Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies are so wonderful and peanut butter-y! A friend of mine made these a few years ago and when I asked her what was in them I was so excited to find out they were gluten-free. I've tried a couple different versions of this recipe and this one seems to be my favorite. I sort of combined recommendations from a few other recipes to get to these golden beauties.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Ingredients

• 1 cup peanut butter (I buy natural crunchy peanut butter and drain off the excess oil from the top. I read in several recipes that natural peanut butter works better and that's what I found to be true as well. Brands like Jiff just make the cookies turn out flat.) 
• 1/2 cup white sugar 
• 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar 
• 1 egg, lightly beaten 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 tsp baking soda 
• salt to sprinkle on top of each cookie (optional) 

• Milk to drink. Seriously... you are going to need milk with these.

Directions

1. Mix together peanut butter and sugars in a bowl until smooth. 
2. Add egg, vanilla, and baking soda to your dough and mix well. 
3. Roll dough into walnut size balls and place about 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet. 
4. Use a fork to lightly press cross-hatch pattern into the top of each cookie. If you like your cookies to be a little softer and thicker, don't press them too thin. I pressed mine down to a little over half an inch thick and they were nice and soft when I pulled them out. 
5. Sprinkle a tiny bit of salt on top of each cookie. 
6. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. (Be careful not to overcook them!) 
7. Allow them to rest on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before transferring them to a cooling rack. 

Gluten-free Drop Biscuits

So I'll admit it. I totally dropped the ball on the gluten-free blog idea since I haven't added anything in over a year. I haven't been totally unproductive in that time, however, as I have been able to try A LOT of g.f. recipes and have found some that are absolute staples for Robbie and I now. This drop biscuit recipe happens to be one of those staples. I have made them so many times that I have the recipe memorized. They are fantastic with jam or honey or sausage gravy!

Maybe I'm alone in this but I hate cutting butter into a mixture of dry ingredients. It takes so long and it's so hard to get it distributed evenly. Originally I was making this recipe by cutting the butter into the dry ingredients until I forgot one day (yeah, I know... I'm such a professional baker) and had to melt the butter and add it in at the end. The result was fantastic! The biscuits had a much smoother texture and were just as fluffy. Can you say hooray for baking mistakes that turn out better than the original? One mistake not to make, however, is to think that xanthan gum isn't important and so you leave it out. Let me tell you it doesn't work. Your dough will look like pancake batter.

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1 cup corn starch
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk with 1 tsp vinegar (this is my substitute for buttermilk)
• 2 egg whites
• 4-5 tbsp butter (soft)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 410 degrees F
2. Put 1 tsp vinegar into a measuring cup and then fill it to 1 cup with milk (allow this to sit about 5 minutes)
3. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl
4. Mix the two egg whites into your milk/vinegar solution
5. Pour milk/vinegar/egg white solution into your dry ingredients and combine with a fork until there are just a few globs of dry ingredients that still need to be mixed in
6. At this point I wait a minute or two to let the dough thicken. It's actually really moist and takes a bit to puff up so just be patient
7. Finally, mix in your softened butter and place large drops onto a greased cookie sheet or baking stone
8. Bake for 15-18 minutes

If you are really feeling sassy, try adding some shredded cheddar cheese to your biscuit dough. While the biscuits are baking, melt some butter and mix in some garlic salt. Then, when your biscuits are about 5 minutes from being done spoon your garlic butter on top of them and let them finish baking for delicious cheesy garlic biscuits like they serve at Red Lobster! Here's a picture of my cheesy garlic version!