Vegan Peanut butter cookies

My daughters spent just under a week away from home visiting my family in Illinois. I wanted to bake something yummy with them when they got home, but honestly baking vegan food has been frustrating for me in the past. I've tried MANY times to make vegan peanut butter cookies using egg replacement and they always turned out very dry and crumbly, so I was determined to find a recipe that didn't use replacements. I found a recipe that had good reviews, and added bonus: I had all the ingredients I needed. I did make a few changes, but the cookies were delicious!! My husband who is the hardest to please in my house when it comes to food kept sneaking in to them when the girls went to bed. Since it's really not often I have success with vegan cookies, and honestly there are times I consider just giving up and using eggs so my kids can enjoy baking with me like I did my mom, I had to share this recipe!

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup peanut butter (I used Jiff natural creamy peanut butter which is a bit on the oily side, but I think that worked very well!)
1 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup oil (the recipe called for extra virgin olive oil, but I wasn't brave enough to try that so I used canola oil)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

(The original recipe used 3/4 tsp fine grain sea salt. I didn't use any salt at all. It also says crunchy peanut butter, but I like creamy better so that's what I used, but you could do either!)

Stir peanut butter, syrup, oil and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Combine flour and baking soda then add to the peanut butter mixture and stir until it is barely mixed. Let sit 5 minutes, then finish stirring. It's kind of gooey which worried me at first, but everything turned out fine! Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

For us this made 32 cookies, but there were I think two or three that were very small that the girls made. It should make anywhere from 24-36 cookies. Try it and enjoy! I now know it is possible to have yummy cookies without eggs, milk or butter, (or ener-G, soy milk and vegan margarine.)