Saturday I was out cruising around the food blogs when I spotted this recipe for Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies on Cookie Madness. You can imagine how the world "flourless" caught my eye in this recipe title. I read through the ingredients and decided I would try making a flourless, sugar-free version of the recipe, switching the sugar for Splenda. I knew that Splenda would have slightly different baking qualities than sugar, but I figured it was worth a try.My cookies look very different than Anna's, and of course you know I couldn't just follow the recipe the way it was written; possibly this is why I'll never be any good at baking. I was using natural peanut butter, so I added a tiny bit of water to the batter, and also cooked them longer than Anna did, but essentially my main change was switching the sugar for Splenda. Of course, they don't taste exactly the same as peanut butter cookies made with sugar, but I was happy with the way these turned out. For a cookie with no sugar or flour at all, they were crisp and delicious. If you're not a South Beach Dieter, go ahead and make them with sugar, but for anyone who's limiting sugar and white flour in their diet, these cookies could be a nice bit of sweetness once in a while.
Flourless, Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies(Makes about 2 dozen small cookies, recipe adapted from Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies from Cookie Madness.)
1 large egg
1 cup granular Splenda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. Mexican vanilla (or vanilla extract)
1 cup creamy natural peanut butter (check sugar content, the one I used had only 1 gram sugar per serving)
1 tsp. water
1/3 cup chopped peanuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In mixing bowl, use electric beater to beat together the egg, Splenda, baking powder, and vanilla for about a minute. Add peanut butter and water and beat together. (The mixture was fairly dry and broken apart. Just be sure the peanut butter is mixed well with the other ingredients.) Add peanuts if using, and blend into dough.
Use a large non-stick cookie sheet. Measure out a heaping teaspoon of batter for each cookie, then smash down with a fork. Bake 15 minutes, or slightly longer, until cookies feel firm and are slightly browned.
South Beach Suggestions:
Of course leaving out the flour and sugar makes these cookies much more South Beach Diet friendly than cookies made with those ingredients. However, I'd still say this would be a "once in a while treat" for the South Beach Diet if you're actively trying to lose weight, since peanut butter is relatively high in fat and calories, and it's very hard to just eat one or two cookies.
More Sugar-Free or Low Sugar Desserts:
Low Carb Cheesecake Two Ways
Reduced Sugar Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake
Sugar-Free Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake
Low Carb Snickerdoodles
Low Carb Cookies with Meringue and Pecans
Peach and Berry Cobbler Recipe
Parisian Apple Tartlet
Greek Yogurt with Agave Nectar and Pecans
In mixing bowl, use electric beater to beat together the egg, Splenda, baking powder, and vanilla for about a minute. Add peanut butter and water and beat together. (The mixture was fairly dry and broken apart. Just be sure the peanut butter is mixed well with the other ingredients.) Add peanuts if using, and blend into dough.
Use a large non-stick cookie sheet. Measure out a heaping teaspoon of batter for each cookie, then smash down with a fork. Bake 15 minutes, or slightly longer, until cookies feel firm and are slightly browned.
South Beach Suggestions:
Of course leaving out the flour and sugar makes these cookies much more South Beach Diet friendly than cookies made with those ingredients. However, I'd still say this would be a "once in a while treat" for the South Beach Diet if you're actively trying to lose weight, since peanut butter is relatively high in fat and calories, and it's very hard to just eat one or two cookies.
More Sugar-Free or Low Sugar Desserts:
Low Carb Cheesecake Two Ways
Reduced Sugar Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake
Sugar-Free Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake
Low Carb Snickerdoodles
Low Carb Cookies with Meringue and Pecans
Peach and Berry Cobbler Recipe
Parisian Apple Tartlet
Greek Yogurt with Agave Nectar and Pecans
Things you might want to know:
You can get Kalyn's recipes by e-mail.
There's a great way to print recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen.
It's easy to find out who's hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.
There are actual rules for Weekend Herb Blogging.
Here is another place where I write more about food.
Tags:
Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Diabetes Friendly Recipes
33 Comments:
Well shucks those look like peanut butter cookies. Incredible!
I was just looking for a sugar-free cookie recipe for grandma. Thanks a million!
My peanut butter cookies, with or without real sugar, never come out the same twice anyway. It's good to have a healthy option though. Thanks!
I think Splenda's brown sugar blend would be good too. Of course, that would add extra sugar since the blend is not entirely sugar free.
They look so good, Kalyn!
I will have to give this a try. I don't do slenda though. I hate the stuff. I will try it with stevia and see how that works.
I am glad you tried baking:) The cookies look good!
OoOoOoo, this reminds me of a recipe I nearly made, once. Ran out of some ingredient and wasn't in the mood to go buy it.
What intriqued me was the addition of a tsp or so of cayenne powder. That and butter and sugar really sounded kinda good to me. Not sure what it'd do with the splenda and so forth. Thought I'd drop that on the floor, for ya.
Biggles
Tanna, they taste like peanut butter cookies too!
EMWK, they are really very good, especially if you're a peanut butter lover like me!
Sherry, I know what you mean, thanks!
Anna, great idea! See, this is why you're the baking guru,not me!
Patricia, they were, thanks!
Lucy, I don't know if Stevia will work. Does it come in a powder form? I think you need the bulk of the powder to make the cookie stick together.
Maria, can you believe I baked?
Biggles, love the idea of a touch of Cayenne!
Those look tasty! If I can get my hands on some peanut butter, I shall have to try them!
I'm another of those "don't do artificial sweeteners" people...
What would you think of a skosh of maple syrup or molasses? And then maybe a half cup or so of whole wheat flour...?
By the way, I invented a whole wheat pumpkin chocolate chip muffin you might like!
They sure look like peanut butter cookies to me! This is a recipe I'm going to try!
Gretchen, no peanut butter in Peru? Now that's just sad.
Blest, I really have no idea how that would work, since I'm not a baker! I think if you didn't want artificial sweeteners I might just use Anna's version.
Christine, I do like the recipe, and if you're not doing phase one I think Anna's idea for Splenda brown sugar blend might be great too. (Hmm, maybe I'll try that next!)
Would these also be gluten free? One of my friends has Celiac Disease, and these might be a good option for me to make for her for my Christmas party...
Great recipe and website! Thanks for the inspiration.
Angela, I was also wondering that and actually I'm not completely sure if baking powder or vanilla have gluten. I know sometimes it can come from some unlikely sources. You might have your friend check the ingredient list and see what she thinks. I will also ask some of the gluten-free bloggers that I know.
Way to go Kalyn, they look like the regular cookies...I could eat the whole batch!
Wonderful! I always need recipes that are away from the norm - make sure everyone has a taste. Yum!
I have made these for several years too and I love them
Kalyn- These look fab- and are easily gluten-free using gluten-free brands.
And if you can do sunbutter- butter made from sunflower seeds- give that a try. Sunflower butter makes scrumptious cookies.
I made them with almond butter instead of peanut butter. They were great --- I ate 3 for dinner! As an expat in Europe it's hard to eat healthy, so I really appreciate your recipes, even if I can't find all the necessary ingredients! :)
-- Rhapsody
Karina and Rhapsody, I love the idea of trying different kinds of butters. Yum.
I don't like the aftertaste of Splenda, so I made these using 1/2 cup of agave nectar (next time, I'll probably use even less, for just a hint of sweet). They turned out wonderful!
The batter was quite sticky, so I needed to coat my fork with cooking spray a few times to pat them down, but it worked. Great recipe!
Austinite, great idea to substitute Agave nectar for the Splenda, and thanks for letting us know so other people can try it too.
I tried making these, they crumble really easy and just broke when you picked them up, they tasted nice though, not the best but i will probably still make these, thankyou!
Anonymous, sorry to hear it; I didn't have that problem. Definitely they're a little "crisper" than cookies with flour but mine didn't break apart. Not sure what the difference would be, but maybe different brands of peanut butter have different amounts of oil.
I can't wait to make these! I'm going to tweek it a little more though. I'm going to try using egg substitute and I have tried a product which I really like called PB2. It's actually powdered peanut butter that you mix.(2TBSP mix to 1TBSP of water) This product has 85% less fat than even low fat peanut butter. It's also less than 2gms of sugar. I found it on the net. I've had weight loss surgery and can't do sugar or high fat products. Hey, the surgery worked, I'm down into size 3/4 jeans, and it's fun altering recipes to be able to eat things I used to!!!
I love the idea of sugar-free cookies, but did you know Splenda is totally toxic? Please don't eat Splenda!! Do a google search if you want to know more. Meanwhile, consider using Agave syrup - its low-glycemic, even diabetics can have it without an issue. I'm going to go make some agave-peanut butter cookies right now - yum!
Mardi, I obviously don't believe Splenda is toxic or I wouldn't be using it. I do like agave (and I've written about it), but I don't think it's always the best replacement for sugar in baking. I use Splenda occasionally, and for people who really need to avoid all sugars, (agave has fructose) I feel it's a safe option. I also believe everyone should make up their own mind about these things. I respect your right to make your own food choices, so please respect mine.
I'm baking these right now for a diabetic client- I didn't have granulated. I'm concerned, but hope they will come out alright! Thanks for the recipe. Great blog!
My friend Whitney and I made these cookies tonight, and they were awesome! We only had the Splenda packets, so once we emptied about 15 of those we only had about 1/4 of a cup of sugar, so we filled the rest of the cup measurement with Splenda brown sugar blend. They are amazing! Super sweet, but not crunchy like you said they would be, and certainly not crumbly. I think the brown sugar made them a little softer. We also made them big, but still got 14 cookies out of the batch. We thank you for the recipe.
Rachel, you're welcome! Very glad you liked them.
I made these using stevia (the concentrated powder kind). I added just under 2 tbs of soy flour to make up a bit of the bulk, although next time I would use regular whole wheat flour. They tasted a bit bitter -not sure if it was the stevia, the brand of peanut butter or the soy flour, but overall the taste and texture were very good for a sugar-free and almost flourless cookie.
Hi Kalyn,
Thank you so much for posting these delicious recipes! I tried the peanut butter cookies and they came out delicious! I didn't have all the ingredients, so I had to improvise. I didn't have the vanilla extract, so I used vanilla cognac instead (it was the only thing vanilla I could find!) and I used a pinch of lemon extract. They are so moist and delicious! :)
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