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Classic Peanut Butter Cookies


I have been making healthified peanut butter cookies for a long time and we have always loved them. Then one day a good friend of mine brought some of hers over for a party we were having. She's quite the healthy whole foods cook herself and with 7 kids she has also learned to do it frugally. So when I tried her cookies and said dang those are really good the texture is so perfect what's your secret. She told me that actually she didn't want to use that much coconut oil so she replaced half of it with pureed white beans instead. I thought they were super and have been making them that way ever since! They remind me of the classic cookies I used to make for my Dad that he always loved. He even says these taste like them!

Just so you know these make up a great big batch! When it comes to cookies the more the better right!

Peanut Butter Cookies
1 1/2 cup coconut oil (she used 3/4 c coconut oil and 3/4 cup pureed white beans)
2 2/3 cup honey
3 cups natural peanut butter
6 cups whole hard white wheat flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt

Beat oil,(beans) honey, and peanut butter. Mix in flour, soda, and salt, already sifted together. Scoop spoonfuls and drop onto baking sheets and press flat with a fork. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Be careful not to let them get too brown or they will be crunchy. These are very rich. Makes 5 dozen large cookies.
Recipe Inspired by Hopkins' Healthy Home Cooking

25 comments:

Emily said...

Oh yes...I cannot wait to get my greasy {in a good sort of coconut oil way} little fingers on these.

Trish said...

I can definitely see myself making these the first craving that comes along.

Jes said...

Tammie,

I don't have a grain grinder, so if I was to purchase flour, would the stoneground wheat work for this or do you recommend another flour?

My hubby and kids L-O-V-E peanut butter cookies, but my family recipe isn't exactly healthy! I can't wait to try these!!!

Thanks!!!

Tammie said...

Jes: Yes you can purchase the stoneground whole wheat flour to try these cookies! The already ground grain does loose it's nutrients quickly after it has been ground but it still has lots of fiber and is a much better option then bleached white flour.

Jes said...

Thank you Tammie!

I'm sorry, but I've got another question!!! :) If grain loses nutrients quickly after being ground, where do you buy your whole grains from then? (I'm in IL) And could those grains be ground up in the blendtec? If not, could you recommend a grain grinder? How do you store your unused grains?

Okay...that was alot more than one questions! sorry!

Tammie said...

Jes: I buy the grains whole and grind them myself they don't loose nutrients until ground. I get most of my whole grains either from Azure Standard a whole foods co-op or I buy them from local farmers in my state. Yes you can grind a small amount of grain into flour in the Blend-Tec but I prefer a grinder they are much faster and less noisy. I have used a few different grinders and my favorite is the Wonder Mill! I use it all the time and have had it for 14 years it has never given me any problems it grinds fast and is quieter then most. I buy my grains in bulk and most (especially wheat) store really well. I just keep them in buckets in our storage room in the basement.

No problem totally happy to answer your questions. I hope that helps. Feel free to ask again if you have more!

Vanessa said...

Hey Tammie, are Great Northern beans the same as white beans?

Tammie said...

Vanessa: Yep! I have also heard them called Navy beans not quite sure why. They are either all the same bean called different things or different beans but so similar you could use any of them and they would work just fine.

Rorie said...

When you puree the beans, do you have to add liquid, or just blend them up as is? (I'm talking about canned/already cooked beans, of course.)

Tammie said...

Rorie: If they are canned you will want to drain them. If you cook your own you will also want the liquid removed. If they are really dry and not blending well then you could add a little liquid back in but you want kind of the refried bean texture.

Anonymous said...

Tammie
I have a question for you do you do your own canning such as pears. I was wondering what you use in place of sugar. thank you

Tammie said...

Anonymous: Most of the preserving of fruit that I do is drying or freezing. I wanted to bottle some peaches this year. But after freezing a year supply for smoothies, making fruit leather, and all of us enjoying the fresh ones I didn't even have enough for jam let alone some to bottle. Maybe next year!

I do have some pears that are ripening but again my first priority is to freeze or dry because this leaves enzymes in tact then if there are still more I will bottle them. I have not tried doing it yet but I totally think that using Sucanat, Rapadura, or dehydrated cane juice would work just fine. They are all derived from the same place sugar is just much less refined I think you could replace them cup for cup in a recipe. The color may change a bit but I think the taste will be great! Agave may also work but I think you would have to play with the recipe a bit.

Courtney said...

These are so yummy! We usually like to halve new recipes, but not these ones. The crunchy PB we used was awesome.
My hubbie says they are called Navy beans because they used to be a U.S. Navy staple.

Kristy Treible said...

Do you do any recipes GFCF?

Tammie said...

Kristy: All of my recipes are Casein free. But many do contain gluten. I really think a lot of the wheat and grains could be substitued with rice flour, spelt, kamuut or other low gluten/gluten free flours etc. I have not experimented with it much but feel free to give it a try I bet most of them would turn out really good.

The Cooking Lady said...

I made these and all I can say is OMG!

Thee only thing I found was that they were a bit too soft for my taste, but that did not deter the family from gobbling them down in less that a day!

Thanks for a great recipe and I already blogged about them and gave my readers the link back to here. Yummo!

fitncrafty said...

Made these last week!! They were delicious..

Used soft white wheat, I didn't have any hard white around...

Also, we put carob chips in half the batter and that was devine!

Thanks for another great recipe!

Stephanie said...

I just made some of these today but since I don't have any coconut oil I substituted 100% pureed white beans for the oil and they still came out delicious! I was a little worried about how much honey was in them because the smell and taste of honey make me sick. But I couldn't even taste the honey in them. I made 1/3 of a batch but next time I will be making a full batch because they were so good! In fact, we took a plate over to a friend's house and they never would have known we had "healthified" them if we hadn't told them. ;) They were soft and sweet. Thanks for a great recipe! I'm looking forward to trying many more on your site.

Anonymous said...

Okay, just so I get this straight, like I said, this is all new to me so sorry for all the questions ;) LOL! When your recipes call for whole wheat flour, this is flour that you grind yourself? This is not store bought flour? Also, in this recipe, it calls for whole hard white flour. Can I just use store bought whole wheat flour? Thats all I have on hand, and I do not own a grain grinder. Is whole wheat flour the same as stoneground whole wheat? Again, Im sorry for all the questions, just trying to learn all that I can:) Thank you!

Tammie said...

homebirthmomma: Yes I always grind my own flour. Hard White Flour is flour I grind from hard white wheat. Yes you can use store bought whole wheat flour. It will have a lot of the nutrients lots depending on how old it is but the fiber is still there and some vitamins still a much better option then white flour. I think stoneground whole wheat is just the way it has been ground using a grinder that has two stones that press together. I think it's more marketing then anything. Either should be fine. Don't worry about that questions it's a great way to learn. Ask away!

Anonymous said...

Ok , I am right in the middle of making these cookies and realize i don't have enough honey, only 1 cup :/ Can I use something else like raw agave, or anything else?? Also, do you keep your coco oil in the fridge? I bought mine at the health food store and it was in the fridge so thats where I have it , so when I went to take out some for this recipe, it is hard as a rock. I couldn't scoop out enough to put in the pot to heat it. Should I put the whole jar in war water? If so, when I am done do I put it back in the fridge? Thanks!

Tammie said...

homebirthmomma: Yep agave will substitute just fine. No I don't keep my coconut oil in the fridge I keep a gallon in my pantry and the rest (I buy it in 5 gallon buckets) In my food storage room in the basement. Yep you can put the whole jar in hot water it will help soften it. I wouldn't put it back in the fridge.

Anonymous said...

Ok, here I go again, lol!! I just made up a batch of dough, it was alot! I used 1 c honey and the rest agave. My dough seemed dry, is that how it is supposed to be? Also, I bake a batch for 8 min and they are crumblie and falling apart??? I must have did something wrong, they do not look like your for sure and when I tasted the dough before I baked it, it didn't taste to great. And they just don't seem right even after baking. pretty dry. I don't know what I did. Oh well , I will try again another time I guess. Just this time I will at least cut in half so If i mess it up again i don't waste all those ingredients:/

Tammie said...

homebirthmomma: Oh dang I know how frustrating that can be. I have had that happen to me a lot. Don't get too discouraged, it usually takes some practice. It shouldn't really be dry it should be like cookie dough. One good hint I learned a long time ago was that first mix the fat and sweets together. And the order the ingredients go in is important as it will change flavor and texture a lot.

Also my cookies are usually a bit crumblie when they first come out of the oven, I usually let them sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack they seem to hold together better this way then as they cool they become like a chewy cookie and shouldn't fall apart.

As far as taste they should taste mostly like peanut butter. I did make a batch once at my Mom's that didn't taste good at all. As we did a little investigating we found she had some old coconut oil that wasn't really bad, but it didn't smell like coconut and it didn't taste good at all. I told her she needed to start ordering her coconut oil from Mountain Rose Herbs (link icon on my sidebar;)

If when making cookie dough it seems a little on the dry side you can add a little more oil, milk, or water. Just think cookie dough consistency. Kind of like play dough maybe a little wetter.

Also since I know you probably used a lot of ingredients since these cookies make a huge batch. Don't waste your dough even if it doesn't make good cookies. You can put it in the freezer and use it for "cookie dough ice cream" we love to add cookie dough to our homemade dairy free vanilla ice cream.

So sorry these didn't work out for you I promise they are really good.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I was a little discouraged, but I won't let it keep me from trying again! I think (but really don't know for sure) that maybe since I used all beans in place of the coco oil that maybe that was the problem??? I didn't feel like messing with it since I couldnt get it out of the jar so i just use 1.5 c pureed beans, but another follower did the same and they came out good, Huh, don't know?? Also, I was short like 1/4 to 1/2 c peanut butter. The dough tasted like pb but not enough it seemed. And I feel like maybe I over measured on the flour?? I have a big 8 c measuring bowl and I just dumped the flour in, and it may have been a little more than 6 c. Next time I will measure it cup by cup and I will hace 3/4 c coco oil already heated and 3/4 beans. I will freeze the dough like you said:P Hopefully not a total waist! Thanks for your help and now Im off to start dinner. Pizza Casserole:) Lets hope I don't mess this one up, lol!