Peanut Butter and Honey Cookies

Posted on Friday, February 16, 2007 at 03:44

I've found a website by Debra Lynn Dadd ( http://www.sweetsavvy.com/recipes) that has wonderful recipes using sucanant, honey and other natural sweetners. This is a wonderful recipe that isn't that sweet tasting but very good. I hope you enjoy them.

Peanut Butter & Honey Cookies

If you're going to eat a cookie, this is a good one. The peanut butter adds nutritious protein, which also helps mellow out the blood sugar spike from the honey.

Makes about 3 dozen

1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a mixing bowl, with the hand mixer, cream butter until smooth and soft, then add each ingredient in the order listed, mixing about 15 seconds after each addition. It is important to do all the mixing to make the cookie light and crisp. The final dough will be fairly soft.
3. Place parchment paper or silpat on a cookie sheet.
4. Fill a 1-inch ice cream scoop (or a teaspoon) and drop the dough on the cookie sheet. These cookies do not spread, so you can place them about 1-inch apart.
5. Flatten by making an "x" on the top with the tines of a fork. Dip the fork in a small bowl of flour between each pressing. If the fork sticks too much, put the dough in the refrigerator for five or ten minutes. Hot cookie sheets can make the dough too soft. While one batch is baking, you can lay out and flatten the next batch on sheets of parchment paper, then transfer the sheets of parchment paper to the cookie sheets.
6. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the bottoms are just browned. Lift one cookie with a spatula to check. The tops of the cookies will be light in color.

VARIATIONS
Peanut Butter Sandwiches
Sandwich two cookies together with
1. fruit-sweetened strawberry jam, or any flavor you like
2. honey (creamy raw honey is particularly good and healthful)
3. smooth peanut butter, mixed with a little honey, if you would like.

Peanut Butter Thumbprints
Instead of flattening the cookies with a fork, make a "thumbprint" depression with your thumb to form a crater. Dip your thumb in flour between each pressing if it sticks. Before baking, fill each cookie with fruit-sweetened strawberry fruit spread, or any flavor you like.