When I first made these cookies I was about 20 years old, home from college on break, and in the mood to bake something with my cousins who were also in town. We happened across the recipe for 3-ingredient peanut butter cookies and were pretty skeptical that just those three ingredients could produce something that actually resembled a cookie. As you know if you’ve tried that recipe yourself, the results are pretty good! The cookies come out sweet and crispy with a pure peanut butter taste. They’re definitely good. And very definitely simple.
Caty has been on a gluten, rice and dairy free diet for the past 14 years (since his first birthday). Since these cookies don’t use any flour, they were my go-to recipe for years, back before there were readily available gluten-free flours on the market.
About 5 years ago Caty took over making these for himself and experimented with the recipe, adding in chocolate chips and gluten free oats, which I think really improves them. Peanut butter, chocolate and oats, a match made it heaven.
The hardest thing about these cookies is measuring a teaspoon of vanilla.
Besides that, it’s just mixing them up in a bowl (by hand, no mixer needed)
and scooping them onto a baking sheet.
Easiest cookies you’ll ever make! They also make a relatively small batch (about 18 small cookies, depending on the size you make them) so they’re quick to bake and even quicker to eat!
Simple Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies (Gluten and Dairy Free)
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 cup oats (make sure your brand of oats is labeled gluten-free, such as Bob’s Red Mill, if you’d like the cookies to be gluten-free)
1 cup chocolate chips (dairy-free if you’d like)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2) Using a spatula, blend peanut butter with the brown sugar in a medium bowl. Mix in the egg and vanilla.
3) Stir in the oats and chocolate chips until well blended. The batter will be thick.
4) Using a tablespoon or cookie scoop, drop batter onto parchment lined baking sheets, about 2” apart. With your fingers, gently flatten each dough ball and press in any chocolate chips that fall out during flattening.
5) Bake cookies for 12 minutes and remove from oven when edges just start to turn brown. Let sit on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
Yield: Approximately 18 cookies