Stevia Coconut Peanut Butter Cookies

Stevia is a South American herb that is virtually calorie-free and hundreds of times sweeter than table sugar (which is why you only need 2 tsp in a recipe that might need a 2 cups of sugar). You can probably find it at your local health food store and I know Trader Joe's carries it with their baking goods. This recipe is from "Stevia Sweet Recipes" by Jeffrey Goettemoiller and I got it from www.rochestergoodfood.com.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Yields: 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 6  tablespoons  vegetable oil
• 1⁄2 cup water
• 1⁄2 cup peanut butter
• 2  cups whole wheat flour, plus
• 2  tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 2  large eggs
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2  teaspoons stevia powder
• 2  teaspoons  butterscotch flavoring
• 1 3⁄4 cups flaked coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a medium mixing bowl beat together oil, peanut butter, eggs, vanilla extract, and butterscotch flavoring.
3. Stir in water.
4. Sift flour, stevia, and baking powder together.
5. Mix half of the dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture.
6. Stir in the rest of the dry ingredients.
7. Briefly chop coconut in a blender, if the pieces are large.
8. Fold into cookie dough- mixture will be stiff.
9. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.
10. Flatten with a fork in an "X" pattern.
11. Bake 9-10 minutes or until golden.
12. Leave cookies on baking sheet 2 minutes to cool and remove to racks to finish cooling.
13. Store in an airtight container.