Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint Cookies

This is the first WFPB cookie recipe I tried making, and it’s still one of my absolute favorites from The China Study: All-Star Collection. The recipe seemed very simple and I thought anything that claimed to be a “PB&J cookie” might be worth trying. They really do taste like eating a PB&J sandwich! They are not sugary-sweet, but the jelly gives it all the sweetness it needs. These are great cookies to serve with coffee or tea!

Ingredients:

Servings: about 18 cookies

1 cup whole wheat flour (I prefer using whole wheat pastry flour)
½ tsp. baking powder
dash of sea salt
⅓ cup peanut butter (preferably low or no added sodium, creamy)
⅓ cup maple syrup
3 tbs. plant-based milk (I use Original-flavor almond milk)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
about ½ cup wfpb-friendly jelly, preserves, or jam, flavor of your choice (I prefer strawberry or raspberry jelly)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375ºF

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk together.

Add the peanut butter, maple syrup, milk, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined. (I found that Smucker’s Natural Low Sodium peanut butter makes a very sticky dough compared to using Kroger’s freshly ground peanut butter, but they both cook into yummy cookies just fine.)

I used Kroger’s peanut butter for this particular batch so the dough came out much thicker

Drop about 1 tbs. of dough onto the baking sheet. Use a finger to create shallow indentations on the top of each cookie.

This process is much harder with sticky dough, but it comes out about the same after being cooked.

Fill each of the cookies with 1 tsp.-ish of jelly, or more. I like to overflow mine a bit!

Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Carefully pull the parchment paper (or baking mats) off the baking sheet onto a wire rack. Allow the cookies to cool at least ten minutes, or until the jelly is lukewarm or cool to the touch (be careful, the jelly can burn you if you try to eat the cookies too soon!).