I am pretty certain this post can be filed under “ironic.” I am finally caught up enough to share my first deliberately dairy free recipe, and guess what? I had a CT scan today and am re-introducing the dairy. Wee-hoo! There seems to be some concern that my deviated septum surgery was too aggressive and basically has cleared my sinuses out to the point that they are not functioning as sinuses (catching dust, mucus, gunk), instead letting all that mucus just dump down my throat. Gross I know, and also I should be outraged about the surgery, but honestly I am so excited to be re-introducing cheese into my life that I do not currently care. Cross your fingers that this is the end of food allergy/intolerance issues.
So about these cookies. They were tremendously scrumptious. They reminded me why, in some cases, butter is not the gold standard. Not only did they bake up thick and chewy, but they stayed fresh much longer as well. And honestly, unless you are a super taster (I’m not), I defy you to be able to notice a lack of flavor from the missing butter given that there is so much peanut butter and chocolate chip yumminess going on.
I actually found the recipe in a cookie cookbook (Crazy About Cookies: 300 Scrumptious Recipes for Every Occasion & Craving
- 2 1/2 cups (315 g) AP flour
- 1 t fine grained salt
- 1 t baking powder
- 1 t baking soda
- 1 1/4 cups creamy peanut butter I used Jif
- 1 cup shortening I used earth Balance buttery sticks
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 t vanilla
- 2 large eggs
- coarse salt for sprinkling
- 2 cups dairy-free semi sweet chocolate chips
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Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
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Cream the peanut butter and shortening until well blended. Add the sugar and cream until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Then beat in the vanilla.
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Add the flour in 3 installments, mixing in slowly. With the last installment, also add the chocolate chips. Mix just until completely blended. Place in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes--they will bake nicely after 30 minutes, but my best cookies came with the dough that had chilled at least overnight. It can rest in the fridge for up to 3 days.
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Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line your cookie sheet or sheets with parchment of silicone.
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Scoop fairly large, about 2-inch diameter, balls of cookie dough onto the cookie sheets. Sprinkle coarse salt to taste on each ball of cookie dough. I baked 6 to a pan to give you an idea. Bake for 12-16 minutes, until lightly browned and starting to crack on top. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Amazon affiliate links were used in this post, but only to link to items I would be discussing and linking to anyway.
Congrats on getting to eat dairy again! I know how bummed you were!
These cookies definitely make me think that you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference between the non-vegan version and these! Delicious.
These cookies look yummy! My kid is dairy allergic, so we have the dairy-free choc chips already, but now I can make a whole new peanut butter cookie for him. Thanks!! The coarse salt- do you sprinkle before or after they go through the oven? And does that significantly change the taste? Congrats too on going back cheese, its one of those foods thats hard to give up once you’ve had the real thing!
Ooops I will fix that when I get home on the recipe. Technically you could sprinkle the salt on at any point but it sticks much better if you sprinkle before. And yes, for me anyway, it makes a huge difference. Stay tuned, by the way, if you are willing to use lard I discovered a Spanish cookie that rivals any shortbread I’ve ever had, the recipe will be up in the next week or so.
This looks so yummy! I love peanut butter alone or in anything. Must try this one! Thanks for sharing!
Oh, yay! I am glad you can eat dairy again. I’m lactose intolerant and understand. (You’d never know it from the cheese I put in my food, though! I take a lot of lactaid pills, lol. But most cheeses are easier to digest than milk and my family loves cheese.) So when I saw you made dairy-free cookies I just had to look. The recipe sounds yummy and your cookies look wonderful!
Looks good. I’m trying to think but I think the chocolate chip cookies my mother always made were probably dairy free but just were, not by conscious choice.
My mom always used shortening for cookies also.