I looooove peanut butter. Slathered on warm buttered toast, English muffins, or in a sandwich with fat slices of banana, I could eat peanut butter every single day. For awhile there, I had to stop eating it because my stomach didn't love it so much, but recently I've discovered that all is not lost; I can still eat peanut butter occasionally.
In spite of my love for peanut butter, I was never really fond of it in cookies. They were often too dry and crumbly for my taste. The only cookies I liked were these delectable chocolate peanut butter cup cookies. That is, until Kraft sent me a bunch of their specialty peanut butters to try.
You may have seen these new peanut butters in the store-I had awhile ago and was very curious about them. Peanut butter with raisins and granola? Cranberries? Honey? Yum! You can understand my excitement then when Kraft offered to send me some, and some recipes to try. I'm always one to try new recipes, and with something I love? I'm so in.
These peanut butter cookies are not crumbly or dry, and honestly are so easy to make you don't even need a mixer. Kids could do these with nothing more than a wooden spoon and a bowl. I admit that since I never use margarine in my baking (it's butter here, all the time) it was a little strange to me to be using Becel. You probably could substitute butter, but then you'd need to use a mixer. If you try it, let me know how they turn out! The cookies were very tasty and I really liked the fact that they used whole wheat flour and bran cereals, as well as apple. I think they'd make a good breakfast cookie to have on the go. When John took a batch to work he said that they disappeared very quickly. Kevin was a little sad that he couldn't eat them at all; Kraft peanut butters contain soybean oil, so if you have a soy allergy, this is a recipe you want to avoid.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup Kraft cinnamon raisin granola peanut butter
1/4 cup non-hydrogenated margarine (I used Becel)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cup bran flakes
1/2 cup All Bran cereal
1/2 cup grated apple (squeeze to get out excess moisture, and leave the skin on-more fibre!)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Directions:
Pre-heat your oven to 400 F.
In a large bowl, stir together the peanut butter and margarine until smooth. Add the brown sugar, egg and vanilla and continue to stir until well blended.
Combine the flour and baking soda in a separate bowl before stirring into the butter mixture until just combined. Add the cereals, grated apple and pecans, stirring until blended.
Drop by tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes until set and golden. Let cool on sheet for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 2 dozen
Adapted from Kraft Canada
Want more peanut butter recipes? You'll find them at Kraft.
Disclosure: Kraft sent me a basket of ingredients to try their new line of specialty peanut butters in some recipes that they enclosed. I agreed because I've been planning to buy the peanut butters anyway. All opinions are my own.
