Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies (4 Ingredients)
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Healthy peanut butter cookies with a crunchy texture and melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter flavor.
Bonus, these 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies are made with almond flour and coconut flour, which means they are also gluten-free, paleo, and grain-free!
- What Are Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies?
- Why You’ll Love These Healthy Cookies
- Are All 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies Vegan?
- How To Make Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Cookie Add-Ons
- Serving Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
- Is Peanut Butter Healthy?
- Keeping Crunchy Healthy Cookies
- More Vegan Cookies With Peanut Butter
- Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies
What Are Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies?
Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies are a healthier version of the classic vegan peanut butter cookies with a delicious peanut butter flavor, but they are also:
- Egg-free
- Refined sugar-free
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Also, the best healthy peanut butter cookies are made with gluten-free, low-carb flour – almond flour and coconut flour.
Low-carb flours are great flours to keep your blood sugar level stable for longer.
Plus, they are high in fiber and very fulfilling, which means you won’t overeat these easy healthy vegan coconut flour peanut butter cookies.
Why You’ll Love These Healthy Cookies
These are 4-ingredient vegan peanut butter cookies.
That means they are made without eggs or butter. Instead, they simply use nourishing plant-based ingredients to keep your cookies:
- High in protein
- Low in sugar
- High in fiber – almond flour and coconut flour are both high-fiber and high-protein flour. As a result, these cookies are very fulfilling and make the best vegan cookies.
- Low in saturated fats
Are All 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies Vegan?
Not all 4-ingredient vegan cookies have no eggs. So to make a vegan peanut butter cookie, use ingredients that are all vegan!
Keep on reading to find out how to make a super easy peanut butter cookie recipe!
How To Make Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies
All you need to make these easy healthy peanut butter cookies with no eggs are 4 simple ingredients.
Ingredients
They are not only healthy but also straightforward to make! You don’t even need a flax egg or coconut oil, or vegan butter to make these healthy cookies!
- Peanut butter – make sure you are using natural peanut butter. I always recommend using fresh, smooth peanut butter with no added oil or sugar. Of course, you can use nut butter like almond butter or cashew butter in this recipe. Make sure it’s fresh from the jar, runny and smooth.
- Maple syrup – Or any liquid sweetener you love. For example, if you want a low-fructose, low-glycemic index sweetener, try brown rice syrup. For a keto vegan cookie, use monk fruit syrup. But don’t use crystal sweeteners like brown sugar or white sugar. The vegan cookies will be too dry, and the batter won’t come together.
- Coconut flour – Fresh, no lumps.
- Almond flour – Use fine blanched almond flour for best results. Almond meal is coarser and makes the cookies a bit dry. You can also replace almond flour with oat flour.
Making Healthy Peanut Butter Cookie Batter
There is nothing easier than these peanut butter cookies with almond flour and maple syrup.
The cookie batter is ready in 15 minutes, and they are easy to whip by anyone looking for an easy peanut butter cookie recipe.
Combining Wet Ingredients
In a small bowl, combine the maple syrup and natural peanut butter.
You can add vanilla extract at this point if desired.
Stirring in Dry Ingredients
Stir in coconut flour and almond flour. If you want to add some vegan chocolate chips, chia seeds, or flaxseed, add them to the flour mixture.
Combine with a spoon until it forms the peanut butter cookie dough.
Adding Chocolate Chips
This is totally optional, but these vegan cookies taste so much better with 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips!
Baking the Peanut Butter Cookies
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking tray with parchment paper and arrange each cookie dough ball on the tray, leaving half a thumb of space between each ball.
Then, use the back of a fork to press down the cookies and shape a cross shape on top.
Bake the healthy peanut butter cookies until your almond flour peanut butter cookies are golden brown.
Cooling The Cookies Down
Cool the cookies on a wire rack at room temperature. Enjoy immediately or store in a cookie jar in the pantry.
Vegan Peanut Butter Cookie Add-Ons
There is always a way to make peanut butter cookies better.
To boost the flavors of this vegan cookie recipe, add some of the addition below:
- Chocolate Chips. Add up to 1/3 cup of vegan chocolate chips into the vegan cookie batter.
- Baking Powder or baking soda is optional. But if you like your vegan cookie a bit more fluffy, you can add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda or 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder to the recipe.
- Sea Salt – a pinch of sea salt enhances this peanut butter cookie’s flavor. Of course, don’t add sea salt if you used salted natural peanut butter, or your vegan cookie will be very salty.
- Vanilla Extract – you can add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the peanut butter cookie dough.
- Xanthan Gum. If you are new to grain-free baking, xanthan gum helps flours bind together and adds a little chew to cookies. For a chewy peanut butter cookie, add 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum to the cookie dough. Be aware that to make a healthy peanut butter cookie recipe, I don’t recommend using xanthan gum. It can cause bloating.
- Chia Seeds of flax seeds. 1 tablespoon of seed can be added to the cookie dough to boost protein and healthy omega-3.
Serving Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
The best way to serve cookies, vegan or not, is with a glass of creamy beverage. It can be a vegan smoothie or a glass of soy milk, or almond milk. Vanilla almond milk makes the most delicious combo with these peanut butter cookies.
Is Peanut Butter Healthy?
Peanut butter can be seen as high in calories and fat.
However, if eaten in moderate amounts, it’s a great addition to a vegan diet or low-carb diet.
In fact, peanut butter provides many health benefits. Let’s see what you get in 1 cup of peanut butter:
- 58 grams of plant-based protein, making it perfect for refueling after a workout or creating fulfilling snacks.
- 12 grams of fiber – good for your gut health and filling.
- Healthy fats and low-carb – yes, peanut butter contains saturated fat, the one we all want to avoid. Also, 50% of peanut butter’s fat comes from healthy, monounsaturated fat, the same good fat found in olive oil.
However, if you still think peanut butter is too high in saturated fat, you can swap it for almond butter.
Keeping Crunchy Healthy Cookies
These cookies are crunchy, not soft! They are delicious as a healthy snack or post-workout protein treat.
Plus, they store very well in a cookie jar as they are egg-free peanut butter cookies!
Finally, you can also freeze them in an airtight container to meal-prep your weekly snacks.
More Vegan Cookies With Peanut Butter
If you love vegan peanut butter cookies, I recommend you try the following recipes:
Made this lovely healthy peanut butter cookie recipe? Share a comment or review below!
Did You Like This Recipe?
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Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup Peanut Butter (Unsalted) - smooth, fresh, no added sugar, no added oil
- ¼ cup Maple Syrup - or brown rice syrup for low fructose, low sugar, or monk fruit syrup for keto
- ½ cup Almond Flour - or oat flour, or all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup Coconut Flour - or all-purpose flour
Optional add-ons
- ⅓ cup Vegan Dark Chocolate Chips
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir in fresh peanut butter with maple syrup until creamy and consistent.
- Stir in almond flour and coconut flour. Use a spoon at first, then knead the dough with your hands to form a cookie dough ball.
- Divide the ball into 12 small cookie balls and place each ball onto the prepared cookie sheet, leaving 1 thumb space between each ball. The cookies don't expand while baking.
- Use a fork to gently press each cookie ball into a thick disk. I recommend pressing two times, forming a cross on top of each cookie. Don't press too hard, or the cookies crumble on the sides. If so, use your hands to smoothen the sides.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies' top and sides are golden-brown.
- Slide a spatula under each cookie to transfer them onto a cooling rack.
- Cool for 1 hour before eating. The cookies are slightly soft when out of the oven and get hard and crunchy after they cool down.
What if you want them to be chewy?
Add more xanthan gum!
How do you make plant based peanut butter cookies that are soft?
Add more xanthan gum!
Unfortunately 12 minutes at 180 meant overcooked cookies in my oven. I’m sure they would’ve been soft and crumbly otherwise. Also this quantity of ingredients only made 6 medium size cookies otherwise each cookie would’ve been a mouthful if I divided them in 12 as the method states. Not trying to find fault with your recipes. They are actually great.
If you make only 6 cookies with the recipe, they are going to be much larger and therefore would take longer to cook.
Is it possible to substitute the coconut or remove it, and the recipe still be keto friendly? (I am allergic to coconut.) Thank you.
I would recommend you try the almond flour peanut butter cookie recipe instead then, they taste pretty similar and don’t have coconut flour.
How long can they be stored refrigerated and unrefrigerated?
Up to 3-4 days in the fridge or freeze up to 3 months
These are amazing!!!!
My daughter and I love this recipe. Fun to make and delicious to eat, love that it’s so healthy! Thank you!
Made it, love it !!!
They were delicious. Easy to make. Thanks!
Thank you – these are fantastic! I used date syrup and crunchy peanut butter and they made a perfect afternoon tea snack.
Can you please put weight in grams in your recipes for the flours?
This recipe is very good! I used pb2 powder and it worked great! I also drizzled the dark chocolate on top instead of dipping it. I definitely reccomond this recipe. The only downside is that I was looking for a recipe that would taste like bettys bakery vegan gf peanut butter cookie, this recipe did not taste like that at all. These cookies do taste great with almond milk!
can i swap vegan brown sugar for the maple syrup? would it be the same portion?
Unfortunately you can’t swap a liquid sweetener by a crystal sweetener or the texture will be off, the dough won’t come together. You can use any liquid sweetener like agave, rice syrup, date syrup. Enjoy, XOXO Carine
Thank u so much for this recipe. Can i use oats flour instead of almond flour and dessicated coconut instead of coconut fl⁷our?
While you can swap almond flour by oat flour you won’t be able to remove coconut flour or the cookies won’t hold together. Otherwise try my 3 ingredient peanut butter cookie recipe, it only use almond flour ! Enjoy, XOXO Carine
I made these as per instructions the other day and they were great and crunchy. . I used sukrin gold syrup and was wondering if there is a non syrup alternative (keto) I could try, as in granulated or powdered sweetener, if so in what amounts? I had an experiment but it went wrong…….
Thanks very much.
I used honey as my sweetener so good
I am glad to hear that, I don’t use honey in my recipes simply because it is not vegan but I am sure many follower will be to know it works with it too! XOXO Carine
Hello! since the coconut flour is highly absorbent, is it still okay to use the same amount of all-purpose flour in place of the coconut flour?
I didn’t try that if you do you may need to add way more all-purpose flour probably 2-4 times more to reach the same texture and liquid absorption. Enjoy, XOXO Carine
1. If I use peanut butter that is sweetened since unsweetened is 4 times the price, would you say to omit the sugar or what amount would you suggest I add? I’m making birthday cookies for my brother and want them to be healthy.
2. Would crunchy pb go well? I think he’d like the crunch since he specified nutty cookies.
3.
1. I would probably skip the sugar but I am not sure how it will impact the texture, I never bake with sweetened peanut butter.
2. Crunchy PB is great in cookies!
I only have almond flour, would i just do the full amount of flour – all almond?
Deelicious. I measured the almond flour into the same cup as the nut butter without washing it and poured in too much almond flour – couldn’t put it back (!) so decided just to top up the total with the coconut flour. You are so right. Too much almond flour meant I had to add more coconut flour for consistency. And the moral is have two cups or wash between use! I mixed almond and cashew butters (peanut allergy). Next time I will use one or the other.
I didn’t try the recipe with almond flour only and unfortunately you can’t replace coconut flour by the same amount of coconut flour. Coconut flour is highly liquid absorbent, so to reach the same texture you may need for 4 times more almond flour than the amount of coconut flour I used in this recipe. And they may come out crumbly. So you can replace the coconut flour by regular flour (or all purpose gluten free flour). I hope it helps, XOXO Carine
Would this still work if I used regular flour? I am dairy free, but not vegan and I would really like to try these!
I didn’t try that but you can try my 3 ingredients peanut butter cookie recipe here and replace the oat flour by all purpose flour. That will definetly work. Enjoy the cookies. XOXO Carine
Very tasty. Very easy and uses pantry ingredients that a vegan has on hand.
Thanks ! I am glad you love the cookies, Take care, Carine
I just made these and they’re incredible!
Yeah! Thanks for the lovely feedback. I am so glad you found my blog and enjoy the treat. XOXO Carine.