Easiest Cookie Ever, and Delicious Too!

When I saw Lauren’s suggestions for Valentine’s Day treats included this cookie, I knew I had to try it!  Lauren has a wonderful blog that makes incredibly delicious and healthy versions of food that everyone loves.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have any chocolate peanut butter on hand, but I did have some of this chocolate almond butter on hand.

Since I wanted to make the cookies immediately, I decided to adapt her recipe for what I had on hand and make Flourless Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies.

Reasons to make these cookies:

1. They are deliciously light and fudgey at the same time.

2.  This is the easiest cookie recipe I have ever made.  3 steps, that is it!

3.  Portion control!  This recipe makes 8 cookies.  If you are nervous about eating the entire batch, you can’t get yourself into too much trouble*.  The cookies are pretty big, too.

*Each cookie comes out to 5 weightwatchers points+, as a result, the entire batch is 40 points+ which is less than the extra weekly points you get. 

Step 1:  Mix together almond butter, brown sugar, whisked egg white, baking soda, vanilla extract and salt

Step 2:  Stir in chocolate chips

Step 3:  Bake cookies

Did I say they were easy?

Flourless Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies

Adapted from Healthy Food for Living

Makes 8 cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chocolate almond butter

2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed

1 egg white, whisked

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Mix together almond butter, brown sugar, whisked egg white, baking soda, vanilla extract and salt

Stir in chocolate chips

Use a cookie dough scoop or tablespoon to shape 8 cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

Bake for ~12 min or until tops of cookies are no longer loose

What is the easiest dessert you have made?

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5 Years of

Turkey

Lots of desserts

Wine

More meat

Delicious side dishes

Too many desserts

Friends

Tradition

Much too many desserts

More food than one could imagine out of a NYC kitchen

More people than you’d usually fit in a 1-bedroom apartment

5 Years of Thanksgiving with Friends

Five years ago, in what started out as a “dinner club” with two other couples, Matt and I hosted our first mock Thanksgiving dinner with friends.  Four friends came to Matt’s apartment at the time for a turkey, sweet potato casserole, and some other dishes that aren’t memorable enough to stand out in my mind.  It was a fun night and such a success that in the years that followed, our intimate dinner party of six has turned into an annual event with almost twenty friends.  It gives us an opportunity to be in the kitchen together, share an evening with many of our closest friends, and show them how thankful we are for them through delicious food.

This year’s dinner was so much fun and full of many tasty traditional and non-traditional Thanksgiving dishes: Turkey, Brisket, Turkey Meatloaf, Salad, String Bean Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Parmesan, Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce and Pumpkin Bread/Muffins

And of course, as you surely already know, lots of desserts

Cookie sandwiches: Red Velvet Cookie Sandwiches with White Chocolate Buttercream, Chocolate Chip Cookies with Mocha Ganache and Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Filling

Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake bars

Cookie Dough Topped Brownies

Gooey Caramel Butter Bars

Chocolate Chunk Almond Butter Bars

Brownies with White Chocolate Buttercream and Mocha Ganache

I am excited about the recipes I have to share from the dinner party over the next few weeks!  There are definitely some new desserts that I know I’ll be making again

What is your favorite Thanksgiving-related tradition?

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Showing Almond Butter Some Love

Bars are such an easy thing to make and serve. Rather than dropping dozens of cookies onto several baking sheets and switching pans in and out of the oven, you can spread the batter into one large pan and bake it in one batch. Once they are done and cool, you just slice and serve. Pieces can be as big or small as you want.

Since I have a ton of baking to do over the next month or so, I have found a few recipes that are less time consuming to mix in with the more complicated desserts. Besides, as it turns out, sometimes the easiest desserts are the most popular! I am really excited about the recipes I will be making over the next several weeks, and I think you will enjoy them as well. This recipe is a good start to the holiday baking season but can be used year round. I was excited when I found it because it uses almond butter as a main ingredient. I haven’t baked with almond butter before, I am more of a die-hard peanut butter lover, but I do enjoy it for variety. This Food &Wine cookbook actually has a ton of great recipes and this recipe for Chocolate Chunk Almond Butter Bars is one of the more simple that I found.

For a change, I didn’t make any tweaks, and I don’t think it needs any. These crispy and chewy bars would be terrific with a glass of milk, but I’ll be serving them among a selection of many other desserts.

The details to the recipe can be found here.

For this recipe you will need a food processor and just a few ingredients

Side note: the hardest part of making these was getting my food processor down from the back corner of my top kitchen shelf

Chop your nuts and set aside

 

Then mix up the dough in the food processor (you don’t need to clean it between these steps)

Stir in chocolate chips (I used chunks) and chopped almonds.

Spread it out in your baking pan

Bake

Crispy, chewy, delicious

Have you baked with almond butter before?

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