3-INGREDIENT NUTTER BUTTER COOKIES

I am encouraging my son to transition to a whole food, plant-based diet. Peanut butter cookies are one of his favorite cookies so this simple recipe caught my attention. Although they are sweetened with maple syrup and the oats are ground into flour, they are a far cry better than Nabisco's Nutter Butter cookies.

If you read a food label and see oils, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial flavor like described on a package of Nabisco’s Nutter Butter cookies you should throw that product back onto the shelf because it is very unhealthy! And don't be fooled into thinking something is healthy when you see that a flour has been "enriched"... this just means some nutrients are added back because the grain was processed so much that the healthy parts were stripped away.

You can find the original recipe at “Veggiekins” blog. This recipe has more maple syrup than I like to use in a recipe this size which is why I consider this a “transitional” recipe.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s brief blog article about the problems with natural sweeteners, including maple syrup, is helpful: The Health Risks of Natural Sweeteners.

Dr. Fuhrman’s book pictured below, “Fast Food Genocide,” is definitely worth reading, especially if you are raising young children. It describes well the hazards of highly processed foods and fast foods.

Ingredients

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter + more to fill (look for one with no added ingredients except maybe salt)

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

3/4 cup fine oat flour, sift for fine texture and best results

Optional:

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, sift oat flour and combine with peanut butter and maple syrup. Stir with spatula until combined and smooth. A dough should form that pulls away from the sides of the bowls and is workable with your hands.
Use your fingers to pinch off about a heaping teaspoon amount of dough. Roll into a small ball and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Repeat for the rest of the dough. Place 2 balls next to each other and use the bottom of a glass covered in plastic wrap to press the balls flat so that they connect. You can use your finger to further press the connected part together.
Use a fork to make the hatch marks if desired.
Bake for 9 – 12 minutes or until lightly golden brown (mine cooked for 11 minutes). Use a spatula and place the cookies on a cooling rack. The cookies are a bit soft at first so be careful when transferring that you don’t break them apart. Cookies will firm up significantly once cooled. Allow to cool fully before filling.
If desired, spread a small amount of peanut butter on the flat side of one cookie and place the flat side of another cookie on top.

Clarifications when I made these cookies:

-Use a kitchen scale so easier to measure ingredients. My peanut butter weighs 140 grams, maple syrup 98 grams, and when I buy fine oat flour and measure it before sifting it weighs 90 grams. If I don’t have oat flour on hand I will grind my own using rolled oats in my Vitamix.

-Don’t add optional vanilla or baking powder

-Rolled dough balls weighed 10 grams each