Gluten Free Peanut Butter S'more Cookies

Have you ever started making a recipe with a few tweaks in mind and then you find you've totally jumped off a cliff with the whole thing? That's how these delicious cookies came into being.


I had pinned a recipe for some fabulous looking gluten free chocolate chip cookies from My Gluten-Free Kitchen and was planning on replacing one of the ingredients in the dough and mixing in my favorite add-ins to make a peanut butter s'more cookie.



I used mini marshmallows, chopped Reese's peanut butter cups, dark chocolate chips, and broken up gluten free graham crackers.

I started off by using a little peanut butter in place of the cream cheese called for in the recipe and then some how ended up in no man's land. Actually, I do know how I got there.



First of all, I was replacing what may be a key ingredient in the cookie dough. I was willing to take that risk for the peanut butter nuance. Second, I had run out of granulated sugar, so I used all brown sugar, which made the cookies a little sweeter than they would be otherwise - but just a little. It is a cookie after all. Next, I forgot to only use egg yolks and ended up dumping in two whole eggs. I added in 1/2 cup of whole oats to compensate for the extra liquid. I also cut the vanilla by 1/3.



What was I thinking? I should have abandoned ship. Why was I going so rogue? Ah, but it's cookie dough. How can you abandon cookie dough? You gotta see it through, right? Even if you have to close your eyes and brace yourself for impact.

I am so glad I kept going. The end product ended up totally delish. A happy ending to a recipe fail that I single handedly derailed. It's a good thing I know how to steer this thing. Hee, hee, hee.

You can see the caramelized marshmallows oozing out the bottoms of some of these cookies.

A quick note about the marshmallows. I find it best to keep them off the pan towards the tops of the cookies. Otherwise they "caramelize" if touching the pan. Not horrible, but not preferable. After the first few batches I tried to scoop the dough so that the marshmallows were on top and not on the bottom where they could easily melt/burn and run all over the pan.

Not all mistakes in the kitchen are happy ones. Don't try this at home people. Actually, do. It's totally fun. 

I have yet to bake the original recipe I intended to try. Maybe some day.

Gluten Free Peanut Butter S'more Cookies

INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups gluten free flour blend containing xanthan/guar gum (I used Betty Crocker's All Purpose Gluten Free Rice Flour Blend)
1/2 cup whole oats
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup all natural peanut butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped Reese's peanut butter cups
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup mini marshmallows
3/4 cup broken up gluten free graham crackers

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. Beat butter and peanut butter with a stand mixer for 30 seconds.
4. Beat in brown sugar until well combined.
5. Beat in eggs one at a time, scrape down bowl, and then beat in vanilla.
6. Add dry ingredients and mix on low until well combined.
7. Stir in last four ingredients.
8. Scoop onto prepared baking sheets using a small cookie scoop (about 2 Tbsp) 1 inch apart. Try to scoop the dough so that the marshmallows end up on top of the cookies and not on the bottom where they can easily burn on the pan.
9. Bake for 9 minutes.
10. Cool on pans for 3 or 4 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

P.S. Sorry for all the "totally's" in this post. It was a "totally" kinda day.