Wheat Recipes -- Peanut Butter Cookies -- Non-Dairy, Non-Hydrogenated, Unrefined

A few months ago, I promised a good friend of mine (Hi Chris!) that I'd give him my Peanut Butter cookie recipe, made with fresh ground whole wheat flour, unrefined sugar and non-dairy, non-hydrogenated butter. They're super hearty and very tasty! I'm finally getting to writing up the recipe and thought I'd share it with you too. One of my sons says that they taste like you're eating grass (I first thought he said they tasted like "rats" and was offended, but once he clarified, I figured grass wasn't half as bad as rats). He does eat them, though, and the rest of my family loves them (and so does Chris :)). They're a little more dense and crunchy than regular peanut butter cookies and they taste pretty wonderful, especially right out of the oven. (Well, actually, they're pretty good the next day too).

Basically, I sub wheat flour for white, unrefined sugar (evaporated cane juice and/or sucanat) for the white and brown sugar, and Earth Balance buttery spread for real butter or margarine (so as to avoid the dairy and the hydrogenated fat). It's what I do for most of my favorite cookie recipes and they turn out great.



Wheat Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup Earth Balance buttery spread (or 2 Earth Balance butter sticks)
1 cup Peanut Butter (I use Costco's organic or Marantha)
1 c. evaporated cane juice (can be found in bulk in most health food stores -- sometimes they'll let you buy it by the huge bag and get a 10% discount)
1 c. sucanat (also in bulk food section of the health food store or in little pkgs. -- the pkgs. get pricey though. If either are very expensive, I just use 2 c. of the other sugar)
2 eggs
1 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

Mix butters and sugars together first. Add in eggs, then the 3 small ingredients. Gradually add the wheat flour until blended well.

Form balls (or use a cookie scoop like Pampered Chef makes ) and place onto cookie sheet or baking stone. Press a criss cross with a fork to flatten out a bit. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Try not to eat too many!