Almond Butter Cookies with Maldon Sea Salt

My very first foray into gluten free baking was left in the very capable and reliable hands of one Ms. Gwyneth Paltrow, and boy did she not steer me wrong. I went into the whole endeavor slightly skeptical (i.e. How could this stuff actually be good? Why am I not just baking my amazing cowboy cookies? Or this coconut cake from that gorgeous issue of Bon Appetit? WHAT AM I THINKING?). But, thankfully, I was proven wrong rather quickly.

This little gem of a recipe comes together blink-and-you'll-miss-it fast, and the results are absolutely delicious. The cookies have deliciously crispy edges with meltingly chewy middles, like any good cookie should. And the combo of the almond butter, the maple syrup, and the snow-white flakes of salt come together to make something that tastes suspiciously like salty caramel with (miraculously) not a single bad ingredient. You could eat these bad boys for breakfast without feeling a twinge a guilt.

My only caveat: I liked these so much that I baked a second batch just a couple of days later using a different kind of almond butter, and I didn't like them quite as much, leaving me to conclude that the almond butter you use really matters here. Go for Justin's Classic Almond Butter, readily available at Whole Foods.

Almond Butter Cookies with Maldon Sea Salt
From It's All Good, by Gwyneth Paltrow
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour (if the flour doesn't include xanthan gum, add 3/4 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup natural almond butter
1 cup good-quality maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon Maldon sea salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, fine sea salt, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond butter, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Thoroughly combine the wet and dry ingredients. Using 2 spoons, form the cookies into small balls (each about 1 generous tablespoon) and space them 2 inches apart on the prepared sheet pans. Wet your fingertips and press down on each cookie, smoothing the edges so each is a nice little disk. Sprinkle each cookie with just a bit of the Maldon salt.

Bake until the air is fragrant and the cookies are just firm, 10 to 12 minutes. Let them cool on a rack before serving.

Makes about 2 dozen