Fonio Peanut Butter Cookies
Introduction
This simple, 6 ingredient fonio peanut butter cookie recipe is gluten-free, refined oil-free, whole-food plant-based and all around delicious.
I was looking to test out what can be done with fonio, the grain of the month in this series on cooking with whole grains 101 and was inspired by the 3-ingredient peanut butter cookie found here.
After a few trials and tweaks to accomodate for the properties of gluten-free fonio flour, I came up with a recipe almost as simple as the original.
Recipe Tips
Below are a few tips to keep in mind that will help you get to know fonio better.
Fonio Flour
It is quite easy to transform fonio into flour using a high speed blender as detailed in this post.
Fonio flour can also be found online but I personally prefer to buy the fonio grains because they are more versatile.
Because fonio grains are so small, the volume of fonio grains and fonio flour is pretty much the same.
Cooked Fonio Grains versus Fonio flour
This tiny grain is very interesting in the sense that many recipes call for using already cooked fonio grains.
I tested using cooked fonio vs fonio flour to make the cookies.
The cooked fonio grains resulted in a more cakey, crumbly dough – better suited for making muffins.
Fonio flour, on the other hand, transformed into a delicate, surprisingly light cookie with a texture similar to that of shortbread.
Hand Mixing of Dough
I tested out mixing all the ingredients in the blender versus by hand.
Blender mixing resulted in a more dense cookie.
Therefore, this recipe calls for hand mixing when combining the wet and dry ingredients.
The baking powder also helps to lighten the cookie texture.
Add-Ins
The cookies are delicious with or without add-ins.
If you choose add-ins, any type will work: chocolate chips, currants, chopped walnuts.
Keep in mind the add-ins can make the flour slightly more brittle so you don’t want to include more than the corresponding volume of fonio flour.
For example, when using ¼ cup of fonio flour, add a maximum of a ¼ cup of chocolate chips.
Conclusion
Fonio is a very easy grain to work with.
This cookie is wonderfully light and sure to become a favorite.
Fonio Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Danish dough whisk ( alternate: fork or wooden spoon )
- 1 cookie scoop ( small, 1 ½ inch in diameter )
- 1 parchment paper ( alternative: baking mat )
Ingredients
- ¼ cup fonio grain (50 grams) ( or fonio flour )
- ¼ tsp baking powder (1 gram)
- 2 tbsp maple syrup (30 grams)
- 2 tbsp warm water ( 20 grams)
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract (2 grams)
- ⅓ cup peanut butter, lightly salted (85 grams) ( at room temperature )
Instructions
Preheat Oven
- Preheat oven to 350°Fahrenheit (180°F Celsius)
Grind Fonio into Flour
- Pour fonio into high speed blender and blend for 30 seconds until grains are transformed into a fine powder.
Prepare Dough
- Transfer fonio flour into mixing bowl.
- Mix baking powder into fonio flour.
- Combine separately vanilla extract, maple syrup and water.
- Pour these wet ingredients over dry ingredients and mix with dough whisk – you will get a soupy mixture.
- Pour peanut butter into mixing bowl and mix until you get a smooth dough.
- Use silicone spatula to scrape any dough remaining on sides of bowl and on dough whisk.
Shape Cookies
- Use small cookie scoop to place cookies on parchment paper covered baking sheet, about an inch apart.
- Flatten cookies with back of a fork in a criss-cross pattern to achieve uniform thickness of about ⅓ inch.
Bake
- Bake cookies for 16 minutes.
Cool
- Retrieve cookies from oven and allow to cool on baking sheet for two minutes.
- Carefully transfer cookies to cooling rack using cookie spatula.
- Wait at least 10 minutes for cookies to firm up.
Enjoy!
- Enjoy immediately or store in airtight container for up to a couple of weeks.
