In the beginning of July, I complained about the heat complicating my cookie-baking cravings. I begged for someone to switch off the sun so I could turn on my oven. After 8 days of nothing but ice water and strawberry slurpees, the thermometers finally fell back down to our typical summer range.
Yet two weeks later, the same problem has snuck up again! Temperatures are supposed to reach 100°—or higher—starting, oh… Tomorrow.
I just can’t catch a break!
My grandparents, on the other hand, have spent the past 52 years in Arizona, suffering through enjoying their feverishly hot summers. On the few occasions that we visited them for the 4th of July, Grandma would pull out a worn recipe card. My brother and I helped her melt butterscotch chips, mix in peanut butter and cornflakes, and make mounds on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. After they spent an hour in the fridge, we munched on as many of the no-bake PB Crunchies as we could hold!
With this next impending heat wave, I contemplated coming up with a lightened version of Grandma’s special crunchies. I even bought a new jar of peanut butter and a bag of butterscotch chips at the grocery store. But then…
I remembered my chocolate chip cookie dough bites.
It seems that I wasn’t the only one who loved them! You all quickly made them the most popular post on my blog by liking them on Facebook, saving them on Pinterest, and staring at the photos—multiple times a day. So to say THANK YOU, I mixed up a new batch of cookie dough bites: peanut butter-flavored, just like Grandma’s no-bake crunchy cornflake cookies.
And now that those soft little guys are safely sitting in my fridge… Bring on the heat!
These little bites are perfect for when you want cookies but don’t want to heat up the house! They’ll keep for a week if stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
- Whisk together the flour, powdered peanut butter, and salt in a small bowl. In a medium bowl, stir together the peanut butter, applesauce, and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Mix in the brown sugar, smearing any clumps along the side of the bowl. Add in the dry flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated.
- Optional: If the dough is too sticky to shape, refrigerate for 20-40 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet or large plate with wax paper. Roll the cookie dough into 32 little balls, using between 1 – 1½ teaspoons of dough in each ball. Place on the wax paper until ready to serve.
Notes: Do NOT try to bake these as cookies! They’ll turn out dense and flat because the recipe doesn’t use any baking powder.
Keep the cookie dough bites in the refrigerator. Their flavors meld over time, and they actually taste best after at least 2 days of sitting in the fridge!
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