Almond Butter Cup Protein Cookies

Today I made a really tough decision. Life changing. I decided that it was time to take a break from peanut butter and give almond butter a chance to show me what's up. Ok, so maybe it's not so serious. Or maybe you just don't realize how much PB I actually consume on a daily basis. I currently have a nearly empty crunchy bae sitting in the fridge with 2 brand spankin' new jars up in the cupboard. No grocery run is complete without a trip down the Isle of Creamy Dreamy. To my shock and dismay, I recently read somewhere that a fellow PB loving baker actually developed an adult stage PB allergy from consuming waaay too much (I will still argue that too much PB is not a thing)! Reading that scared the crunchy-creamy dickens out of me, so I picked up some alternates. Sooo... to help me get through this rough patch, I decided to let almond buttah do me a solid and whip up the kind of cookies you make when you're heartbroken: the sweet, salty, sinful-but not so sinful that you feel guilty- kind of cookies. These are flourless, gluten free and refined sugar free with a pea protein pow! Crunchy, chewy, sweet and salty satisfaction. There is light at the end of the tunnel... or maybe that's the fridge light. Whatevs.

Almond Butter Cup Protein Cookies

1 cup almond butter

2/3 cup coconut sugar

2 scoops unsweetened pea protein (can sub other unflavored or vanilla protein powder if desired)

1 egg

Chocolate Glaze

2 to 3 tblsp dark choco chips

1 to 2 tsp coconut oil

Almond Butter Glaze

1 heaping spoon almond butter

1 to 2 tsp coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees anf line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the almond butter and coconut sugar with an electric mixer. Add in the egg and whisk until combined. Whisk in the protein powder. A crumbly but moist dough should form. Roll about 1 inch balls of dough in your hand and place on your prepared cookie sheet. (I was able to get 24 cookies this way. You can definitely roll bigger balls of dough if you want larger cookies)

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until slightly golden but still soft. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. While your cookies cool, prepare the chocolate coating and almond butter drizzle. Melt each in separate bowls with coconut oil. 30 second increments until smooth. Dip each cpokie halfway into the chocolate and place on a tray lined with parchment. Pop in the fridge or freezer to set. Remove from cooling and drizzle with melted almond butter. Place back in the fridge or freezer until set and enjoy!

I like to keep these in the freezer. Keeps them nice and chewy.