Vegan Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 09/20/2020 - Last updated on 11/19/2023
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This easy 7-Ingredient Vegan Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookie recipe is made with all-purpose gluten-free flour, no refined sugar, and is oil-free.
A healthy peanut butter cookie recipe high in protein, fiber, and nutrients.
What Are Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies?
These cookies are dairy-free and gluten-free peanut butter cookies. They are similar to my Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies, but with gluten-free ingredients.
They are made with gluten-free ingredients and have a classic peanut butter taste for an allergy-friendly snack or dessert.
How To Make Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
This is an easy 7-ingredient gluten-free peanut butter cookie recipe made in 1 bowl.
In fact, you don’t need a food processor or any fancy kitchen tools to make these peanut butter cookies.
All you need is a mixing bowl, a spoon, and a baking sheet with parchment paper. Let’s see the ingredients you need to make this dairy and gluten-free peanut butter cookie.
Ingredients
These grain-free peanut butter cookies are made with 7 wholesome ingredients:
- Natural Peanut Butter – use a fresh jar with oil on top or almond butter if you want to decrease the saturated fat in the recipe. However, almond butter is often less runny and oily, and the cookies come out on the dry side.
- All-purpose 1:1 gluten-free flour – make sure it contains xanthan gum! I am using bob’s red mill 1 to 1 baking flour blend. It contains healthy gluten-free flour like rice flour, tapioca flour, sorghum, brown rice flour, and xanthan gum.
- Coconut sugar – or unrefined cane sugar or any crystal sugar you love! I recommend coconut sugar to add a lovely caramel flavor to your grain-free peanut butter cookies, but any other crystal sugar provides tasty results.
- Dairy-free milk at room temperature – you can use soy milk, unsweetened almond milk, or oat milk. The only trick is to use milk at room temperature. In fact, if your milk is too cold, it will harden the peanut butter, and the dough will be difficult to stir.
- Vanilla extract
- Baking soda
Making Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
This is the easiest peanut butter cookie recipe.
All you have to do is stir the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients to form a cookie dough. Also, chilling the dough or flax egg is not necessary for this recipe.
Shaping Peanut Butter Cookies
You can immediately roll the cookie dough balls in your hands. Then, place each ball onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
Finally, press each cookie dough ball with a fork to flatten the cookies before baking. Note that these cookies won’t expand in the oven, so it’s crucial to flatten the dough first.
Bake at hot oven temperature to 350°F (180°C) for 12 minutes or until golden and crispy on the side.
Cooling Down Before Eating
These gluten-free, dairy-free peanut butter cookies with grain-free flours require a 10-minute cooldown on the rack before being transferred onto a cooling rack.
Peanut Butter Cookie Options
There are many ways to customize this recipe and create a range of beautiful peanut butter cookie flavors.
You can add the recommended ingredients into the dough if desired:
- Vanilla extract – add 1 teaspoon for a lovely vanilla flavor.
- Chocolate chips – add 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips at the same time you add the flour and combine.
- Salt – add a pinch of salt, about 1/4 teaspoon. Note that if you are using salted peanut butter, this option is not recommended.
- Paleo peanut butter cookies – this recipe uses grain-free flour and unrefined sugar. Consequently, it’s a paleo-approved recipe if you replace the peanut butter with sunflower seed butter or almond butter! Most of the time, peanut butter is in the grey zone for paleo eaters, so these are two paleo-friendly options to turn this recipe into paleo cookies.
How Do Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies Taste?
These peanut butter cookies are crunchy, not soft or chewy, and lightly sweet with a strong peanut butter flavor.
If you are looking for a soft and chewy healthy peanut butter cookie recipe, you may prefer my oatmeal vegan peanut butter cookie recipe.
Storing Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
These healthy vegan peanut butter cookies store very well at room temperature in a sealed jar for up to 1 week.
Obviously, this is a vegan recipe, so they are egg-free peanut butter cookies which means they store for longer.
More Vegan Peanut Butter Recipes
I have so many healthy peanut butter recipes to try. All made with healthy flours, egg-free, and natural peanut butter:
Have you made these gluten-free peanut butter cookies with gluten-free flours? Share a picture with me on Instagram. I love to see your creations.
Did You Like This Recipe?
Leave a comment below or head to our Facebook page for tips, our Instagram page for inspiration, our Pinterest for saving recipes, and Flipboard to get all the new ones!
Vegan Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Natural Peanut Butter - fresh, runny jar
- 6 tablespoons Almond Milk
- 1 cup All-purpose Gluten-Free Flour - make sure it contains xanthan gum, Bob's red mill is the best
- 1 cup Coconut Sugar - or white sugar or unrefined cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt - optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine fresh, runny peanut butter with almond milk (at room temperature!). Stir until creamy and smooth. If your almond milk is too cold, it may not stir well. Microwave the bowl for 20 seconds to soften the peanut butter if needed.
- Stir in all-purpose gluten-free flour, coconut sugar, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. The dough gets difficult to combine with a spoon so use your hands to form the cookie dough.
- Scoop 2 tablespoons of dough and roll cookie dough into a ball between your hands.
- Place each dough ball onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving 1 thumb space between each ball.
- Repeat until all the dough is formed into balls.
- Press each cookie dough ball 2 times, with the back of a fork, to form a cross on the top of the cookies.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown on the side. The cookies will be soft in the middle when out of the oven and that's normal.
- Cool the cookies down for 10 minutes on the rack, then slide a spatula under each cookie to transfer them one by one onto a cooling rack.
- Cool 1 hour to appreciate their best texture.
Storage
- Store up to 1 week in a sealed cookie jar in the pantry.
Love this peanut butter cookie recipe. I have also swapped out the pb to walnut butter, added a little cinnamon and chopped walnuts….so so good. Note: the walnut butter cookies spread more than the pb cookies. Next, almond butter cookies. Again, thank you for the recipe.
The best peanut butter cookie ever! Since my husband’s celiac diagnosis I’m always looking for good cookie recipes and this one fits the bill! Thank you so much ❤️
Thanks for such a lovely comment! Enjoy the recipes on the blog.
Hi, I’m wondering if soy milk works as well as almond?
I used oat milk and cookies were delicious 🙂
Absolutely!
I’d like to swap out the sugar for something healthier — perhaps applesauce or Maple syrup? Will either of these work as replacement for the coconut sugar?
I didn’t try something else but I wouldn’t recommend swapping a granulated sweetener for a liquid sweetener. The cookies will be softer. You can try natural sugar free sweetener like brown erythritol to cut carbs and sugar
I made these last night 🙂 They are delicious. Thumbs up from everyone
Excellent recipe. I topped with a chocolate kiss and flattened with a flat bowl bottom.
This recipe is perfect. Very easy to make and delicious. Thank you
My peanut butter is not runny. Its winter here now, and I thought maybe because its cold? (although its not a runny peanut butter even in the summer) Should I just put it in the microwave a bit, to make it runny?
You can microwave the peanut butter with the coconut oil, stir and then add in the recipe
These are fantastic and so easy. Best gluten free cookies I have ever had. I did reduce the sugar to 3/4 c because we prefer less sweetness. I used beet sugar, since cane sugar is a grain trigger for my wife. Also I used Trader Joe’s organic peanut butter, because it is so tasty. Enjoy.
Absolutely amazing cookies,thanks for it! But still not crunchy, it’s more soft and chewy, what might be wrong with mine?
May be bake them slightly longer. Which sweetener did you use?