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Every Sunday when I was little, my parents took us to church. After Sunday school the entire congregation would gather for conversation, juice and cookies. Without fail, all the kids would run up to the table to grab handfuls of pre-packaged, jelly-filled thumbprint cookies. But even as a kid that loved sugary sweets, the mere thought of the jelly in those cookies grossed me out. I would scrape the jelly out and throw it away because it tasted more like strawberry glue/gel than the “all natural” preserves advertised on the package.

Wanting to improve on yet another childhood memory that’s still vivid in my mind AND keep with this week’s Peanut Butter and Jelly theme, I came up with these PB&J Thumbprint Cookies. I’ve recreated many of my unhealthy childhood favorites here in the pages of weelicious, only I always try to come up with a healthy version. What strikes me is how easy it is to make healthy desserts your kids will love without sacrificing taste! Instead of the hydrogenated fats and untold amounts of sugar that comprised the cookies I ate as a kid, I added naturally sweet honey, fiber-packed oats, protein-rich peanut butter and then topped them off with fresh preserves for a tasty, real fruit touch.

My kids were so excited when I put the plate of these fresh baked cookies in front of them, but the best part for me was watching Kenya react just like his mommy used to_ by digging out the preserves first. The only difference was that he put them right into his mouth!

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PB&J Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies

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Servings: 60 cookies
Author: Catherine McCord
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients  

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Place the butter and agave (or honey) in a bowl or standing mixer and beat for 1 minute.
  • Add the egg, vanilla and peanut butter and beat another minute on medium speed or until smooth.
  • In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
  • Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix to incorporate.
  • Drop 1 tbsp of the cookie dough onto a silpat or parchment-lined cookie sheet and using your thumb (or index finger if you prefer), make an indentation in the center of each cookie.
  • Fill the indentation of each cookie with about 1/2 teaspoon of jam.
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes.
  • Cool and serve.

Nutrition

Calories: 80kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 65mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g
Did you make this recipe?Mention @Weelicious or tag #weelicious!

About the Author

Catherine is a mama of three. A Kentucky girl living in California. Here’s what I know: all kids can be great eaters and mealtime must be easy. I create simple, healthy recipes the whole family will love.

Comments

  1. I totally know about flieeng guilty when you bake. I always give away anything I bake except a couple of cookies or a brownie square or something little to snack on Way to go and be a little chef!

  2. I made these yesterday morning, and they were also green inside when I gave it to my toddler in the afternoon. I also used sunflower butter. Any idea why?

  3. I made these last night and they were delicious! I broke one in half today to give it to our toddler for a snack and the inside was GREEN! What could have happened? We don’t think it’s mold — it looks like some sort of chemical reaction where the jam sat. I followed the recipe exactly (with honey), but used sunflower butter because I have a peanut allergy. The brand of jam I used was Polaner’s all fruit (I used both strawberry and apricot jams, and both had the same reaction).

  4. Without being there I can’t be sure of exactly what could have gone wrong. Cookies become dry when they are baked too long, or when there aren’t enough liquid ingredients. Did you use the full amount of agave or honey? Did you forget the egg? I’m sorry they didn’t work out! I wish I could be more help!

  5. these sounded so good! i don’t know what i did wrong, but i followed the directions and mine were soooooo dry and they just crumbled when i baked them!! i had more to bake but ended up just throwing the dough away! any ideas as to why they came out this way? thanks!

  6. I just made these with my 4-year-old. There are lots of steps that are easy for kids to help with AND they are delicious!

  7. Nicole Olsman:Great great video. Made my day and luckily for us, we got to taste the loelvy products. Inspires us to perhaps try making a stop animation one day. Maybe it will even be fantastic mr fox-esque.

  8. My son has egg and peanut allergies so I left the egg out entirely (no substitute) and used soynut butter in place of the peanut butter and they turned out yummy and the consistency was great!

  9. Just made these tonight and YUM!!! I altered my ingredients slightly – I didn’t have a full cup of agave left, so I did a half cup agave and a half cup of honey. I also used generic Walmart brand chunky peanut butter. I thought they came out FABULOUS!
    Thanks for posting!! 🙂

  10. Aww thats such a bummer, I haven’t this problem before with the cookies. The one thing I can say that probably changed the flavor of this recipe is that you used JIF and not organic peanut butter. I love JIF but there are fillers in it that may take away from the natural peanut flavor. I rolled my cookies out small so that may have been the reason why I got 60 cookies. It all really depends on how big the cookies are.

  11. Just made this and followed directions exactly (using honey) and there just wasn’t enough of a peanut butter taste for me (used Jif) to like this as much as I hope. Even the little guy who was so excited about making them, ate only a bite and didn’t want the rest. It was disappointing because they smelled so good before putting them in the oven.

    Also, about 105 cal cookie (we only had enough dough to do 45 cookies so I don’t know how you got 60)and lack of pb taste we were hoping for, I don’t know if we will make these again.

  12. Hey We love these cookies in our family! I have a new gluten/wheat allergy, wondering if there is a way to adapt these to be gluten free??

    Thanks!

  13. Oh my gosh. I just read the recipe and realized I used 1 cup of honey instead of
    1/2. No wonder I can taste the honey. It wasn’t overpowering though. I liked the fact that you can taste the peanut butter, but with a hint of honey. 1 cup of honey lol oops

  14. I made these tonight and they also spread out and looked nothing like the picture. But the taste was sooooo good. I can taste honey in them. So delish! My nieces loved them!

  15. Do you mean the peanut butter that contains nuts in them? I’m sure it will work 🙂

  16. These look yummy! But I only have almond butter. Would it work?? Or would I be changing the consistency too much?

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