Things that I learned at a very early age:
1. Peanut butter should be its own food group.
2. Peanut butter also pairs REALLY well with banana. Considering I ate a PB & B sandwich EVERY day for lunch, I learned that lesson REAL well.
3. Chocolate…it makes E’RYTHANG better.
Today I am tying all these life lessons up into one adorable, mini package.
A package that you can eat.
A package that involves all of the above mentioned items AND cookies.
AND meringue.
And a package that is completely gluten and butter free!
The younger me and the current (old) me are doing a serious fist pump over here. I am hoping that you are joining me.
Fist pumping alone just looks weird.
Anyway.
The cookie part of these here cookie cups are a recipe that I developed from some peanut butter and jelly cookie cups.
Apparently I am 5 and can’t stop making child themed peanut butter cookie cups. I’m okay with that.
Then I was inspired by my aforementioned life lessons (I was also eating some peanut butter banana ice cream at the time that this recipe was thought up. That may or may not have played a part in its creation) so I decided to fill those babies up with fresh banana and thick, creamy peanut butter. Be still my heart.
We could have left it there. But, I wanted these to be like a surprise party for your taste buds.
I pulled some more inspiration (because I seem to be all about that today) from this lemon meringue fudge that I have been drooling over for all the evers, and topped these babies with meringue.
I call it meringue, but we really just call it what it is: A ninja disguise to cover the deliciousness that is inside these cups.
WHABAM. Taste buds, consider yourself surprised. With deliciousness.
Also, consider yourselves about to take a vacation to Yum Central.
Peanut butter. Chocolate. Banana. COOKIES.
Do it.
Peanut Butter Banana Cookie Cups Recipe
Ingredients
- 0.25 Peanut Butter
- 2 Granulated Sugar
- 2 Brown Sugar Packed
- 0.125 Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 Egg Whites About 1 small egg white
- 0.5 Oat Flour Certified gluten free
- 0.25 Baking Powder
- 0.125 Salt
- 2 Egg Whites Not liquid egg whites
- 3 Granulated Sugar
- Cream Of Tartar
- 0.5 Banana Thinly sliced
- 0.25 Peanut Butter
- Chocolate Melted, for drizzling (optional)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, beat together the peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and egg white.
- In a small bowl, stir in the oat flour, baking powder and salt. Add the oat mixture into the peanut butter mixture and stir until well combined and a sticky dough forms.
- Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a mini muffin tin with cooking spray.
- Once the dough is chilled, press good 1/2 tablespoon balls into the each mini muffin cup. Mold the dough so that it’s pressed up along the sides and hollow in the middle, like a little cup. You want the sides a little bit thicker than the bottom of the cup.
- Bake until golden brown, about 10-11 mins.
- When the cups come out of the oven, they will have puffed up and lost some of their shape, quickly (without burning your finger tips off!) press the centers down, and in, slightly to restore their shape. Let cool completely.
- While the cups cool, you can make the meringue. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Gradually add the granulated sugar and cream of tartar and keep beating until soft peaks form.
- Press one sliced banana in the bottom of each cookie cup, and then cover it with peanut butter, filling right to the top of the cookie cup. This is about 1 teaspoon of peanut butter.
- Spoon meringue on top of each cookie cup (or you can use a piping bag to make it less messy, and prettier) and then place the cookie cups on a large, ungreased baking sheet.
- Place back into the 350°F oven and bake until the meringue is golden brown, about 10 minutes.
- Drizzle with melted chocolate, if desired, and serve.