web analytics

Flourless Nut Butter Cookies

nutbuttercookies.JPG

While the types of nuts used in cookies and baked goods can vary widely from pecans to hazelnuts, the type of nut butter used in cookies is almost always peanut butter. Widely available, inexpensive and tasty, it is easy to see why it had been such a good choice for so many years.These days, there are an ever increasing number of natural peanut butters to compete with the more processed national brands, and with those natural peanut butters have come a much wider variety of alternative nut butters. In many supermarkets you can now find almond, cashew, macadamia and even soy nut butters – and every one of them can be used in a way similar to peanut butter. In this case, I made cookies.

These flourless nut butter cookies (in addition to being good for passover!) are very easy to make and have only a few ingredients. Everything can be stirred together in one bowl and baked off in a matter of minutes. This recipe will work with just about any kind of nut butter (cashew, almond, peanut, etc.), but the results will vary slightly with the consistency of the butter. For example, a cookie made with a national brand peanut butter (Jif or Skippy, for example), will have a lot less spread than one made with “natural” peanut butter because it already has stabilizing agents in it. Since they will be thinner, the “natural” cookies will also be crisper. The flavor is going to be good regardless.

For the batch pictured above, I actually used cashew butter, but almond and peanut butter are great choices, too.

I used some Vanilla Creme Hershey’s kisses to top off these cookies in an effort to use up the rest of the rather large bag I bought last week. The thumbprint effect is somewhat lost because of the spread of the cookies, but it doesn’t affect the taste and the Kisses managed to stay centered in the cookie dough anyway.  If you don’t want to use Hershey’s Kisses (any kind), you can stir in up to 1 cup of chocolate chips or chopped, toasted nuts instead.

Flourless Nut Butter Cookies
1 cup smooth, “natural” nut butter (cashew, almond, peanut, etc.)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
24 hershey’s Kisses

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, beat together all ingredients, excluding hershey’s Kisses, until smooth.
Shape into 1-inch balls and place on prepared baking sheet. Leave about 2-inches between each cookie so that they don’t spread together. Top each with a Kiss.
Bake for about 10-12 minutes at 350 F, until golden brown at the edges.
Cool on pan for a few minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
Makes about 2 dozen.

You can see how these cookies turn out when made with a regular (non-natural) peanut butter here.

Share this article

10 Comments
  • Hilary
    April 9, 2007

    Ooh, these sound good. I’m holding on to this recipe for next Passover. Thanks!

  • Cheryl
    April 10, 2007

    I didn’t think I was hungry right now until I saw your picture. You are not good for my wasteline 🙂

  • Meredith
    April 10, 2007

    Nicole,

    While these cookies look delicious and contain no flour, the addition of baking soda keeps them from being kosher for Passover. Besides no flour, no leavening agents allowed either 🙁

  • Commonplace Iris
    April 25, 2007

    I love how quick and easy it is to throw this recipe together (there’s often not much time for baking with a baby in the house). Also love having another thing to make for my friends who can’t eat wheat or dairy.
    I’ve made this a couple of times now. The second time I threw in some cocoa powder (there’s a picture at my blog).

  • meredith
    December 10, 2007

    Think that these would work w/ Nutella?

  • Sheila
    March 2, 2008

    This cookie does not need to have baking soda to make them work.

    1 cup peanut butter
    1 cup sugar
    1 egg works just fine. Good Eating Sheila Rae

  • tetsquare
    November 10, 2008

    Meredith:

    This recipe does work with no flour; no baking soda. Same as Sheila’s recipe except use brown sugar instead of sugar.

  • Louise
    March 13, 2010

    I just made these DELICIOUS cookies. I ran about 1/4 cup short of cashew butter and substituted 2 tbsp of Tahini spread and a sprinkle of Agave syrup…yummm…I also used 1 little Organic Chocolate Chip (for baking)to cut down on the sugar on 1/2 of the cookies instead of the Hershey Kisses and left the rest plain…I used all Organic ingredients…Louise

  • rachel
    September 12, 2010

    these are fantastic thanks! i used a teaspoon measure and squished a choc chip in the middle of each one. they spread out loads and i made 43…boy are my kids gonna be happy after school today.

  • Tosca
    September 3, 2013

    Yum! I made these tonight. Split the dough in half- added cinnamon to one half and instead of chocolate I sprinkled some smoked salt onto the other half, once cookies were formed.
    Delish!
    Thank you!

What do you think?

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