Rainy Day Peanut Butter Bites

Lately, my Mom calls nearly everyday to tell me about the weather in Reno (where she lives). She’s all “Hi, honey you won’t believe the weather here in Reno, it’s 30 degrees and snowing!” She say it just like that, all in one breath.

I usually can’t stand talking about the weather. I mean, shouldn’t we have something more substantive to discuss? But I realize that weather is something we can all relate to and commiserate over and yes, the weather in this great nation has been completely nuts so far this year. Or, maybe I just want an excuse to talk about the weather in this post. Well, briefly anyway.

D.C. has been super gross lately. Lots of cold rain and only momentary glimpses of the Spring promised by the colorful flowers on my wall calendar. I hate false advertising.

Last week, I was walking home from work, up to my knees in bright yellow rain boots, splashing through the puddles and cowering under my umbrella in a futile attempt to avoid the icy, swirling mist around me.

Abysmal. When I got home, I was wet, cold, grumpy, and hungry. I wanted a snack. And I wanted it to be painless.

I’d seen a few dozen flourless recipes on the internet for almond butter cookies. In fact, Brandi recently did something very similar (aren’t hers just gorgeous?). I had just enough energy to mix ingredients into a bowl and bake, but nothing more. I did not want to measure out flour. In fact, I loathe the tedium of measuring out dry ingredients. As I’ve said before, I’m clearly not a baker.

I grabbed my two favorite Peanut Butter & Co. flavored peanut butters- Dark Chocolate Dreams and Cinnamon Raisin Swirl and set to work making two versions of cookies. It took all of 20 minutes with hardly any cleanup. That quickly brightened my mood.

I also killed our peanut butter supply. It was worth it.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites: (yields approximately 16 small cookies)

1 cup Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter (or any chocolate flavored nut butter)

3 tablespoons soft butter

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter Bites: (approx 16 small cookies)

1 cup Cinnamon Raisin Swirl peanut butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1 egg

1/3 cup rolled oats

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For each version, start by creaming the peanut butter, butter and sugar together. Next, add the egg and other ingredients. Mix well.

Drop small spoonfuls of the dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. For uniform cookies, chill the dough for 5 minutes and then roll into tiny balls and place on the parchment.