Recipe and images by Amber Bremner
These wholesome cookies rely on peanut butter, which gives them great flavour as well as a wee protein boost. Use your preference of smooth or crunchy (or smoochy, which is somewhere in between). Crunchy will leave small bits of peanut throughout the cookie, which is rather nice. Mildly spiced with turmeric, cinnamon and ginger, with chunks of dark chocolate, these are a hit with my kids and extremely easy to make. They’re a relatively soft, cakey cookie – if you prefer more crunch, cook them for a few more minutes. I used dark muscovado sugar because I had some, and I like the depth of flavour, but you can swap it for soft brown sugar if you prefer.
Makes 16
1½ cups flour
1 cup dark muscovado sugar (or soft brown sugar)
1 cup natural peanut butter (I used Pic’s Smoochy peanut butter)
150g (about 1 cup) roughly chopped dark chocolate (I used Whittaker’s Dark Block)
¼ cup + 2 tbsp plant milk of your choice
1½ tbsp fresh turmeric (peeled and finely grated)
2 tsp natural vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground ginger
pinch of salt (if using unsalted peanut butter)
Preheat oven to 180°C fan bake (or 200°C conventional oven).
Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Switch to using your hands once it becomes too thick to stir, ensuring everything is mixed evenly into this thick cookie dough.
Take heaped tablespoonfuls and roll into balls. Arrange evenly on a baking tray and use a fork to squash down a bit.
Bake for 15 minutes, until golden (or a few minutes longer for a crunchier cookie). Cool for a few minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack. They will firm up a bit as they cool.
