Flourless Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

I am going to go out on a limb and say that this is the easiest cookie recipe of all time, hands down. I don’t know where or when I first heard of flourless peanut butter cookies, but all I know is that I can’t stop obsessing over their simplicity. You don’t even need butter to make these cookies. Now that is what I call convenient.

Here are the facts: take some peanut butter--preferably all natural peanut-- mix in an egg, a dash of pure vanilla extract, 3/4 cup of sugar and you have yourself the fastest peanut butter cookies around. You can roll them in sugar, use chunky peanut butter, add chocolate chips, but those additions are beside the point. The point is that these dense, chewy cookies require nothing to succeed. All ye baking challenged should take heed of flourless peanut butter cookies. You can now dethrone Martha Stewart. And as someone often too tired or distracted to try a cookie recipes, these are exactly what I want when Sunday rolls around.

The addition of jelly in the center is a homage to all those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I ate every day at school. And while I believe my tastes have changed a bit, or a tleast I pretend they have, I still pack those same sandwiches to this day.

Don't lie, you love peanut butter and jelly too.

Flourless Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

Makes a bit more than a dozen

Ingredients:
1 cup of peanut butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of jelly ( I used grape)

Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix the peanut butter, egg, vanilla, and sugar in a bowl.
3. Using a 1/2 tablespoon, spoon dollops onto the cookie sheet. Press down with you thumb in the middle.
4. Put a teaspoon or so of jelly in the thumb print.
5. Cook for 10-15 minutes until edges are browned.
6. Although I love to eat cookies immediately, these really do need to cool before eating. They will break and crumble if you try them before they are cooled.