The internet is awash with 3-ingredient peanut butter cookies, for a good reason. The simple recipe of creamy peanut butter, brown sugar and eggs yield a flourless miracle: a cakey exterior with a soft, fluffy middle. The basic recipe is a great inspiration, with a few exceptions. We’re substituting sweetened peanut butter for unsweetened to add more intrigue (and nuance). We’re also adding a whole jar jam to the mix, whether peach, apricot or something similar orange-ish and subtle. This achieves a lot. You can also enjoy fruitiness, tanginess, and chewiness. Also-also? You don’t need a measuring cup, spoon or scale to make cookies. What do you think?
Baking is science. There are three ways to measure flour. Fluff, spoon, level, and brown sugar. To pack or not to pack. It is said that weight is more accurate than volume and that grams are more precise than ounces. These things are true, but they don’t matter right now.
This recipe doesn’t require any measuring cups, measuring spoons or scales. You won’t even need to get a good night’s sleep. You can still make cookies with the three ingredients in your kitchen. They will be soft and fluffy with a mochi-like texture and a fudgy centre.
All of these recipes have three ingredients. They eliminate butter, flour, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla extract. What do we have? We have peanut butter, eggs and sugar, granulated and brown.
Today we will be taking a different route. It keeps the ingredients list short and makes the process even more simple.
Peanut butter? Check. Unsweetened means that the distinction between breakfast and dessert is difficult enough to pass an eye exam. Eggs? Check. They’re always there, at least in my kitchen.
You ignore Google Maps’ directions to you to stay on the highway. Instead, you put on your blinker and change lanes. Then, zoom in toward the billboard exit for an amusement park–sugar! Nope. We’re instead reaching for jam jars.
Peanut butter and jam are a powerful couple, and I don’t have to remind you. When you combine them into cookie dough, they are more than the sum of their parts. It’s like Taylor Swift singing, then Bon Iver singing, then Taylor Swift singing, then Bon Iver singing, and then Taylor Swift singing, then Bon Iver vocals, and then all of a sudden, Taylor Swift, Bon Iver, sing together as one. That’s the vibe.
Sugar can provide sweetness, but the jam has a fruity tang. Both apricot and peach are delicious. You can also use fig or apple. Peanut butter can shine like a diamond if it’s orange-ish in flavour and colour.
My theory is that if you gave this cookie to someone who didn’t know it was jam, they wouldn’t be able to guess. This was tested on my husband so that I could have used a larger sample. That’s okay.
Ingredients
- 1 (16-ounces) jar of unsweetened peanut butter
- 1 jar (13-ounces) of apricot jam or peach jam
- 2 large eggs
- Flaky salt (optional).
Directions
Turn the oven on to 350°F.
Line 2 sheets of pans with parchment or silicone mats. Combine the peanut butter, jam and olive oil in a bowl. Stir until combined. Stir in the eggs. Place the dough in a heap onto the prepared pans. Space each cookie about 2 inches apart. Salt can be added if desired. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cake is firm and cracks at the top. Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool for a while before transferring it to a cooling rack.
