No chill-time required for the dough! Dip your warm, soft, chocolaty, egg free peanut butter cookies into a glass of cold milk within 30 minutes from start to finish!
So? How could I substitute the eggs and not sacrifice flavour or texture? Eggs are quite versatile when it comes to baking. Whether you’re using them for Meringue, custard or other baked goods, these little fellas add moisture and flavour, act as a binding agent or even create stability. For cookies, they act as a binding agent and when combined with the sugar, adds flavour and moisture. So…. what would be thick enough to bind the cookies but also create moisture and flavour?? Cream Cheese! Using cream cheese proved to be the next best ingredient!
*Good To Know*
- Can I substitute the Cream Cheese for something else?
I have not tried this myself but instead of cream cheese, you could likely substitute with 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce per 1 large egg ( I will test this and provide you a separate recipe for it). Other suggestions I’ve read were: mashed banana, silky tofu, buttermilk, yoghurt or sweetened condensed milk. As with all my recipes, I will test and perfect it first before it’s added to my blog. If you do try one of the listed substitutions, please let me know how it turned out for you! I’d love to hear all about it! - Can I substitute brown sugar for white granulated sugar?
Of course! Well, when it comes to cookies anyway. In general, it does depend on what you’re making. In our case, the cookies require sugar to sweeten it. Since brown and white sugar have the same degree of sweetness, it’s ok to substitute either one. Having said that, brown sugar tends to have a little more flavour and moisture due to the molasses that give it, its brown colour and unique flavour. Brown sugar will react slightly different during baking (when melted, it is more liquid than white sugar). I only used 1/2 cup of brown sugar for this recipe because the chocolate chips added more sweetness to the cookies as well. So the biggest difference in this case will be flavour and texture depending on which type of sugar you use. - How do I achieve the soft and chewy texture for my cookies?
Keep the following tips in mind while you’re working on your cookie dough:• Don’t over-mix your dough. The longer you mix, the more gluten develops and more moisture will be absorbed from the gluten, meaning that it will make the cookie more dry when it’s baked.
• Temperature plays a big role. If you’re using a convection oven, my rule of thumb is to preheat the oven 25°F less than what the recipe calls for (depending on what you’re baking). For cookies, preheat it at 325°F if the recipe calls for 350°F. Use the recommended temperature if using a regular oven.
• When utilizing room temperature butter, make sure it’s not melted butter. If you melt the butter where the fat and protein separate, you can almost always bet on the cookie spreading too thin during baking and your cookie will be hard (instead of soft and chewy).
• Use a silicone baking mat instead of parchment paper if you can. The mat helps cookies retain moisture by preventing them from spreading too much.
• Placement of baking tray in the oven is important. If you have to, bake 1 tray of cookies at a time and place the tray on the middle oven rack. This helps with even heat distribution and prevents the cookies from baking too fast on one side.
How to prepare your ingredients
Before you begin, place your butter and cream cheese 1 hour prior to starting, on your counter in order for the dairy to come to room temperature. If you end up forgetting to do this (myself included), a little trick you can do is to use the defrost feature on your microwave. Every microwave oven varies but if you have an inverter microwave, the defrost function works very well. Remove butter from the foil wrapper and place on a microwave safe plate or bowl. Defrost butter 15 seconds at a time. The inverter defrost feature softens the butter quite evenly. Check every 15 seconds by pressing into the center of the butter with your finger. If it is soft enough to press with ease, then the butter is good to use. The same applies to cream cheese. Remove from any packaging and defrost at 10 second bursts until it is soft enough to the touch.
This cookie dough recipe is very easy to make. Get your kids involved and have them add the ingredients for a fun family bonding time.
Cream everything well until it’s a smooth consistency. Once you add your Flour, the mixing has to be brief and just enough to combine it. Why? Gluten develops when you mix flour. The longer you mix, the more gluten develops. Usually that is a good thing when you’re mixing the dough for bread let’s say. However, for our cookie dough, you don’t want the gluten to develop too much. We want our cookie to be soft so the less gluten we have in our dough the less moisture we lose since gluten also absorbs moisture.
I used three different kinds of chocolate chips. Each 1/2 cup of a different kind. You don’t have to do this if you don’t have a variety on hand. Stick to what you like, maybe even chocolate chunks? Also, I can’t stress enough the importance of using a cookie scoop or a 1/8 measuring cup. Aim to form each dough ball the same size as it’s key to baking the cookies evenly, not to mention give you better control of bake time for the soft and chewy texture we’re after.
Look how beautiful and puffy they are! Who would have thought that egg-free peanut butter cookies can be just as good!
Once out of the oven, don’t forget to press on the cookies with the back of a spoon lightly to flatten. By doing so, the cookies take on a more decadent and soft texture. If you prefer the dome shape you can simply let cookies cool the way they are (just remember that they will deflate slightly once cooled). Now go grab yourself a glass of milk and enjoy!
Easy Egg-Free Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter
- ¾ cup cream cheese (32% M.F.), room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2¼ cup all purpose flour, sifted
- ½ cup dark chocolate chips
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
- ½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mat (or parchment paper).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment or large bowl using hand held mixer, on low speed cream together butter and brown sugar until combined, scrape down bowl, increase speed to medium and continue mixing for 3 to 4 minutes or until smooth.
- Add peanut butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract, baking soda and salt. Continue to mix at medium speed for 3 minutes until batter is doubled in volume and well combined.
- Add sifted flour into batter and mix on low speed until just combined (don't over-mix). Lastly, add chocolate chips into dough and mix on low speed or fold into batter with a spatula until just combined.
- Use a medium cookie scoop (or a 1/8 measuring cup) and roll the dough into 1 to 1½ inch balls. Place each dough ball 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake cookies 10 minutes (or less) depending on oven temperature (see notes for more info). Don't over-bake cookies (to achieve soft & chewy texture). Cookies will still be puffy once taken out of the oven. Immediately flatten cookies lightly by pressing with the bottom of a clean drinking cup or back of a soup spoon.
- Let cookies cool for a few minutes on tray and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely (or if you're eager to dip them into milk wait at least 5 minutes). Cookies will retain shape and still be soft when you let them cool completely. Enjoy!
Equipment
Tips
I have not tried this myself but instead of cream cheese, you could likely substitute with 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce per 1 large egg ( I will test this and provide you a separate recipe for it). Other suggestions I’ve read were: mashed banana, silky tofu, buttermilk, yoghurt or sweetened condensed milk. As with all my recipes, I will test and perfect it first before it’s added to my blog. If you do try one of the listed substitutions, please let me know how it turned out for you! I’d love to hear all about it!
Can I substitute brown sugar for white granulated sugar?
Of course! Well, when it comes to cookies anyway. In general, it does depend on what you’re making. In our case, the cookies require sugar to sweeten it. Since brown and white sugar have the same degree of sweetness, it’s ok to substitute either one. Having said that, brown sugar tends to have a little more flavour and moisture due to the molasses that give it, its brown colour and unique flavour. Brown sugar will react slightly different during baking (when melted, it is more liquid than white sugar). I only used 1/2 cup of brown sugar for this recipe because the chocolate chips added more sweetness to the cookies as well. So the biggest difference in this case will be flavour and texture depending on which type of sugar you use. How do I achieve the soft and chewy texture for my cookies?
Keep the following tips in mind while you’re working on your cookie dough: • Don’t over-mix your dough. The longer you mix, the more gluten develops and more moisture will be absorbed from the gluten, meaning that it will make the cookie more dry when it’s baked.
• Temperature plays a big role. If you’re using a convection oven, my rule of thumb is to preheat the oven 25°F less than what the recipe calls for (depending on what you’re baking). For cookies, preheat it at 325°F if the recipe calls for 350°F.
• When using room temperature butter, make sure it’s not melted butter. If you melt the butter where the fat and protein separate, you can almost always bet on the cookie spreading too thin during baking and your cookie will be hard (instead of soft and chewy).
• Use a silicone baking mat instead of parchment paper if you can. The mat helps cookies retain moisture by preventing it from spreading too much.
• Placement of baking tray in the oven is important. If you have to, bake 1 tray of cookies at a time and place the tray on the middle oven rack. This helps with even heat distribution and prevents the cookies from baking too fast on one side.
