These tender and chewy Maple Peanut Butter Cookies are easy to whip up when you are craving cookies. These are the perfect cookies to leave Santa Claus, or whoever your fave cookie-eating person might be.
Maple-Sweetened Peanut Butter Cookies
I love these cookies because they are sweetened with a golden amber maple syrup. Maple syrup is a natural sweetener that is rich in minerals such as zinc, magnesium and even calcium. Choose a dark amber maple syrup for the most health benefits. Maple syrup that is dark used to be called 'grade B,' but is sometimes just labeled 'dark amber' these days.
Peanut Butter Health Benefits
Peanut butter is one of those foods that, unless you are allergic, you probably love. Not only is peanut butter super versatile to have in your kitchen, but it is something delicious that is also good for you. Peanut butter is rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals, healthy fats and protein. Two tablespoons contain about 8g or plant-based protein - the most in any nut. Well, I should say 'nut.' Peanuts are actually not a nut, they are a legume.
Cookies for Santa
One of my favorite memories of Christmas morning as a kid was waking up, running to my stocking, hung over our 1970's-style yellow-tiled fireplace, and plucking my stocking - overflowing with little goodies. Then out of the corner of my eye, on the edge of the fireplace, the plate of cookies and milk we left out for "Santa" would magically be eaten. Nothing but one swig of milk and a few crumbs of cookies left.
And even as I grew older - like the wise old age of seven - and knew that Santa Claus was in fact, well you know.. I still felt a bit of Christmas magic seeing those nibbled cookies. I actually loved picturing a fictional conversation between my mom or dad - figuring out who was going to eat the cookies. Was it always my dad? Or did my mom's sweet tooth snag the cookies. Did they really drink the milk that had been left out for a few hours or did they pout a bit down the drain? Mysteries I never found out and quite frankly, don't really ever want to know the answers to.
Whatever your holiday plans, I hope you find some magic in this time of year - no matter what you celebrate, who you are with or where you are. I'm sending you lots of love and plenty of freshly-baked Maple Peanut Butter Cookies this holiday season.
Oh, and don't forget to check out my "Best of 2019" recipe round-up!
Maple Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
Wet:
- ¾ cup peanut butter
- ¾ cup maple syrup, dark amber
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup vegan butter
- ½ cup applesauce
Dry:
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon, optional
- 1 ⅓ cups all purpose flour
Coating:
- flour or sugar
Instructions
- Add all the wet ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Beat on high until smooth and fluffy.
- Add in the salt, baking soda and optional cinnamon. Then add in ½ cup of the flour and beat to combine. Add in aother ½ cup of the flour. Beat. Then finally the last ⅓ cup of flour. Beat until fluffy and smooth for about a minute.
- Place the dough in the fridge to chill for at least a half hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and spoon into small balls. Lightly flour your hands - or use a sparkly fine sugar - and roll the dough into balls. The flour or sugar will help keep the dough from stucking to your hands. Repeat until all the dough is rolled and placed.
- Using a fork, crimp hashtag designs in the center of the cookies as you press them down to flatten.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes - depending on the size of the cookies. When cookies are done they will be puffed out and slightly darker in color. Remove the cookies from the oven, and cool on a cooling rack for at least five minutes before serving. Store leftovers for up to one day on the counter - or up to a week in the fridge.
Equipment
- baking sheet
- mixing bowl
- mixer
Notes
nutrition estimate | per serving
