I broke down and tried the Vegan Peanut Butter Cookie recipe from the fabulous blog 101 Cookbooks. They turned out amazing. My husband didn’t even know they were vegan until after he ate one and I told him. He just looked at me and said, “uh uh!” So there you have it… The “Uh uh, these can’t be vegan peanut butter cookies”.

Here are all my ingredients ready to go. I was a bit worried because I was using extra virgin olive oil, which has a stronger flavor than just regular olive oil and also I used white whole wheat, contrary to the flours suggested in the recipe. But I have no regrets. They taste fabulous.

They were very simple to make and my favorite part was licking the spoon with absolutely no fear that I might get salmonella poisoning from raw eggs in the batter.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Spelt flour bakes into a slightly darker cookie (photo), whole wheat pastry flour is slightly blonder – more traditional in appearance in the end. Finish the cookies with chopped nuts or a sprinkling of flaky salt. I’d also recommend seeking out a peanut butter that is well combined, and not super-oily (extra slick) looking – to avoid problems with the cookie batter.

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, spelt flour, or unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 1 cup organic, chunky natural peanut butter
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Place racks in the top third.

In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. in a separate larger bowl combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, olive oil, and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour the flour mixture over the peanut butter mixture and stir until barely combined – still a bit dusty looking. Let sit for five minutes, give one more quick stir, just a stroke or two. Now drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Press down on each one gently with the back of a fork. It’s a loose batter, so if you’re set on doing criss-crosses, go ahead and chill the batter for an hour or so before this step. Bake for 10, maybe 11 minutes – but don’t over bake or they will be dry. Let cool five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

Make 2 – 3 dozen cookies.