Peanut Butter (or other butter) Cookies

We had friends over on Friday and I made my favorite easy dessert: peanut butter cookies. I have been making this cookie recipe for years now since it is so quick to make and doesn't require any flour. However, on Friday I decided to modify the recipe by using sunflower seed butter, since Naomi and our friend's daughter both react to peanut butter. The cookies still turned out great, and I think they would work just as well with almond butter. I'll have to try that next time.

Peanut Butter (or almond or sunflower seed butter) Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of peanut butter. I have switched to using Jif Natural peanut butter because it's less likely to have hidden corn in it. You could also substitute the peanut butter with 1 cup of almond butter or sunflower seed butter.
  
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. baking soda
  
• 3/4 cup to 1 cup of granulated sugar. I put the range of sugar because it depends on the consistency of your nut butter. If the nut butter is on the oily side, use 1 cup of sugar; if it is on the drier side, use 3/4 cup of sugar.

Optional Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. Look on the label to make sure the chocolate chips do not have any milk fat or other milk products in them. I recommend Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips or Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix the peanut butter (or other butter), egg, baking soda, and sugar until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Put teaspoonfuls of cookie dough onto baking sheets, leaving a couple of inches between the balls of dough. Press down lightly on each of the balls with the prongs of a fork to make a cross-hatch pattern. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies look slightly golden brown. The cookies are a bit fragile when they are hot, so they need to be handled gently. Remove the trays from the oven and let the cookies cool on the trays for 1 minute. Then, using a spatula, transfer the cookies onto a rack to cool. You don't need to wait until they have cooled completely to eat them, though. I prefer mine when the cookies are still warm and the chocolate from the chocolate chips is nice and gooey. The recipe makes about 24 cookies, but they don't last long.