PEANUT BUTTER CRISPS

PEANUT BUTTER CRISPS
3 ounces almond flour (3/4 cup)
2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
3 tablespoons granular Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda
1/8 teaspoon salt (see my comments below)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg white

Mix all of the ingredients well in a small bowl. Everything should be moist and the dough should hold together. Drop the dough by teaspoons onto a parchment or silicone lined 12x17" baking sheet. Roll each piece of dough into a ball. I used a 1 teaspoon cookie scoop and skipped the rolling into a ball step. Cover the balls with plastic wrap and take a baking powder can, that has about an 1/8" rim around the bottom, and press down firmly over each ball of dough. Be sure to press all the way down to the baking sheet. Peel off the plastic wrap and discard. Prick the cookies with a fork.

Bake at 325?for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes 20-24 cookies
Can be frozen

With granular Splenda:
Per Cookie: 30 Calories; 2g Fat; 1g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; .5g Dietary Fiber; .5g Net Carbs
Per 2 Cookies: 60 Calories; 5g Fat; 3g Protein; 2.5g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 1.5g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Cookie: 29 Calories; 2g Fat; 1g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; .5g Dietary Fiber; .5g Net Carbs
Per 2 Cookies: 59 Calories; 5g Fat; 3g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carb

I thought that if I replaced the butter in my Butter Cookie recipe with an equal amount of peanut butter, I'd end up with a tender cookie. It turns out that I was wrong. Apparently, the peanut butter just acted like I'd added more nut flour to the dough so I ended up with a crisp, hard cracker-like cookie. They have the same crispness as the Almond Thins. I don't mind that so much, other than that it wasn't what I was hoping for, but these need a bit more tweaking anyway. Next time I would add a little salt. I didn't put any in because I thought there would be enough salt in the peanut butter. However, they tasted too flat without it. I'd also put in 1-2 tablespoons of softened butter and another tablespoon of peanut butter. Although they smelled very peanut buttery while baking, the flavor seemed weak. If I add butter, that will just dilute the flavor even more so I think I'll have to add an extra tablespoon of peanut butter.

If anyone wants to go ahead and try the revised version, below are the proposed carb counts. You will probably get a few extra cookies because of the added ingredients. Figure about 24-26 cookies per batch. Also note that you will need to freeze the dough about 15-20 minutes to firm it up because of the soft butter.

With granular Splenda:
Per Cookie: 42 Calories; 4g Fat; 1g Protein; 1.5g Carbohydrate; .5g Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carb
Per 2 Cookies: 85 Calories; 8g Fat; 3g Protein; 2.5g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 1.5g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Cookie: 42 Calories; 4g Fat; 1g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; .5g Dietary Fiber; .5g Net Carbs
Per 2 Cookies: 83 Calories; 8g Fat; 3g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carb

UPDATE LATER 10/1/11: I bumped up the star rating to 3 stars after discovering that the flavor improves as they "age". They still need some tweaking but the peanut butter flavor is more pronounced after the cookies have been sitting around for at least a few hours.

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