This article originally appeared on Pastry at Home.
Editor’s Note: From his first book Teen Baking Championship, viral star Matthew Merril serves up an easy-as-can-be cookie recipe make of just 3 or 4 ingredients. Bonus: since it’s made without flour, it’s also gluten-free! Here’s what he has to say:
These cookies could be the easiest dessert I’ve ever made. I posted this recipe to my TikTok account, reaching 1.8 million views and generating thousands of testimonials from people enjoying these cookies. These could be the easiest baked goods you ever make, and perfect if you need your cookie fix in a pinch. I love eating these with ice cream!
Makes: 1 dozen cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (258 grams) creamy peanut butter
- 3⁄4 cup (150 grams) sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions
Make the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grab a large baking sheet. Cut a piece of parchment paper to approximately the same size and lay on top.
- In a large bowl, stir together the peanut butter, sugar and egg (and vanilla if you want to elevate these to four-ingredient cookies).
- When a solid dough has formed—after around 2 minutes of stirring—roll the dough into small spheres, about 1 inch in diameter.
- Place the balls of dough onto the parchment paper–lined baking sheet with a few inches (5 cm) of space between each sphere, and flatten with a fork vertically, then horizontally, to create that infamous criss-cross pattern on top.
- Bake the cookies for 10 to 15 minutes, until the tops of the cookies are golden brown. Remove them from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before eating. Personally, I love eating these with ice cream, or even drizzling melted chocolate on top. The possibilities are endless! I like to think of these cookies as a vessel for making a great dessert, because by them
