Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

I’ve been obsessed lately with making no-oil cookies that rely on nut butters and protein powder. These Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies use protein peanut butter, peanut butter powder and cocoa powder! This recipe takes about 5 minutes to make and under 10 minutes to cook. They are a great little pre-workout snack, or really, anytime snack. I know these are protein cookies, but if I fed you one and didn’t tell you it was a protein cookie, I doubt you would guess! They’re just really buttery, chewy and delicious!

If you’re looking for some more easy protein snacks, definitely check out my pumpkin spice seitan and mint chocolate “rice” crispy treats!

Ingredients

• Sugar – if I’m making baked goods, I will be adding sugar usually. I know a lot of people don’t really like using sugar, so if you want to substitute this for date sugar or stevia, etc., feel free! I haven’t tried those kinds of substitutions for this recipe so I can’t really recommend anything, but if you do happen to make this work with substitutions, please comment with what you did so that others can benefit from your genius and kitchen experimenting! 🙂
• PB Fit Peanut Protein Powder – I typically use PBFit brand, but PB2 also makes a really great option. At least one of these can usually be found in most grocery stores (at least in the US). You can also buy these online.
• Cocoa Powder – nothing fancy here; just use whatever brand you’ve got on hand! If you don’t like chocolate, you should check out the Protein Peanut Butter Cookie recipe instead! And if you can’t do peanuts, maybe this Protein Coconut Almond Butter Cookie recipe would work!
• PBFit Peanut Butter Spread – I like this Peanut Butter because it is significantly higher protein than other brands. If you do use something else, be aware that your calories and macros may vary from what’s listed in the recipe.
• Vanilla Protein Powder – I rarely use protein powder in recipes, but in this one, you won’t even taste it! Be sure to use something with a mild flavor. I like to use Earth Chimp Vanilla for this.
• Vanilla Extract – as always, measure with your heart!
• Ground Flax – this is my preferred vegan egg substitution in this recipe. You basically just mix ground flax with water, wait for five minutes and you end up with magical flax goo that keeps your baking creations from crumbling into nothingness.
• Salt, Baking Powder, Baking Soda – we need these 🙂

Instructions

• In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed and 6 tablespoons of water. Let this sit for at least 5 minutes. This will create flax goo and we will refer to this as flax goo from here on out!

• In a medium bowl, mix the peanut butter spread, the flax goo, sugar and vanilla extract. These are the wet ingredients, and should be mixed together well before we add the dry ingredients.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients – flour, protein powder, peanut butter powder, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda. I think it’s important to whisk the dry ingredients before adding them to the wet ingredients to make sure the smaller quantity ingredients like the salt, etc., is well mixed in throughout the entire dough.

• Put the dough in the fridge for about 20 minutes. This should be a similar consistency to sugar cookie dough.
• Pre-heat oven to 350 F (177 C).
• Take the chilled cookie dough out of the fridge.
• Use a 2 tbsp scooper to get the right size. You should end up with 16 cookies.
• Roll each into a doughball, and toss in the powdered sugar.
• Place the dough balls on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

• Use a fork to press into the ccokies twice each, 90 degree apart from each other like an X. This helps flatten the cookie and will result in more even baking!

• Cook for 8 – 9 minutes.
• The cookies will be very soft.
• Allow them to cool for 15 – 20 minutes; this will help the cookies firm up.

Silly Little Haiku

Some Protein Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter

I will eat them all