Gluten-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies (4 Ingredients)
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 12/17/2020 - Last updated on 11/19/2023
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These gluten-free chocolate peanut butter cookies are crunchy, easy, healthy chocolate cookies with almond flour and only 4 ingredients.
They are egg-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, and naturally sweetened with a small amount of maple syrup.
How To Make Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
These healthy chocolate peanut butter cookies are made without eggs and dairy. As a result, they are vegan cookies.
Plus, they use healthy low-carb flour and unrefined sugar to make them a little bit healthier than regular chocolate cookies.
Ingredients
All you need to make these 4-ingredient chocolate peanut butter cookies are:
- Natural Peanut Butter – it means peanut butter with no added oil, no added sugar, and a drippy texture. A fresh jar of natural peanut butter works the best since peanut butter from an old jar can have hardened. It would be more difficult to work with it in the recipe.
- Maple Syrup – this is my favorite unrefined sweetener because it adds a delicious maple flavor to cookies. Other vegan, gluten-free options are agave syrup or date syrup.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – make sure you measure this precisely. It contains a lot of fiber, and adding a little too much can significantly dry out the batter. Fill the tablespoon and sweep extra on top.
- Almond Flour – or oat flour.
Optional ingredients in this recipe are:
- Vanilla extract – optional but delicious
- Salt– use only if your peanut butter is unsalted.
- Chocolate Chips – feel free to add 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips into the batter to add an extra chocolate flavor. There are plenty of healthy vegan chocolate chips available. Some are also flavored, like mint chocolate chips, and go well in these cookie recipes for Christmas.
Making The Batter
These easy chocolate peanut butter cookies require minimal steps, minimal ingredients, and simple tools.
All you need is a mixing bowl, 4 ingredients, and only 10 minutes to make the dough, from measuring the ingredients to mixing.
Before starting, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
First, combine the natural peanut butter with maple syrup in a large bowl until creamy and smooth.
Then, stir in cocoa powder and almond flour, using the spatula first, then your hands to bring the ingredients together.
Forming Cookies
Next, scoop out dough to form and roll dough balls between your hands.
This recipe makes 8 cookies. Place each cookie dough ball on the prepared baking sheet leaving one thumb of space between each ball.
Press each ball with the back of a fork to flatten slightly and form a cross on top of the cookies.
Baking Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Finally, bake in a preheated oven until set on top, about 8-12 minutes.
Let them cool down at room temperature and wait about 30 minutes to appreciate their full texture.
How Do Almond Flour Chocolate Cookies Taste?
These cookies taste like a regular peanut butter cookie recipe with a lovely chocolate flavor. They are crunchy chocolate cookies with a slightly crumbly texture when you give a bite.
They won’t raise or expand in the oven because they are gluten-free, and even if you add a raising agent like baking soda, it won’t change their texture.
They are not overly sweet as they contain a minimal amount of maple syrup. You can adjust their sweetness by adding a few mini chocolate chips to the batter when adding the almond flour.
Jump to the recipe below for all my tips to customize these 4-ingredient chocolate cookies and make them even better!
How To Store Cookies
These cookies are egg-free and don’t contain butter, so they store very well at room temperature in a cookie jar.
Almond flour is sensitive to moisture, so it’s better to use a perfectly sealed jar to prevent air from going into the box.
This keeps the cookies crunchy for up to 5 days.
You can also freeze these cookies in a ziplock silicone bag and thaw them at room temperature 3 hours before eating.
Allergy Swaps
There are many options to customize this recipe based on your allergies or dietary preferences.
Below I listed the options I tested, and they work well.
- Peanut butter swaps – sunflower seed butter works really well in this recipe. The flavor is great, but some people may find sunflower butter a bit bitter, so make sure you love the taste of plain sunflower butter before trying. Almond butter and tahini are other options. Make sure the jar is fresh and the spread is drippy, not dry.
- Maple syrup swaps – any liquid sweetener, except sugar-free maple syrup, works well here. This includes date syrup, agave syrup, and rice syrup for the healthy unrefined options.
- Almond flour swaps – if you have an allergy to almonds, ultra-fine oat flour is an option, but the cookies come out a bit dryer. I didn’t try all-purpose wheat flour in this recipe, and I am not sure how it would work.
- Cocoa powder – you can use cacao powder or cocoa powder. Both work with the same amount. The chocolate flavor is always stronger with cacao powder. I recommend unsweetened to keep the recipe low in sugar and healthy.
More Almond Flour Cookies
I absolutely adore baking with almond flour, especially cookies, because it adds the most beautiful nutty flavor, and it’s a healthy twist to regular flour.
In fact, almond flour contains fewer carbs and healthy fats, and it’s gluten-free, so a great option if you are sensitive to grains.
Plus, almond flour is great for making egg-free vegan cookies as it creates a sticky cookie dough very quickly without adding eggs or butter.
Made these vegan chocolate peanut butter cookies? Share a picture with me on Instagram, or share your review by commenting below. I love to hear your feedback on my recipes.
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Gluten-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup Natural Peanut Butter - smooth, fresh, no added sugar, no added oil
- ¼ cup Maple Syrup - or agave syrup or date syrup
- ¾ cup Almond Flour - or oat flour
- 4 tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Optional
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ¼ teaspoon Salt - if peanut butter unsalted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine natural peanut butter and maple syrup until creamy and smooth. Add vanilla and salt now if used.
- Add unsweetened cocoa powder and almond flour into the bowl and stir until combined. When it starts to be difficult to stir, use your hands to squeeze and knead the dough and form a cookie dough ball.
- Divide the cookie dough into 8 balls of the same size and place each cookie dough ball onto the prepared cookie sheet leaving 1 thumb space between each ball.
- Press down the cookie dough ball with the back of the fork to form a cross on top of the cookies.
- If you like, decorate with sprinkles and press them in using the fork again.
- Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until set on top.
- Cool on a cooling rack. They firm up and get very crunchy when completely cooled down.
- Store in a cookie jar for up to 5 days at room temperature.
You say not to use sugar free maple syrup as a substitute for maple syrup. Why is that? And can you suggest what I can use as a sugar free replacement?
Some sugar-free syrup might work, like Choc Zero because they are mainly made of fiber, not water. However, since this syrup is high in fiber it also dry out the dough and make the cookies crumbly.
Hi, Carine!
Can I sub maple syrup with water instead?
Oh no sorry that won’t work at all
Just dx. Celiac’s ♀️ First timing baking gluten free. Easy and even hubby loved them and he does not need to be gluten-free! Thanks!
amazing recipe! I substituted almond butter for almond flour and it worked out just fine.
So easy and absolutely delicious! Will make again and again!
Can you make this recipe with PB2 powder? If yes, how?
I don’t thick so, you need the peanut butter fat to gather the cookie batter together
Looks great! Can I use tahini instead of peanut butter?
Sure, tahini is a bit bitter though the cookies won’t taste the same
I just made it today and I really like it! I love chocolate and it’s my down fall with losing weight. Will always do this!
Absolutely genius recipe. Works well each time. Totally tasty and so simple to make.
Sounds yummy can I use gluten free flour, instead of almond flour?
I didn’t try this option so I am not sure how it will impact the texture.
Lovely so easy to make didn’t have oat flour so blitzed some oats. Next time I will devide into 10 rather than 8.
Made these a few times they are so good!!
Has anyone tried these with the oat flour or even coconut flour along with SunButter? We have nut allergies in our family. I’m curious if anyone had success modifying this recipe to suit those who are both gluten-free and nut-free.
I would like to try without the peanut butter. What should I do to adjust recipe?
You can’t remove the peanut butter here. Try almond butter or sunflower seed butter instead
The freshly ground peanut butter or almonds butter at our health food store is not runny, more thick, but most, how should I adjust the recipe for that.
You may have to add a teaspoon or 2 of melted coconut oil to adjust but start without adding oil and if the dough is too dry, add it. Enjoy the recipes on the blog, XOXO Carine
These were very tasty and so easy to make! I ended up using coconut flour instead of almond four, so the ratio is a bit different and I added an egg because that’s what I read online. Anyways, definitely excited to try more of these recipes!
Thanks!!
These are quick and yummy..thanks for sharing!
Great, thanks!
Can almond butter be used? Or is it too runny?
Sure any runny, drippy nut or seed butter will be perfect
How many cookies are people getting out of the original recipe? I got 9 with a largest one.
Yum! Just made these – they are so good! Easy, fast and delicious, taking these on a road trip if I can keep hubby’s hands out of the cookie jar! Will be making a double batch next. Thanks for the recipe!
Can you please include the cholesterol count in your recipes for nutritional information? I have to do low carbs and low cholesterol diets & having a hard time finding recipes for sweet tooth & low fat.
Re: Cholesterol count – zero. None of these ingredients contain any cholesterol. Cholesterol is only found in foods that come from animals; there is no cholesterol in foods that come from plants.
I am sorry its not something I can add in my nutrition panel, they are generated automatically using a nutrition data base based on the ingredients I am using and this information is not included