Peanut butter & cardamom thumbprint cookies

September 1, 2022

   

I no longer work my job on Thursdays. I often have errands to run, but sometimes I have time to bake. Last week I had time to spare and wanted something sweet but not chocolatey, so I pulled up a recipe for peanut butter and cardamom cookies from The First Mess. 

I relaxed on some of the wholefoods ingredients in the original recipe. I didn't have spelt flour on hand, so I relied on plain wheat flour. Instead of almond flour I used the coarser almond meal in my pantry. Golden syrup instead of maple syrup. And, for all my airs and graces, I just really prefer the most processed peanut butter on the supermarket shelf over the 'natural' kind listed in this recipe.

In spite of all these substitutions, these cookies still have a 'wholefoods' texture to them - I credit the flaxseeds for it. I erred on the side of underbaking, and they were comforting and almost fudgy. I couldn't detect the cardamom and would double it in any future batches. 

The peanut butter caramel is very sweet and rich, and there's double the quantity here than I could fit into the cookies. I probably will halve the quantity, but this time around I followed Wright's serving suggestion of dabbing the extra on at serving time and I must admit it was pretty great. So retain or halve the caramel recipe, to taste!

Peanut butter & cardamom thumbprint cookies

(slightly adapted from a recipe on The First Mess)

peanut butter caramel (could be halved)

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons maple or golden syrup

1 tablespoon non-dairy milk

pinch of salt if peanut butter is unsalted

cookie dough

1 tablespoon flaxseeds

1 cup spelt or plain wheat flour

1/2 cup almond flour or meal

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (I would double this)

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons maple or golden syrup

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together all of the peanut butter caramel ingredients until smooth.

Grind the flaxseeds to a powder and blend in 3 tablespoons of water (I did this all using a spice grinder attachment to my blender). Set aside for 5 minutes.

In a medium bowl, stir together the spelt/wheat flour, almond flour, cardamom and salt. Add the flaxseed mixture, syrup, peanut butter, coconut oil and vanilla; stir well to combine. Roll tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls and place them on the baking trays. Use a finger, 1/4 teaspoon measure, or the handle end of a wooden spoon to form an indentation in each dough ball. Spoon some peanut butter caramel into each indentation. Bake the cookies until golden brown, 10-12 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool, and if you have leftover caramel you can spoon it on top when serving.