Magic Peanut Butter Kisses

So... I have celiac disease. My life has been blissfully more comfortable since giving up the gluten (and the withdrawals were awful!) and I've had to relearn everything about baking. I'm still learning. But these cookies were a pretty good success for a night at home on New Year's Eve, reminiscent of the very non vegan peanut butter kiss cookies with the Hershey candy. This recipe closely follows Elana's Pantry's peanut butter cookie recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups almond flour*
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup creamy peanut butter
Pinch salt, if unsalted PB
1/4 cup agave
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp molasses
4 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp vanilla (I used Cook's cookie vanilla)

About 1/4 cup sugar for coating uncooked cookies (I used half turbinado and half vanilla sugar).
About 24 bite sized pieces of chocolate.

*I used Bob's Red Mill blanched almond flour. In the past I had some random almond meal (from Trader Joe's?), and it was ground almonds with the skins on them, which made for kind of a gritty, bitter final product in everything I made. Blanched almonds have their skins removed, so the resulting flour is softer, sweeter, and a little more flexible in baked goods, I'm finding. I'm really impressed. I just wish it was cheaper.

Directions:

Mix ingredients well (I used a stand mixer for about 2 minutes), adding a little more almond flour if too sticky to handle. Scoop tablespoonfuls into sugar and roll to coat. Flatten slightly on parchment covered cookie sheets, and bake at 350f for 8-10 minutes, until browned. Press chocolate chunk into each cookie and allow to cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.