I’ve been making these peanut butter thumbprints on repeat every week for the past two months. Guess this means they are a keeper!
February is known as the month of love, but I beg to differ because we should be full of love every single day of the year! Valentine’s Day is just a great excuse for us to show extraaaaa love, and also a great excuse to eat copious amounts of chocolate!
My mom and I are similar in that we can’t pass up anything with peanut butter or chocolate involved. But in my mom’s case, she likes cheese more than chocolate, so instead of a PB and chocolate sandwich (yes, she used to make me this for lunch back when my sister and I were in elementary school), she would fix herself a PB and cheese sandwich (yes, she also made me this as my “afternoon 3PM snack”, and I was not much of a fan).
She raves about her peanut butter and cheese sandwich all the time. And on any given day, I’d come downstairs and see a PB & cheese sandwich fresh off the panini press hahahaha. Oh mom.
Aside from her PB & cheese sandwich routine, Mom has also been requesting these peanut butter thumbprints every week, so I gotta say I have memorized the recipe and adapted it many many times! Every time I’m in the kitchen making these, she would make a sneaky comment like “thumb prints again! Do you really like making them? They are quite delicious” and I’m like rolling my eyes “They are all for you Mom”.
You can fill them with your favourite jam (my favourite is Crofter’s Strawberry!), or a square of your favourite chocolate. I love using those Theobroma chocolate sticks because they are the perfect size to press into the thumbprint! If you’re from Vancouver, London Drugs or Whole Foods often have them on sale, and I get them solely when they are on sale because student budget does not allow for the purchase of chocolate that is above $3.50. Otherwise, I like to use 85% Lindt chocolate bars, which can be found pretty much anywhere!
Make a batch of these for the peanut butter lovers in your life! They just may be better than a box of chocolates because:
- you made them yourself!
- no packaging! zero waste is always a win for the environment 😉
- they get both the cookie aaaand a puddle of chocolate to go with it
- probably more economical
…will you look at that?! I considered the 3 pillars of sustainability: ecological, economical, and social. Wow, my applied bio degree has really gotten in my head.
Well, here’s the recipe!
- 1¼ C. All Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp. Baking Soda
- ¾ tsp. Sea Salt
- ½ C. Coconut Oil, room temperature
- 1 C. Natural Peanut Butter, crunchy or smooth
- ½ C. Coconut Sugar
- ¼ C. Unsweetened Apple Sauce
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Jam or chocolate of your choice for thumbprint filling
- Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add in coconut oil, peanut butter, coconut sugar, apple sauce, and vanilla extract and cream everything together until smooth.
- Add in the flour, baking soda, and salt to the bowl, and mix until a dough forms.
- Using a cookie scoop of your choice, portion out cookies into balls and place them onto the parchment lined cookie sheets, around 1.5 inches apart.
- Press your thumbprints into each and add in jam or chocolate into each thumbprint.
- Bake cookies for 19-21 minutes until golden on the sides. Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack!
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