Peanut Butter Coconut Cream Cookie Sandwiches

A childhood favorite gets an upgrade! These cookies are a soft cookie, chewy version of a Nutter Butter, made with a fresh home-made peanut butter coconut cream filling. Using your own home-made peanut butter in this recipe is all important and worth the extra effort. 

INGREDIENTS

Peanut Butter Coconut Cream:

1 cup Medjool dates (about 10 dates), pitted

⅓ cup creamy peanut butter (see recipe below)

⅔ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

¾ cup unsweetened almond milk

Cookies:

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

½ cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup oat flour

1 cup almond flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk

Confectioners’ sugar (optional)

2 cups Farm Fresh Nuts Raw Peanuts

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed

1 to 2 tablespoons peanut oil or other oil (optional, for creamier peanut butter)

1 to 2 tablespoons honey or other sweetener (optional, for sweeter peanut butter)

Homemade Nut Butter

Roast the peanuts (optional). Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 350°F. Place the peanuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until lightly golden-brown and glossy with oil, about 10 minutes. You can skip this step if you prefer raw nut butter or if you’re using pre-toasted nuts; roasting gives the peanut butter a deeper flavor and also helps make the oils looser and easier to blend into a smooth butter.

Pulse the peanuts until ground. Transfer the peanuts to a food processor fitted with the blade attachment or blender. If you toasted your nuts, do this while the nuts are still warm. Pulse a few times just until chopped.→ For chunky peanut butter, remove 1/2 cup of chopped nuts and set aside.

Process for 1 minute. Run the food processor or blender continuously for 1 minute. Stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. At this point, the peanut butter will look gritty and dry, almost like couscous.

Process for 1 minute. Run the food processor or blender continuously for another minute, then stop and scrape down the sides. At this point, the butter will start clumping together. It’s not quite peanut butter, but it’s getting there!

Process for 1 minute. Run the food processor or blender continuously for another minute, then stop and scrape down the sides. At this point, the butter will be glossy and soft, like very thick peanut butter.

Add the salt, oil, sweetener, and any other extras. Sprinkle the salt, oil, sweetener, and any other extras over the top of the peanut butter.

Process for 1 to 2 additional minutes. Continue processing the butter until it becomes completely smooth. Homemade peanut butter will still be a little more gritty than Skippy peanut butter, but should be spreadable at this point. Taste and add more salt or other add-ins to taste. If you reserved som

PREPARATION

Make the Peanut Butter Coconut Cream:

In a high-speed blender, combine the dates, peanut butter, and coconut. Blend together on high speed, gradually adding in the almond milk, ¼ cup at a time (you may not need it all). The mixture should be very creamy. Continue to blend and scrape down the sides of the blender until that smoothness is achieved. Cover and set aside.

Make the cookies:

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, and vanilla. Mix together until smooth.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the oat flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt.

Combine the flour mixture and the peanut butter mixture, and then add the almond milk to help everything come together. The dough should be pliable and easy to roll into balls.

Create 1- to 2-inch balls of the dough and place them some distance apart on the lined cookie sheet. Flatten the cookies gently with your hands until they are ¼ to ½ inch thick. (You want them fairly thin to create the sandwiches.) Bake for 13 to 15 minutes until the cookies have risen, and are golden around the edges. Then let them cool on the sheet slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are completely cooled, take 2 equal-size cookies and flip them over so the flat side (the bottom) is facing up.

Spread 1 to 2 tablespoons or more (depending on how thick you want the filling!) of the Peanut Butter Coconut Cream on one of the cookies and place the second cookie, flat side down, right on top of it. Do this for the rest of the batch until all the cookie sandwiches are assembled. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar, if desired, before serving.