Pretty Little Peanut Butter Cookies

This peanut butter cookie is great because it's gluten-free, and free of refined white sugar as well (though they're not "sugar free" per se, just sans the yucky, over-processed stuff). Now, if you don't have any sucanat on hand, and you aren't worried about using processed sugar, you can substitute half a cup of white sugar and half a cup of brown sugar for the one cup of sucanat I put in the recipe. You could also try substituting 3/4 cup of agave or maple syrup, but I haven't tried it yet, so you're on your own with that one.

If you've never tried sucanat before, here's a bit of info I found on Wikipedia:

"Sucanat (a contraction of "Sugar Cane Natural") is non-refined cane sugar. Unlike refined and processed white sugar, Sucanat retains its molasses content; it is essentially pure dried sugar cane juice... Of all major sugars derived from sugar cane, Sucanat ranks the highest in nutritional value."

1 cup sucanat (or sub white and light brown sugar)
1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter
1/4 cup Earth Balance vegan butter, softened
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons soy or nut milk (I used almond milk)
1 1/2 cup rice flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Throw everything into a large bowl and mix it with a beater until well-blended.
• Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop out the dough, leveling the dough on the side of the bowl as you scoop. This ensures that every cookie is the same size. You want them to be "pretty" after all!
• Place dough balls 2 inches apart on an un-greased cookie sheet.
• Bake 10 minutes or until light golden brown.
• Allow to cool for 1 or 2 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
• Gobble 'em up!

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