Tuesday's Tip & a Recipe - Egg Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Check it Out!  My daughter has always loved to bake and help in the kitchen.  She enjoys making new things just like I do and I love it!!  So the other night we decided we wanted to make some cookies.  Well other than what recipes are on the back of the chocolate chip bag and other products, I only have 1 cookbook.  I had quite a supply before the fire, but not one recipe made it out.

Not long ago, a dear friend gave me a huge tub full of books, this cookbook was in that tub.  It is the most basic of cookbooks and it's got to be at least 10 years old.  Anyway we found a cookie recipe that we thought we had all the ingredients for, Peanut Butter Cookies and set about to make them. 

Unfortunately, we didn't realize until the last minute that we had no eggs.  Well it was 9 pm and I was not going to the store so we set out via the world wide web to find a substitute!  

We discovered that you can substitute 1/4 cup of Applesauce or Yogurt for each egg.  We decided to go with the applesauce and I am happy to say that these were some amazingly good cookies!  They also call for a little maple syrup!

I promised a few friends I would share the recipe that I used and here it is, from The New Basics Cookbook and modified to the way we made them.

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter, at room temp
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
• 3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/4 cup applesauce (or 1 egg lightly beaten)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• optional:  1/2 cup salted peanuts chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees 
2. In large bowl, cream butter, peanut butter and brown sugar together until light.  Then beat in the maple syrup, applesauce and vanilla.
3. In another bow toss flour, baking soda.  You could add your peanuts at this time too, if using them.  Slowly beat this mixture into the liquid ingredients.
4. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls about 3" apart on baking sheet. Flatten them slightly with the tines of a for.  Bake until pale golden, 7 to 8 minutes.  After 2 minutes of rest on the baking sheet, transfer them to a wire rack to cool.  

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.  This is definitely a keeper recipe!  Oh and because there are no eggs, you can eat the dough ;)

And here is a tip that will keep those fresh baked cookies nice and soft... add a slice of bread to the container you keep your cookies in and the moisture from the bread will release into the cookies and keep them soft!  You will notice that the bread will dry out after a day or so, if you have any cookies left, just replace it with a fresh slice.  This is a great job for those bread loaf ends that nobody seems to want. 

Happy Baking!