These simple 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies bake up moist and chewy with loads of nutty flavor in each nibble. Pair one warm cookie with a glass of chilled non-dairy milk for a blissful sweet treat experience. Grab the recipe and chat a bit about coconut sugar..

Cookie Time is Any Time. These cookies are so healthy I snack on them at any hour of the day. Cookies like these make great mid-morning snacks, pre-workout perks, afternoon nibbles or pre-bedtime treats. These cookies also make perfect back-to-school lunchbox additions. (Yikes, did I really just say the “S” word already?)

PB&J Option: Add a dollop of your fave jam to the center of each cookie before baking for a PB&J spin on these cookies. I like to use apricot or strawberry jam.

Flour Talk. I boosted the nutrient power of these cookies by using garbanzo bean flour! It has a slightly nutty yet mild flavor and adds some protein and fiber to each cookie. You could also substitute with any of the following, gluten-free status will vary though:

* homemade ground oat flour
* spelt flour
* all purpose flour
* any gluten-free flour blend

The mashed banana boosts the texture a bit and acts as a subtle egg replacer. These are not fluffy cookies, but rather, soft and chewy. I highly advise you stick the dough in the fridge for at least twenty minutes before rolling the dough into balls, since the freshly blended dough is quite soft.

Coconut Sugar. I adore coconut sugar in cookies. It reminds me of traditional brown sugar, but I like it because 1) I know that it is vegan (most brands will even label their bags with a vegan symbol) and 2) the manufacturing process is less harsh on the final product. Here is what DrWeil has to say about coconut sugar:

“Coconut sugar, more accurately coconut palm sugar, is made from sap of the coconut palm that has been extracted and then boiled and dehydrated. It provides the same number of calories and carbohydrates as regular cane sugar (about 15 calories and four grams of carbohydrate per teaspoon) so you wouldn’t be gaining any advantage in these respects by making a switch. However, coconut sugar is 70 to 79 percent sucrose and only three percent to nine percent each of fructose and glucose. This is an advantage, because you want to keep your consumption of fructose as low as possible, and cane sugar is 50 percent fructose. Coconut sugar is caramel colored with a taste that is similar to that of brown sugar and can be substituted for cane sugar in most recipes.” – DrWeil, Is Coconut Sugar a Healthier Sweetener?

Also a huge bonus is this little tidbit: “The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization named coconut palm sugar the most sustainable sweetener in the world in 2014. The trees use minimal amounts of water and fuel, especially compared to sugar cane production, and produce for about 20 years. It has no artificial ingredients and is not chemically altered in any way.” – livestrong, coconut sugar

Lets get to it!