The (Ridiculously Good) Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies I Can’t Stop Making

At the start of self-quarantine, I set a goal for myself: finally use the one-off ingredients that I purchased for a specific recipe and haven’t touched since (I’m looking at you, freeze-dried jalapeños). I had hoped this project would help me clear out my cabinets and inspire some creativity in the kitchen, but I didn’t anticipate what turned out to be the best part: It helped me find my new favorite cookie recipe.

Unearthing my practically untouched bag of

coconut sugar

These cookies, from one of my all-time favorite blogs Chocolate For Basil, are the ultimate quarantine baking project. They require just a handful of ingredients, are easily adaptable to what you have on hand, and come together easily in a single bowl. You just need a bag of coconut sugar (although you can substitute brown sugar), a bunch of speckled bananas, a jar of peanut butter, a few scoops of flour, some neutral oil, a splash of vanilla, and baking soda.

First, you mix the peanut butter, oil, sugar, and one mashed banana in a bowl until smooth. Jerrelle, the creator of Chocolate For Basil, suggests using natural peanut butter, and having made them multiple times I understand why. While they’re still delicious with regular peanut butter, expect them to spread more, like a crispy chocolate chip cookie. Natural peanut butter, like Teddie All Natural Peanut Butter, helps these cookies bake up thick, soft, and chewy — perfect for three- to four-bite ice cream sandwiches.

Then, add the flour, baking soda, and salt to the bowl of wet ingredients. The recipe calls for white whole-wheat flour, but we all know the struggles of the baking aisle of late. I’ve used both regular whole-wheat flour and all-purpose flour with excellent results. Then, drop rounds of the batter onto the baking sheet and bake until brown around the edges. When I’m feeling fancy, I finish the cookies with a magic shell-style chocolate drizzle of melted chocolate chips and coconut oil.

As for the ice cream center, Jerrelle calls for a two-ingredient chocolate nice cream recipe. Even when I’ve used sweet, speckled bananas, the chocolate nice cream is too bitter for my taste. Instead, I prefer to use vanilla ice cream or plain banana nice cream, both of which allow the natural sweetness of the peanut butter, banana, and coconut sugar in the cookies to come through.

At Kitchn, our editors develop and debut brand-new recipes on the site every single week. But at home, we also have our own tried-and-true dishes that we make over and over again — because quite simply? We love them. Kitchn Love Letters is a series that shares our favorite, over-and-over recipes.