Nothing against recipes that are adjusted for those with allergies or other food restrictions. Sometimes a frosting made with coconut milk is fantastic. Pie crusts made with olive oil instead of butter are surprisingly good; it’s what I use when I bake pies for myself.
But there’s much to be admired about a recipe that starts out without certain ingredients you’d expect, and still sing like Sinatra, before or after a few slugs of Jack Daniels. I’m thinking of vegan candy, like my peerless marzipan recipe (cheers, ‘The Joy of Cooking’ 1997) or the above, my favorite peanut-butter cookies. These are gluten free and dairy free to boot.
Fair warning: Without any flour to cloud their intensity, these are a gob-smack of peanut butter flavor. If you like your flavors dialed down, these may not be for you. But even if you aren’t crazy about the gob-smack, you have almost definitely have people in your life who are. Let’s do this.
In a medium bowl combine with a hand mixer 1 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy — whatever you like), 1/3 c granulated sugar (add more if you like your cookies especially sweet; I don’t), 1 large egg, a pinch of salt, and a teaspoon of baking soda. Put the soda through a sieve if it tends to get clumpy like mine does. To this you can stir in a handful of chocolate chips, or you can leave it be.
Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, do the crissy-crossy thing on top with the tines of a fork if you want, and bake for about 15 minutes. They’ll be ever so slightly tender in the middle. They freeze well and defrost in seconds, ideal for when you come home from work ravenous, less so when you’re snowbound for the day and you’ve tucked into the whole batch.
eve's apple 