PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

ELLIE'S PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup natural or sugar free peanut butter
3/4 cup granulated Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup almond flour, 2 ounces
1/4 cup wheat protein isolate 5000 or MiniCarb bake mix (MiniCarb has been discontinued)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt, optional *
A little extra Splenda to dip the fork in

In a medium bowl, cream the butter and peanut butter; beat in the Splenda. Add the egg and vanilla; beat well. Combine the dry ingredients and add to the creamed mixture; beat until combined. Roll the dough in 1-inch balls, or scoop the dough with a 2 teaspoon cookie scoop, and place on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Dip a fork in Splenda and press the top of each cookie in a crisscross pattern. Bake at 350?for 13-16 minutes, until nicely browned. Remove from the pan to a cooling rack.

Makes about 26 small cookies
Can be frozen

* Recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon but they came out too salty.

With granular Splenda:
Per Cookie: 64 Calories; 5g Fat; 2g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; .5g Dietary Fiber; 1.5g Net Carbs
Per 2 Cookies: 127 Calories; 11g Fat; 5g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 3g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Cookie: 61 Calories; 5g Fat; 2g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carbs
Per 2 Cookies: 122 Calories; 11g Fat; 5g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 2g Net Carbs

These don't have quite the same texture as regular peanut butter cookies, but they are very nice. They are very light and crispy. I did find them to have a bit of a salty aftertaste, so I will leave out the salt next time. Perhaps the creator used unsalted peanut butter. Unlike the Snickerdoodle and Almond Cookie recipes, these cookies seem to be quite sturdy and not fragile at all, even when hot from the oven.

UPDATE: They came out very well using MiniCarb bake mix and liquid Splenda, but not quite as light and crispy as with granular Splenda and wheat protein isolate. They don't get as brown either and the dough was fairly easy to handle.

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES WITH BAKE MIX
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
3/4 cup granulated Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup MiniCarb bake mix
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Follow the same instructions as above. The dough will be very crumbly and dry and you will have to sort of press it into balls rather than roll them.

Makes about 26 small cookies
Can be frozen

With granular Splenda:
Per Cookie: 50 Calories; 4g Fat; 2g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 1.5g Net Carbs
Per 2 Cookies: 100 Calories; 9g Fat; 3g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 3g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Cookie: 47 Calories; 4g Fat; 2g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carbs
Per 2 Cookies: 95 Calories; 9g Fat; 3g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; .5g Dietary Fiber; 1.5g Net Carbs

These did not turn out well at all with bake mix. They are very thick and dry textured. I think that the almond flour is necessary to give them the light, crispy texture. You could possibly substitute bake mix for the wheat protein isolate only, but I haven't tried that yet. All is not lost though, as I crushed the cookies to make crumbs for a cheesecake crust.

The photo below shows how they look made with bake mix. When made following the original recipe, they really do look like real peanut butter cookies. These did not.

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