Flourless peanut butter cookies - for Chinese New Year

For years, I've managed to avoid making cookies for Chinese New Year, despite gentle hints from Mom.  My excuse would invariably be 'no time-lah, wouldn't it be easier to buy?'.  It takes me ages to make cookies using our little oven.   However given that the outlook for 2012 is not as bright, I decided to make some cookies this year - more economical.  Or so I thought.  Have you seen the price of butter recently?  Which got me thinking about what store-bought cookies are made with.  Butter? At those prices? Unlikely.

Anyway, I decided on peanut butter cookies and found an interesting recipe posted by Sylvia in her blog
PeachesandDonuts.  Peanut cookies are a staple during CNY, but they are normally made with lard. Ugh.  Much as I love my pork, the thought of using lard isn't my cup of tea.  Plus lard has a tendency to turn rancid in our humid weather.  Double ugh. 

This is a flourless peanut butter cookie, using only PB, sugar and egg.  Simple, really.  The lack of flour
just means the cookies are full of the peanut butter flavour and come out crisp on the outside and slightly
soft and chewy inside.  It also cracked quite prettily, which gives it an even more home-made look.  However, flourless also means this recipe doesn't yield very many cookies - I managed about 40 in total.  Absolutely yummy and the kitchen smelled heavenly of peanuts.

Adapted from All Recipes
Makes 40 cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup soft brown sugar
(Note: Using Soft Brown Sugar will make the cookie softer. Use White castor sugar if you like a crisper one)
1 egg
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Method :1.  Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease cookie sheets.
2.  In a medium bowl, stir peanut butter and sugar together until smooth.
3.  Beat in the egg  then stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2
inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. ( I pressed the balls to get a flatter shape).
4.  Bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven.
5.  Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before storing.

Notes :
The cookies don't spread very much, so I rolled the balls and flattened them slightly, hence the cracks.
There's no need to chill the dough before working it - the chilled dough isn't as malleable.  It's easier to
ball up with a soft dough.
I used smooth peanut butter, about 3/4 of a jar.