When I was in elementary school in West Tennessee we had a “real lunchroom”. There were home cooked, seasonal meals for lunch every day. The ladies who cooked wore simple white uniforms with nets covering their hair. There was a cafeteria line and you could see into the kitchen in the background with all the food prep and cooking going on.
Peanut Butter Cookies appeared as a dessert for our school lunches at about the same time as we were studying George Washington Carver and his peanuts. For years I actually thought he invented the peanut! I remember a black and white photo of Mr. Carver in one of our school books standing in the middle of a field of peanuts. I took to calling these school cafeteria cookies “George Washington Carver Peanut Butter Cookies”.
This mental collision of a particularly loved food (peanut butter cookies), being able to watch the ladies cooking in our school kitchen every day and the awareness that the legume in the cookie I loved so much were directly connected to a botanist at the Tuskegee Institute down in Alabama was just the first of many such childhood food epiphanies.
On “George Washington Carver Peanut Butter Cookie” days I would attempt to swap my real food for someone else’s cookie. There were always a few friends who did not like peanut butter. On a good cookie swap day I might have up to 4 to eat later on. They were worth giving up my homegrown tomato slices or creamy mashed potatoes for. Those cookies set the bar very high. I have looked for that cookie since and have never found anything even close. Divine is what they were with just the right amount of crisp edges and softness in the center.
These little gluten-free cookies are very peanut buttery and crispy (I wish they were a bit softer, but I will work on that). They have sated my quest for a while. This recipe is based on one I made for a client recently for an editorial photo shoot. It is gluten-free and very easy.
Easy to mix….1 inch balls…
… the traditional “fork marks”!
Ready to bake.
Bob’s Red Mill Golden Flaxseed Meal instead of flour.
Sprinkled with a bit of sanding sugar ready to eat still warm from the oven.
There has not been a time in my life that I do not think of Mr. Carver whenever I eat anything with peanut butter. I wonder if he liked peanut butter cookies and what he would think about making a cookie “gluten-free”? Did he have Peanut Butter and Jelly on white bread for lunch while diligently working in his lab or surveying the fields upon fields of peanuts that helped to change the way we now eat?
George Washington Carver Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups creamy peanut butter
- 1/3 cup raw/turbinado sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (baking sugar)
- 2 tbsp flaxseed meal
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 egg whites
- sanding sugar for garnish
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a couple of baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the egg whites & sea salt in a bowl until frothy.
- Into egg whites stir peanut butter, raw sugar, brown sugar & flaxseed meal. Mix well. Batter will be stiff and may appear to “seize”, but just ignore this and mix until ingredients are well incorporated.
- Using a tablespoon measure, shape batter into balls and place about 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets.
- Using a fork, make criss-cross marks on each ball pressing slightly to flatten.
- Bake 20 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned. Sprinkle cookies generously with sanding sugar & cool on a wire rack.
…hooray!…
Thanks so much.
I love. love. love this post Teresa. Beautifully composed and it reminds of the same delicious peanut butter cookies I had in school growing up. Most of my peers enjoyed the chocolate chip ones but Rey didn’t taste the same way my mom made them so I never cared for those. It was always about the peanut butter for me.
Thanks so much Charles. It is so great to hear from you and I hope you are well. I wonder if there was a “recipe” that was approved by whom ever approved what we ate in school and we were eating the same recipe for peanut butter cookies at different times? It has always been the peanut butter for me as well!
A great childhood souvenir story Teresa. Thanks for sharing it with us. I made these cookies just now for my college aged son who eats PN butter by the spoonful. Because you had said they were hard, I used whole eggs and mine were soft. I actually reduced the oven to 350 half way through because the lower ones were beginning to burn on the bottom. My ten cents. They are delicious!!!
Oh Johanne thanks so much for this info! I love it that you baked these and added your own changes and tweaks. Isn’t this fun to share and change and find out how food works? I will try your additions and changes next. Again thanks.
Those look delicious! I wonder if you could substitute Tahini for Peanut Butter for those who can’t have it?
You know if I were you I would just give it a try. Tahini is more fluid than peanut butter, but you could add more flaxseed meal if necessary. If you make these with Tahini please let me know how they turn out. Thanks for stopping by.
I haven’t made peanut butter cookies in so long. Now it’s all I can think about. I must try these!
Yes, but see Johanne Lamarche’s ideas right above your comment. They sound good as well. My version are crispy and hard and yummy and hers are softer and yummy, but both very peanut buttery! let me know if you come up with other ideas.
Looks absolutely delicious and I have a feeling they taste just as good! Fabulous photography, my mouth is watering…
Many thanks Whisked Away!
One word: yummy!
Thanks Carlos….Yummy is a good word! Well said.
These cookies look great! My Mother did not bake but my next door neighbor did and I remember always eating more than my share when she made peanut butter cookies. Maybe I’ll make some for the children next door.
Last year I tested a batch of peanut butter cookies made with no flour (or alternative grain) –just crunchy peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and whipped egg white. It was pretty good. But I think that your addition of flaxseed meal would add a little more structure and welcome crunch-factor. Great pics, as always.
Yes the flaxseed meal kept these little cookies together better than without. Thanks Nance.
oh myyyy.. we need to try this!
Thanks Berry Bites!
We had fantastic school lunches, too, and these cookies look wonderful! I just could see the young “you!” What a darling story! I just “discovered” your foodstyling.com – I don’t know how I missed it before! Wow. You are such a source of inspiration!
You are so sweet and thanks for checking out my food styling site. That is my business and Food on Fifth is my play!
can’t wait to try these!
Reblogged this on susamaimily.
I was wondering if you would check out our blog. We just started it a few days ago and were hoping to get suggestions and maybe a few follows 🙂 Thanks so much!
Yes of course I will come over for a visit right now. Thank you both for stopping by Food on Fifth. Much appreciated and happy blogging.
Peanut butter cookies are my favorite! I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Reblogged this on Jade & Dunni and commented:
Nutty. Sweet. Gluten free. Yum, yum, yum. I’ve become the cookie monster!