Nut Butter Choc Chip Cookies

Since Sous Chef J was a very young lad, we've been making nut butter cookies and have blogged a recipe before.  This is how to make what we think is the best version of our much-tweaked (and tested) recipe.

The ingredients are, basically, store cupboard items and no mixer is needed to make them.

170g Smooth Nut Butter (we like to use Meridian Foods almond)
65g Crunchy Nut Butter (we use peanut - again from Meridian Foods)
165g caster sugar
35g dark chocolate chips
1 Large egg, (lightly beaten with a fork)
1/2 heaped teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (make sure it's gluten free - Dr Oetker & Dove's Farm are)
pinch of salt

We set the oven to heat up to 165ºC (fan) and rapidly prepare the cookie mix.

For ease, we now buy 170g jars of Meridian smooth almond butter but it also comes in 1kg tubs (which we used to buy till we realised it was no cheaper!), we scrape it out carefully using a thin silicone spatula and put in a medium sized mixing bowl.

Next we add the crunchy nut butter and sugar and mix to combine (we use a silicone spatula for this as the nut butter doesn't stick too much).

Then the beaten egg is added and, again, mixed through before adding the chocolate chips and salt and then they are folded in.

Finally the bicarbonate of soda is added (we do this last to ensure the raising agent isn't activating too far in advance of baking) and the mix is thoroughly combined.

We have found that 33g balls of the mix (yes, we are that precise) work best for us... and they are weighed out speedily, then carefully placed on non-stick baking sheets (if you don't have these or the non-stick's a bit old, then use greased sheet covered with baking paper/parchment/silicone sheet).  The mix is rolled lightly, placed on the baking sheet and pressed down slightly.

The cookies will spread during cooking so be careful about overloading the baking sheet.  The picture shows how we lay out the cookies on our baking sheets.

We set the timer to check the cookies after 10 minutes and then remove them once they're turning golden brown - this is usually after 12-15 minutes.

Once cooked, we leave the cookies to cool on the trays for about 5 minutes before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely.

We get 14 same sized cookies and one 'odd' based on this recipe (we find it depends how big the egg is as to the size of the 15th cookie)

This really is a simple, naturally gluten free, flourless cookie recipe.  It is also dairy free if suitable dark choc chips are used.  The cookies keep well in an airtight tin for up to a week (but they don't last that long here as Sous Chef J likes them too much).  We think they look and taste fab and hope you do too!