GF: 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = YUM!

Sometimes, in the middle of the week, when I don’t feel like cooking, I fall back on an easy, well-known flourless peanut butter cookie recipe. There’s nothing difficult here, but it sure is tasty and worth every minute of the 25 minutes it takes to make it.

I made these cookies as a thank you for a couple students, actually one student in particular.

On Tuesday I had to go to a Physical Therapy session that came as a bit of a surprise (some surprises are not fun). This meant that I was leaving early from school – about 30 minutes early. I felt badly.

My students in the morning were not flying through the lesson as easily as I thought they would. I was a bit panicked about leaving them in the lurch with a sub that teaches Geometry. Not exactly what they needed.

So in a pinch, I asked a senior to fill in for me and “teach”. She was amazing – and my students were amazing too! They figured out what we were practicing with her help and were very supportive of this student taking over and teaching the class. I love it!

While it’s been a busy week, I wanted to get a quick thank you gift to my “substitute teacher”. She’s a dream kid with a gem of a sense of humor and a wicked wit to match. And… she is incredibly compassionate. This kid made Rhubarb Crisp for all of the exchange students because she knew they would have not eaten much rhubarb in their home countries. So she cut and prepared rhubarb from her own garden and then made a crisp.

What makes this story special? Not only did she make a delicious crisp for them, but she researched how to make a gluten-free crisp for me too!

Since she didn’t want to worry me with any cross-contamination issues, she brought the chopped rhubarb to school for me with a GF crisp recipe she had printed off along with her recipe from home. Ya know what? That sweetheart made me giggle when I saw the recipes. She didn’t know that I was food blogging at the time and the recipe she handed me said “Gluten Free Gobsmacked” across the top and was my own crisp recipe. Boy, did she get a hoot out of this when I called to thank her and tell her about the funny coincidence.

So, what kind of a thank you do you give a high school kid like this? Beyond an iTunes card for the latest Juanes CD, I made peanut butter cookies. (Seriousy, I dare you NOT to get hooked on Juanes or the cookies!) These are easy – and we both munched on them today over lunch. Cookies are great community builders, ya know. Before we knew it, the cookies were gone. But the laughter remained.

I hope these cookies bring you some love and laughter too! If you don’t have someone to make them for, no worries! Make them for yourself! There are a million things to be thankful for! (Like warm socks on rainy days… but that’s another story.)

GF/Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
Makes 1 1/2 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy, but creamy works too!)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
+ turbinado sugar (or sugar in the raw) to sprinkle on top once they have come out of the oven.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Beat together all ingredients (except turbinado sugar).
3. Form into 2″ balls and place 1″ apart on a silpat/cookie sheet.
4. Press each cookie ball with the tines of a fork in a criss-cross pattern.
5. Bake for 9 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Remove from oven and sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar.
7. Allow to cool completely before attempting to remove from the pan (they will firm up and crisp up, I promise!).
8. Store in an airtight container for up to a week… or until lunch the next day.

Happy Cookies & Friendships to all!
-Kate