After cleaning out my pantry at school, I realized that I had 6 separate jars of peanut butter. SIX.
Not that this is a bad thing, but it is a bit excessive. Since I kept my PB in the back of my cupboard, I guess I just didn’t realize I had any and kept on buying more each time I went to the grocery store.
…
So melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter goodness like whhaaaaaat.
There are a couple of things I want to say about this. First off, EASY. Almost stupidly easy. One bowl, no flour, no baking powder. Just throw your ingredients into a mixer or hand-mix and all of a sudden you have a delicious bowl of cookie dough that tastes like the filling of a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. And no, I’m not kidding. Secondly, gluten free. I’m not claiming to know much about baking/eating without gluten, but holy heck, you won’t miss it at all. I know a lot of GF treats sometimes leave a little to be desired, but these are incredibly soft and bursting with peanut butter and chocolate flavor that go perfectly with a glass of milk.
This summer has been the summer of cookies. Which also lends itself to being the summer of buckets of sugar and five tons of butter. Which also also should lend to me spending a good amount of time running or hitting up the gym, but my exercise lately has been reduced to beating together my butter and sugar. Also I’m lying because I have a Kitchenaid. Chewing counts as working out, right?
What was I saying again?
OH YEA. It’s the summer of cookies! From my No-Bake Cookie Dough Energy Bites to my Chunky Cookies and Cream Cookies (<—I die. SO good), it’s been a good season for sweets and these peanut butter bites are no exception. They are little pillows of fluffy goodness and are chock full of melty chocolate chips and crunchy pieces of crushed peanuts. I actually had to make two seperate batches of these before I was able to snap some photos of them since they magically dissapeared overnight. Apart from me being a little irritated at having to have to heat up the house a little with the oven, it meant that I could make some more of the best peanut butter cookie dough ever and enjoy it with a triple shot latte that Kyle brought me. The BEST. Is anyone like that as well? I usually make myself so sick off of stuffing my face with cookie dough that when the final product comes out, I’m left lying on the ground in a (magnificent) sugar coma.
And I’m okay with that.
This recipe is adapted from the lovely people at Cooking Light!
I actually can’t stop eating this right now.
So good. So so so good.
I was skeptical at first, but I have been turned into a healthy fudge believer. Like, do those words even belong together? It’s seems like some sort of food miracle. Hallelujah!
I’ve actually never worked with coconut oil before. The last time I was at my parent’s house, I noticed an unopened jar hiding in the back of the cupboard. It was just taking up space, so I stole it my mom let me take it back to school with me. SCORE. I opened it up yesterday and took a small taste. I was totally thinking it would be, well, coconut-y tasting, but it’s actually super mild and neutral tasting. And guess what? It helps make the most amazing (healthier) fudge ever!
This is one of those recipes where you keep finding yourself taking leeeetle “taste tests” throughout the cooking process. I think I ate a solid 1/3 of the batter before it even made it into the pan to solidify and I walked around the house for 30 minutes before realizing that I had brown fudge smeared all over my forehead. And not like a little dab, either. Full blown poop-face was happening. But it’s okay, don’t stress. It’s a delicious sacrifice that I am willing to make.
This is a one-bowl recipe that I slightly adapted from The Nourishing Gourmet to include honey as the sweetener. The one catch is that it needs to be stored in the fridge or else you’ll be dealing with a (tasty) healthy chocolate mousse instead of fudge.
Enjoy!