Easiest peanut butter cookies!

(Photo by Taste of Home)

Yesterday I had three of my grandchildren here for the afternoon and wanted to bake with them.  This is a recipe I'd been wanting to try:  Peanut Butter Treats.  Since it contains no flour, this recipe fits right in with my avoidance of wheat.  Other than the milk chocolate kisses or stars, these cookies contain only 3 ingredients:  peanut butter, sugar, and eggs.  I have seen similar recipes before but just never dared to try them.  Then a friend brought some flourless peanut butter cookies to a church potluck and I found out that such recipes really did work.  So I decided that this one would be perfect to bake with the kids.

The cookies came out great and no one could believe they did not contain flour or leavening.  The only thing I changed was with the method of adding the chocolate kiss after the cookies were baked.  The recipe says to remove the cookies to racks, cool slightly and press the candy in the center of each.  These cookies are really quite fragile, especially while hot, and I found them breaking as they were transferred or cracking as the candy was pressed lightly in place.  So on the last tray full, I finally got smarter.  I put the chocolate kiss in place right after the cookies came out of the oven.  I found that I could press the candy down quite firmly without a problem.  Then I let them cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.  This worked like a charm.

I think the cookies could also be made just like regular peanut butter cookies, omitting the candy and pressing the dough balls flat with a fork or potato masher.  They really are delicious and I'm sure I will be making them again.  Maybe your family would like to try this easy recipe, too!