flourless peanut butter chocolate cookies

Ever find yourself in the mood to bake cookies, but are either out of ingredients or short on time? Here's a recipe for you. I often turn to these flourless peanut chocolate cookies from Martha Stewart when I'm in the mood for a quick cookie. These cookies consist of just peanut butter, an egg, sugar, leavening, salt, and chocolate chips. The original recipe uses peanuts, though I often substitute other ingredients like more chips, or oatmeal, like in today's variation.

I used quick oats, thinking it would blend better in the dough. It did, but I should have used less than half a cup because I think the oats soaked up a lot of moisture and made the refrigerated dough difficult to work with.

The best part about these cookies is that you don't need a mixer. Simply stir the sugar, baking soda, salt, and egg with the peanut butter, then in stir the chips and additional ingredients. You can bake them immediately or let the dough chill. I've done both and found that the cookies have smoother tops after being refrigerated and the dough is easier to form, but it tastes just the same.

After rolling the dough into balls, I press them down to half-inch disks. The dough sometimes doesn't spread much, especially when it has been chilled, so this helps them spread out more as it bakes. These didn't spread as much as they typically do because of the oats. I also used 1 tablespoon portions like the recipe says although I usually use 2 tablespoons because I like the look of big, beautiful cookies.

These are the best when just underbaked. The cookies are soft and buttery, and surprisingly not dense. The fat in the peanut butter contributes to the cookie's texture, and the warm peanut butter flavor is incredible. If I had some ice cream I'd crumble some of the just baked cookies on top. Yummy.