Better Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Lower Carb, Lower Glycemic, Gluten-Free

I am always working to make better tasting and healthier cookies for my family. Who doesn’t want a delicious snack that satisfies a sweet tooth while being packed with nutrition?

These peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies are my best ones yet. New to these from my earlier recipes is the substitution of Ghee for butter and the addition of powerful medium chain triglycerides from coconut oil, plus delicious peanut butter.

New Ingredients

Ghee

Ghee has been used in Indian cuisine for ages. It has a much higher smoke point than butter (485°F for ghee versus 302°F for butter) and has a long list of healthier attributes. According to The Times of India, “Lab studies have shown ghee to reduce cholesterol both in the serum and intestine. It does it by triggering an increased secretion of biliary lipids. Ghee is also good for nerves and brain. It helps control eye pressure and is beneficial to glaucoma patients. Ghee is most notably said to stimulate the secretion of stomach acids to help with digestion, while other fats, such as butter and oils, slow down the digestive process and can sit heavy in the stomach. Ghee is rich with antioxidants and acts as an aid in the absorption of vitamins and minerals from other foods, serving to strengthen the immune system. A high concentration of butyric acid, a fatty acid that contains anti-viral properties, is believed to inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors.”

Medium Chain Triglycerides

Medium chain triglycerides (MCT) are something new to my cooking repertoire. My wife and I have used coconut oil before but not filtered MCT. According to the Cleveland Clinic Wellness, “They have been shown to lower weight, and to decrease metabolic syndrome, abdominal obesity, and inflammatory markers. They decrease appetite when taken with or before a meal and are quite palatable. MCTs, when taken during pregnancy, prevented obesity for children later in life. MCTs decrease triglyceride cholesterol levels and raise HDL (healthy) cholesterol, which causes the total cholesterol value to rise as well, but for a good reason. MCTs have an unusual chemical structure that allows the body to digest them easily. Absorbed intact, they are taken straight to the liver and used directly for energy. In this way, they are processed more like carbohydrates than like other fats.”

Peanut Butter

Peanut butter has been a favorite of mine since a childhood involving piles of PB&J sandwiches. Peanut butter is filling, relatively high fiber and protein, delicious, but has other beneficial attributes with which you might not be familiar. According to Prevention, “A serving of peanut butter has 3 mg of the powerful antioxidant vitamin E, 49 mg of bone-building magnesium, 208 mg of muscle-friendly potassium, and 0.17 mg of immunity-boosting vitamin B6. Research shows that eating peanuts can decrease your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions. One study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that consuming 1 ounce of nuts or peanut butter (about 2 tablespoons) at least 5 days a week can lower the risk of developing diabetes by almost 30%.”

Now back to the peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Whey Protein Powder (I used TGS All Natural 100% Whey Protein Powder – Unflavored, Non Denatured, Unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup almond flour fine ground (The Honeyville Blanched Almond Flour Super Fine Grind in a 3lb bag is economical)
• 1/2 cup creamy style peanut butter (My favorite is CB’s Nuts Peanut butter, which is organic and one single ingredient which is peanuts)
• 1/2 cup Monkfruit/Erythritol Sweetener (I use Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener, a 1 for 1 sugar substitute that I have found to be a great product that tastes naturally sweet with a ZERO glycemic index)
• 1 Tbsp MCT oil (I use Left Coast Performance Coconut MCT Oil)
• 7 Tbsp Ghee (I use Purity Ghee Grass Fed Organic)
• 3 Tbsp Half & Half organic dairy creamer
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup ground walnuts (I use my wife’s grandmother’s old hand mill for grinding because it is fast, efficient, and easy to clean up – this one from Prepworks is similar)
• 1/3 cup ground pecans
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate baking chips (I’ve found Guittard Extra Dark (63% Cacao) Chocolate Chips to be really good)
• 1 egg

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put everything in the mixing bowl except the butter. Then warm the ghee until liquid (I do it in a microwave safe ceramic dish) and pour over the ingredients in the bowl. Run the mixer blending thoroughly until it starts forming a nice dough ball. Put in refrigerator for a few minutes if you find the mixture too sticky to work with. Line a cookie sheet (or two) with parchment paper or butter the cookie sheet. I use a tablespoon and a half per cookie from a melon baller style cookie scoop. Bake for 13 minutes or brown to your liking. Move the cookies to a cooling rack for a couple of minutes and enjoy!

This recipe takes me about 15  minutes to prep and about 10 minutes for clean up in the kitchen. Makes 40-45 cookies, depending on size.

These are sweet and delicious and my family wipes them out quickly without feeling heavy or gross and they have minimal effect on blood sugars as all of the ingredients are no or low glycemic.

Nutrition Data

Assume 44 cookies per batch, data from labels and websites