I am writing up this post and recipe from somewhere in the sky over the middle of America while we fly from New York to California. We’ll be in Long Beach for 8 days checking out homes and hopefully securing something for our March 1st arrival. So exciting!

I am trying to keep my mind busy during this long flight by writing this up, watching episodes of Gossip Girl and dreaming of these cookies. I only wish I would have grabbed the last few and stuck them in my bag.

By the time this post goes live, we’ll already be in California for a day and starting to look at houses. I am so excited to find up next place and to start this new chapter. It’s all so exciting!

OK back to the cookies. I came up with the idea to make these on earlier last week after having a crazy hankering for peanut butter cookies, that I don’t even normally care too much about. I like them just fine, they just aren’t my first pick. Rather than a standard peanut butter cookie, I thought a cookie inspired by the popular sandwich would be fun and super delicious. Plus, one of my least favorite things about a lot of peanut butter cookies is how dry they can be. I thought the jam would be the perfect compliment.

These cookies came out so great, if I can say so myself. I brought them to my friend Carrie’s house for a little get together along with another sweet treat that I can’t wait to share with you guys. Everyone loved the cookies, hubby even proclaimed “these are the best cookies you’ve ever made”.

They are moist and chewy with the perfect amount of slight golden brown crisp to the outside and the jelly center is such a treat. You could use whatever your favorite jelly, jam or preserves is. I used a strawberry jam that I grabbed at the co-op and I was so pleasantly surprised at how well it held up, it didn’t melt or get watery at all. I am sure you could use these same recipe and replace the jam with a hunk of chocolate, too. Something I was certainly dreaming of while these were baking.

By the way, in case you were wondering, these cookies are AMAZING for breakfast with a nice cold glass of almond milk.

[print_this]Grain-Free Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies – Gluten-free + Vegan
makes approximately 24 cookies

• 1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour (I use this brand)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup organic creamy peanut butter, almond butter or sun butter (I used this brand)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (or honey)
• 3 tablespoons organic palm shortening (I used this brand)*
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened organic non-dairy milk, such as almond or coconut
• approx 1/4 cup of your favorite local jelly or jam, I went with strawberry

*I am sure grass-fed butter would also be great here.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

In a large bowl, cream peanut butter, shortening, maple syrup, vanilla and non-dairy milk together with mixer. Mix until smooth and creamy.

In a small bowl mix almond flour, salt and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to the wet. Mix with hand mixer until well combined, it may start out looking crumbly and dry. Just keep mixing it and it will come together into a thick cookie dough. (which by the way is SUPER delicious on it’s own).

Scoop the  dough 1 tablespoon at a time onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. I found it easiest to form uniform sized balls, by rolling the tablespoon worth of dough in my hands. Gently press down and make a large thumbprint in the center of each cookie. Scoop the jam, approximately 1/2 teaspoon’s worth, into the center of each cookie.

Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned and slightly crisp. Allow to cool on the baking pan for 5-10 minutes, they will be quite delicate while they are warm, so make sure you let them cool and set for those few minutes. Then, transfer them off the cookie tray to a cooling rack to finish cooling fully. Store in an air-tight container, in the fridge for a few days. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.

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