Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

This cookie shouldn't work. Three ingredients. No flour. No leavening. No butter. And yet it produces one of the most satisfying cookies in the American repertoire, with a concentrated peanut flavor that flour-based versions can only dream of achieving.

The recipe likely emerged during World War II rationing, when home bakers discovered that peanut butter's protein and fat could stand in for flour's structure. What began as necessity became revelation. The cookie spread through community cookbooks and church socials, passed hand to hand by women who understood that simplicity and greatness aren't mutually exclusive.

I've served these to pastry chefs who trained in Paris. They take one bite and ask for the recipe, expecting complexity. When I tell them it's three ingredients, they don't believe me. That disbelief is part of the magic. These cookies prove that technique matters less than understanding your ingredients. Peanut butter provides structure, fat, and flavor. Sugar adds sweetness and encourages that characteristic crackled top. The egg binds everything together and creates lift.

Make them once and you'll memorize the formula: equal parts peanut butter and sugar, one egg. That's the whole trick. The rest is just following through.