Salted Peanut Butter Cookies

Photo Courtesy of Ovenly

We kept seeing post after post on Instagram touting how delicious and easy these are to make, so naturally, we decided to give them a try. And we have to agree that these cookies are worth the hype — and gluten-free to boot! Here is the recipe as it appears on Ovenly. The recipe yields 12 large cookies or 24 small cookies.

Ingredients and Instructions

• 1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 3/4 cups smooth peanut butter (see note at end)

• Coarse-grained sea salt, to finish

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, vigorously whisk together the light brown sugar and eggs until incorporated. Whisk in the vanilla extract. Add the peanut butter and mix with a spatula until smooth and completely incorporated, and until no ribbons of peanut butter can be seen. You know the dough is ready when it has the consistency of Play-Doh.

3. Using a scoop or a spoon, form the dough into 12 approximately 2-inch (2 to 2 1/4-ounce) balls and place them on the prepared rimmed sheet pan. For smaller cookies, use a heaping tablespoon.

4. Sprinkle the dough balls lightly with coarse-grained sea salt just before baking. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, turning the rimmed sheet pan once halfway through baking (for smaller cookies, bake for 16 to 18 minutes). When finished, the cookies will be lightly golden and cracked on top. Let them cool completely before serving.

5. You can bake these cookies as soon as the dough is prepared, but they will retain their shape better if you freeze them for 15 minutes before baking.

Chef’s Tip: While the all-natural stuff works just fine, Skippy is our peanut butter brand of choice for this recipe as we've found it retains the dough shape best. These tasty cookies are gluten-free!