flourless peanut butter-cinnamon cookies for #ElleAPalooza

As many of you might know by now, the food blogging world lost a dear dear friend way too early.
Elle of ellesnewenglandkitchen.com
(See my past post about her passing).
To honor her, her love, her friendships, her mentoring, and most of all her memory, a group of friends who all knew Elle have formed an #ElleAPalooza.
(There is also an auction to help raise funds for her family.   Elle leaves behind a wonderful husband, and four children.  If you can, please help donate to the fund.  You can only imagine, in this economy, how hard things are for her husband now--so please donate, give what you can--any amount is welcome).
If you're interested in joining the celebration of Elle and the #ElleAPalooza, please visit the Facebook page: Friends of Elle.
Bloggers that participate, pick a favorite recipe from Elle's blog, recreate as is or with a twist--all done with loving Elle in memory. Along with the recipe, bloggers reflect back on their memories with Elle, how they met her, what they loved about her, what they learned from her, etc...
I personally never met Elle, but we became fairly close online via facebook and our food blogs.
In fact, Elle was one of the first people to leave a comment on my blog back in 2008 when I first started blogging.
Funny as my first few posts had horrid food photos and the cheesiest words to accompany those photos.  So cheesy I swear....I like to think I've gotten better as I've aged?
Darling Elle saw past the cheesy words and always loved the recipes.
She would always tell me how creative I was, and when in the world was my first cookbook coming out?
As the years passed, she, the football Patriot loving friend, soon became someone I loved to share my morning espresso with on Facebook while I was supposed to be writing and working.
Oh it was easy to giggle and pass the morning by with her; she had a great sense of humor.
And always, and I do mean always, was very supportive of any new venture I took or any other food bloggers she knew.
Someone asked me what one thing, one true memory of Elle that stood out ?
Oh that's so easy to answer: she was so SUPPORTIVE.
Supportive to even people she casually knew in the food blogging world; she would encourage, encourage, encourage!
I like to call her the cheerleader of the food blogging world--she was always coaching people on, always sharing cooking contest links to me, pushing me on to enter--even if she was entering to.
She was not selfish at all.
Such a kind, gentle soul...you are so missed my dear.
For the #ElleAPalooza, I choose Elle's flourless peanut cookies, which are made with toffee and chocolate, but since Elle knew me so well, she knows that pretty much everything I do I have to put my own spin on it.
Since I love cinnamon with my peanut butter in the mornings, I decided to add cinnamon chips.
Those cinnamons chips went so well with the rich peanut butter flavor of the cookies.
Oh and a little sea salt on top never hurts either.

This is quite possibly one of the better peanut butter cookie recipes I've come across--it's very rich, deep peanut butter flavor....almost like a really good slice of chocolate cake that leaves you so thirsty.
This is that, but in a cookie.  Very satisfying, and no flour used.
Of course, one bowl easy too.


I think what also made these smell and taste so good was the new bottle of tahitian vanilla I bought as a splurge item.  Just a little something-something added in the background of the cookie.

I know that the tahitian beans are one of the more fragrant ones, and I can attest to this as the smell these cookies made in the house while baking was strong--almost tropical.  Okay tropical mixed with peanut butter, really nice smell.

Don't be tempted to flatten these--they won't be as puffy or tender when baked.
Just a little push down--barely.

If you try and take these off the sheet right after baking they will break apart.
Let them cool at least 20 minutes or longer.

Can't tell you how tasty these truly are...I'm certain Ms. Elle was with me when I created these.
You are missed Ms. Elle, you are missed...


flourless pb & cinnamon cookies
recipe idea from elle's new england kitchen
print recipe

2 cups peanut butter (not oily all natural kind)
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 ts pure vanilla extract
1 ts baking soda
1 ts sea salt
less than ½ cup cinnamon chips
a little extra sea salt for the tops of the cookies

In a large mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients except for the cinnamon chips.
Mix well, then fold in the cinnamon chips
Cover bowl well, and put in fridge for at least 15 minutes.
OR using a 2-inch cookie scoop out cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheets, barely pressing down on the dough balls, then set them into fridge to firm up before baking.  (I did the latter).
Put a little sea salt on the tops of the cookies before baking, optional but wonderful.
The cookies won’t spread much during baking, but they do rise up a bit.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake cookies for 13-16 minutes.
It’s hard to know when the cookies are done as they stay soft and puffy while baking (they firm up a lot after baking)
I looked for almost-crisp, light golden brown edges.
After you remove from oven, let them sit on the hot cookie sheet for  at least 15-20 minutes or longer if you can.
If you try and take them off the sheet right out of the oven they will break apart; very delicate after baking.
They don’t keep too fresh that long, maybe 3 days at best?
Makes about 21-25 cookies