronic under baker because my mom is a chronic over baker and I think I'm trying to compensate for some latent fears/anxiety about browned cookies.)

Monstrous Gluten Free Cookies

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (chunky is the key. It adds so much flavor.)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

dash of vanilla

1 egg

1/2 tsp. baking soda

dash of salt

1/2 cup oatmeal

chocolate chips (as much or as little as you'd like)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, cream peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla and egg. Add the oatmeal, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Add in chocolate chips. Scoop onto parchment paper lined cooking sheet in desired size. (I did a large scoop because I like big chocolate chip cookies.) Bake for 10-12 minutes.