Peanut Chews

On Wednesday there was a rare occurence in Michigan: we had a snow day! Well, everyday is a snow day here, but on we actually had the day off from work. Since I was feeling bored, I decided to bake something. We only had chocolate no-bake cookies in the freezer, so it was time to replenish the cookie supply. I decided not to go for chocolate chip cookies and tried a recipe from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking. The challenge was to find a recipe that called for ingredients in the cupboard, and fortunately there was a recipe for Peanut Chews. The only change I made was to substitute molasses for the honey (or dark corn syrup).

These cookes are soft and chewy,  and not overly sweet. But, they're not very pretty (and thus the reason why there aren't pictures with the post). They are also very easy to put together.

Peanut Chews from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking (about 28 cookies)
1 cup of smooth peanut butter
3.75 ounces dark brown sugar
3.25 ounces granulate sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. molasses (or honey or dark corn syrup)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
6 ounces whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of lightly salted dry-roasted peanuts, finely ground (a mini food processor is great for this).

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the peanut butter, sugars, egg, water, molasses, vanilla, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In a small bowl, combine the ground peanuts and whole wheat flour. Once the peanut butter mixture is smooth, slowly add the flour and ground nuts. Mix everything together until its well combined.

Line your baking sheets with parchment paper (I ended up using 3 baking sheets). Drop tablespoon-sized pieces of dough on the cookie sheet. You can use a fork to flatten each cookie and make a pretty pattern on the top (or you can use the bottom of the glass).

Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Move the cookies to a cooling rack to allow them to cool.

Peanut Chews aren't like you're traditional peanut butter cookies. They are really chewy, not chewy and crumbly, so don't expect the same texture. However, expect them to be delicious!