Stevia Coconut Peanut Butter Cookies

Roosie's Note:

Stevia is a South American herb that is virtually calorie-free and hundreds of times sweeter than table sugar (which is why you only need 2 tsp in a recipe that might need a 2 cups of sugar). You can probably find it at your local health food store and I know Trader Joe's carries it with their baking goods. This recipe is from "Stevia Sweet Recipes" by Jeffrey Goettemoiller and I got it from www.rochestergoodfood.com.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 36 cookies

• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 2 cups whole wheat flour, plus
• 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons stevia powder
• 2 teaspoons butterscotch flavoring
• 1 3/4 cups flaked coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a medium mixing bowl beat together oil, peanut butter, eggs, vanilla extract, and butterscotch flavoring.
3. Stir in water.
4. Sift flour, stevia, and baking powder together.
5. Mix half of the dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture.
6. Stir in the rest of the dry ingredients.
7. Briefly chop coconut in a blender, if the pieces are large.
8. Fold into cookie dough- mixture will be stiff.
9. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.
10. Flatten with a fork in an "X" pattern.
11. Bake 9-10 minutes or until golden.
12. Leave cookies on baking sheet 2 minutes to cool and remove to racks to finish cooling.
13. Store in an airtight container.

Reviews

[jenni102]

Delicious! This cookie definitely satisfied my sweet tooth. I replaced the peanut butter with an almond nut butter and the butterscotch flavoring with almond extract. They were soft and the texture with the coconut was great! I will definitely be making these again.

[Mary Scheffert]

These are good, although I didn't think they had much "peanut" taste. Next time I will try using crunchy peanut butter, and maybe adding a small amount of peanut butter chips to the mix. I didn't have any butterscotch flavoring, so like another reviewer I added maple instead. I was not that impressed with the cookies when they first came out of the oven, but the texture & flavor was better the next day after they had set overnight in a zip-top bag. Will definitely make these again - thanks for posting! -M =)

[Margaret Joy]

This recipe was great! I did use 2 and a half teaspoons of "stevia plus", because I don't have PURE stevia powder. Next time I think I will use 3 tsp, because it could use a tad more sweetness. I also used maple flavoring in place of the butterscotch flavoring. I kneaded it with my hands to get all the coconut in.