We bought a pile of bananas from BJ's and thanks to the insane climate conditions in our apartment, they pretty much went straight from green to brown. Also from BJ's, Jessica picked up some Smuckers' Natural Creamy Peanut Butter. We were very excited by the ingredient list: peanuts, salt. So, tonight I started searching for a cookie recipe that used both, and I found quite a few. After reviewing them, I selected "Craving Cookies" by Talia on AllRecipes. The recipe sounded bizarre, but I gave them a shot.


I followed the recipe and instructions exactly and enjoyed the final product. This recipe is deceiving in that it seems simple (due to the few ingredients), but is actually hard to do correctly, because the dough is very dry. If the chef over mixes, the glutens will become tough and ruin the cookie. The three tips I suggest adhering to are: (1) stir the wet mixture very, very well before adding the dry products; (2) under mix the dry mixture; and, (3) after rolling the ball shape for the cookie, press them a bit flatter, into the shape of a bottle cap -- the cookies won't spread.

As far as cooking time went, the recipe calls for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees F. Since we have prosumer convection oven, I cooked at 360 with convection for 10 minutes, then turned off the oven and left the cookies in for another two minutes. Then I let them rest on the baking sheet, out of the oven for another 5-6 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.


This is a distinctive cookie and the result is quite enjoyable. Jessica and I both felt the texture is more like that of a blondie, just in a cookie shape. Also, since we used the natural peanut butter, rather than the typical, commerical product, the cookie came out less sweet than one might otherwise expect. We both like it. Another benefit of this recipe is that since it is dry and eggless, it would be the perfect cookie dough to eat raw, such as in ice cream!