I love peanut butter cookies! Hands down they are my favorite. And Nutter Butter’s are my own personal kryptonite. I don’t even buy them for the rest of the family because it would just be torture to have them in the house.
So I finally made my own low carb version of the Nutter Butter and they are really satisfying! There is a secret ingredient in these cookies – it was an experiment and I was really happy with the results. So happy in fact that I’m going to be trying it out in some bread and cake versions in the near future. You’ll never guess what it is!
Water chestnuts! Yup! I had a can of them leftover from another recipe I was working on for the e-cookbook and they were so starchy and yet low in carbs that I thought they might work in baked goods. They are very neutral flavored so they virtually disappear in the recipe, yet they added an excellent texture to the cookies. I’m super excited to experiment with these further – and as an added bonus they are pretty cheap and easy to find in any grocery store’s Asian section. So stock up people because they are going to be showing up in a lot of my low carb recipes in the next month or so!
Low Carb Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
- Yield: 9 hearty cookies 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- For the cookies:
- 1 cup sliced water chestnuts
- 2 Tbsp butter, softened
- 1/2 cup peanut butter*
- 3 tsp stevia sweetener
- 1/4 cup flax meal
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- For the filling:
- 1/3 cup peanut butter*
- 3 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 tsp stevia sweetener
Instructions
- Combine the softened butter, peanut butter, water chestnuts and stevia in a blender or food processor – blend until smooth. Scrape the mixture into a medium bowl.
- In a small bowl, combine the flax meal, coconut flour, baking powder, baking soda and pinch of salt, stirring until well mixed.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until a stiff dough forms. Chill for 1/2 an hour so it’s easier to work with.
- Roll into 18 balls and place on a greased or parchment lined cookie sheet. Press down with a fork to make the traditional cross hatch designs. Bake in a preheated 375 degree (F) oven for 15 minutes. Remove and cool.
- To make the filling: blend your softened cream cheese and stevia until fluffy. Add your room temperature peanut butter* and blend until fully combined.
- To assemble the cookies: Spread the filling mixture onto 9 of the cookie halves, then press the remaining 9 cookie halves onto the top.
Notes
*Next time I would make these with almond butter because it lessens the net carbs by almost 20 grams in the total recipe. So if you are really strict with your carbs or are just avoiding legumes, you can substitute equal amounts of almond butter (or any nut butter of your choice) for the peanut butter.
**if you use almond butter in place of peanut butter it’s only 3g net carbs per assembled sandwich cookie.
Approximate nutrition info per single cookie (without filling):
54 calories, 4g fat, 1.4g net carbs, 2g protein
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Cookie sandwiches
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 sandwich
- Calories: 221
- Fat: 19g
- Carbohydrates: 5g net
- Protein: 7g
Carolyn says
Water chestnuts…wow. Now that’s a lc ingredient I haven’t tried using at all. Especially in baked goods!
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
I’m amazed you haven’t thought of it yet Carolyn – your blog is chock full of low carb goodness! Huge fan, thanks for the comment!
Christine & Cole says
http://ccday2day.blogspot.ca/2012/06/nutter-butter.html Here was my nutter butter adventure :) thanks for another great recipe!
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Thanks so much for posting about them and providing a link to the recipe! I’m so glad you liked them! :)
Christine & Cole says
Mine are in the oven right now! Yum!
laura west kong says
Looks yummy! I would love to make those with almond butter. Water chestnuts are a great idea.
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Thanks Laura, hope you like them!
Jennifer says
These cookies look wonderful. How do you think up these things – water chestnuts? Now that is unusual.
Heather, I have such a recipe. Very easy.
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Hey Jen, it just popped into my head when I was staring down that extra can of them and I figured why not? You know how it is! I hope you don’t mind, I’m linking to one of your no bake cookie recipes for Heather and anyone else who is interested. http://low-carb-news.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-recipes-in-diabetes-health-issue.html
Thanks!
HEATHER says
Mellissa, since you love peanut butter cookies, have you ever tried to make a low carb No-Bake Cookie? You know the recipe is on the Quaker Oats box, butter, peanut butter, oats, sugar, cocoa powder. I think about them almost constantly, they are my favorite. Do you think you could make them low-carb? Anyway just wanted to throw that out there. This recipe looks delish-can’t wait to try it!
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
I used to make no bake cookies and bars all of the time when I was doing raw years ago but I never tried to make a no bake version! I’ll add it to my list of recipes to work on soon! Thanks for the idea! :)
Doris says
Oh my stars! I LOVE NUTTER BUTTERS! I can eat a whole big package (like the ones that have like 30+ big peanut shaped cookies!) in the course of one day. But, since I gave up peanuts over 4 months ago . . . boohoo. However, thanks to you again, I can make this with almond butter! Woohoo! And, I make my own almond butter with my Blendtec.
I’m Chinese, so I always have water chestnuts. LOL. However, I need to go get some fresh almonds, as I am running out. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow and try this recipe? I’ll let you know how mine turn out. Soooo excited.
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Can’t wait for you to report back Doris, I always love your detailed feedback on the recipes! Hope you guys like these! :)
emily.barrett says
What would be the carbs on just one single cookie, not the cookie sandwich?
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
I added the nutrition info per cookie to the bottom of the post – it’s 1.4g net carbs per cookie (if you make them with peanut butter)
MyFudoâ„¢ says
I am gonna make this using my mom in law’s homemade peanut butter…I bet this will be a blast. Of course, I am gonna send her a batch too. Thanks!
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Awesome MF, nice of you to share with her! Don’t tell her beforehand though, just in case they are so good you polish them all off before you send them! ;)
thefitcookie.com says
These look fantastic! I love peanut butter cookies, but my kids are allergic to peanuts so I will make some substitutions. I love that these are egg free (we have allergies to those too)! Can’t wait to make these : )
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
I prefer almond butter myself but I was out of it so I used the peanut butter. Next time I’ll be trying the AB for sure – hope you guys enjoy them!