Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

My first thought when seeing these gluten free chocolate peanut butter cookies was, “Got milk?” And then when I tasted them, my first thought was “OMG! – to die for!” My second thought was “Got milk?” They are chewy, right out of the oven and crisp up a bit upon cooling. And since this gluten free cookie recipe does not call for milk, it is completely dairy-free, if using dairy-free chocolate chips. For those with peanut allergies, substitute the peanut butter for almond butter, or the nut butter of your choosing. For nut and peanut allergies, substitute it with Sunbutter. It’s made of sunflower seeds and makes a great peanut butter replacement. These cookies will surely please all! Enjoy!

Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

51

Yield: Makes about 20 - 3-inch cookies

Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

A gluten free chocolate cookie recipe filled with a peanut butter filling

Ingredients:

    For the Filling
  • 1/2 cup gluten free creamy peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 large egg, beaten
  • For the Cookies
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 Tablespoons oil (I used extra-virgin olive oil.)
  • 1/2 cup sugar or evaporated cane juice
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 1/2 large eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup pure unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Ghirardelli brand.)
  • 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons superfine brown rice flour (I use Authentic Foods brand.)
  • 1/4 cup potato starch
  • 1/4 cup tapioca starch
  • 1/4 cup sorghum flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (or guar gum)
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 3/4 cup gluten free chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F°.
  2. Place peanut butter and sugar into a medium bowl, mix to combine; add egg, mixing until well blended; set aside.
  3. In the bowl of you mixer, cream butter, oil and brown and white sugars together.
  4. Add in eggs and mix on low speed and then vanilla until thoroughly blended.
  5. In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining dry ingredients: cocoa, flours, starches, baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt; add to the mixing bowl and mix on medium speed.
  6. Add chocolate chips and fold in with a paddle or dough hook tool (if you have one), or by hand.
  7. With a cookie scooper (2 teaspoon size), scoop level scoops of peanut butter dough onto a plate. Mine made 21 balls. Alternatively, you can use a 1/2 tablespoon, but because the cookies will be smaller, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes or so. With the same size cookie scooper/spoon, scoop heaping balls of the chocolate dough onto another plate. Assemble the layers by flattening each chocolate ball and placing a peanut butter ball in the center; flatten it a bit, staying away from the outer edge; add another flattened chocolate dough piece on the top; and seal sides together. Flatten into a disc shape about 3" round. Place each on a cookie sheet, no less than 1" apart. The cookie does not spread, but puffs out slightly.
  8. Bake for 12 to 16 minutes. The chewier you like them, the less you bake them. If you like more of a traditional, firm cookie with a little crunch around the edges and bottoms, bake them longer.
  9. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes. Then transfer to a cooling rack. Serve warm or cooled.

Tips

If you wish a softer cookie replace about 1/4 cup of brown rice flour with sorghum flour; and/or add additional butter or sugar. This recipe is not high in sugar. Therefore, you may easily add more.

Those who are corn intolerant should use guar gum, as most xanthan gums contains corn. Authentic Foods makes corn-free xanthan gum in granule form.

I only had chunky peanut butter. So, I pureed it in a mini food processor and then added the sugar and egg to it. The peanut chunks did not break down completely, but it worked well, and you cannot notice the little pieces at all.

You may also be interested in this Flourless Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe.

3 Replies to “Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.