Flourless AND dairy-free peanut butter cookies, I should say. These cookies are a great option for my gluten-free and dairy-free friends, but I love them just because they’re just so incredibly easy. These peanut butter cookies are rich, soft, and perfectly salty-sweet. And because they’re so easy to make (no mixer required), I bet they’d be a fun weekend project to make with the kids!
What’s in Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies?
Flourless peanut butter cookies have been around for a while and the concept is simple: peanut butter + egg + sugar bakes into a tasty, sweet, and soft cookie. Most flourless peanut butter cookies use peanut butter-like JIF or Peter Pan, which has a fairly solid texture at room temperature. I prefer natural peanut butter, which is a little runnier, so I had to adjust the formula a bit to help the cookies keep their shape.
To account for the softer, almost liquid-like, texture of natural peanut butter, I substituted some of the regular sugar in the cookie for powdered sugar. Powdered sugar has an incredible thickening property that worked perfectly for helping these cookies hold their shape despite the soft peanut butter.
Can I Use Other Nut and Seed Butters?
While I haven’t tried other nut butters in this recipe, I would expect them to work so long as they have a similar texture to the natural peanut butter used here. Almond butter sounds great, as does sunflower butter. I bet tahini might even be interesting! Just keep in mind that if your nut butter has added sugar, you may want to reduce the sugar in the recipe below.
You may also need to adjust the amount of powdered sugar depending on the viscosity of your nut butter to make sure the dough has the correct texture.
What Else Can I Add?
These peanut butter cookies would be so fun to add some mix-ins or toppings! I originally planned to drizzle a little melted chocolate over my cookies (after they’re cooled), but realized too late that I was out. You could also mix in some chocolate chips, nuts, or crushed pretzels into the dough.
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
Servings 12 cookiesIngredients
- 1 cup natural peanut butter ($1.10)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar ($0.12)
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar ($0.05)
- 1 large egg ($0.23)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract ($0.14)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder ($0.01)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and stir until it forms a cohesive dough. It should be firm enough to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is still too soft, add a tablespoon or two more of powdered sugar to further firm up the dough.
- Divide the cookie dough into twelve pieces. Roll each piece into a ball then flatten it slightly. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and then use a fork to create a corss hatch pattern on the top of the cookie.
- Bake the cookies for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. After baking, allow them to cool for about five minutes on the baking sheet, or until they're firm enough to lift with a spatula.
- Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely, then serve and enjoy.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Video
How to Make Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Add one cup natural peanut butter, ¾ cup granulated sugar, ⅔ cup powdered sugar, 1 large egg, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, and ½ teaspoon baking powder to a bowl. The dough will be easier to mix together if the peanut butter is not chilled.
Mix these ingredients together until they form a cohesive dough that is firm enough to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Divide the dough into twelve pieces, roll each one into a ball, then flatten slightly. Use a fork to make a cross hatch pattern in the top of each cookie.
I like to bake the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet to make cleanup super fast and easy. Make sure to space the cookies a couple of inches apart, as they will grow a bit as they bake!
Bake the cookies in a preheated 350ºF oven for 12 minutes. Let the baked cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes so they can firm up before using a spatula to transfer to a wire rack (they’ll be super soft when hot).
After allowing the cookies to cool completely, store in an air-tight container at room temperature for about a week, or they can be frozen for a few months!
These look fantastic and I love peanut butter. Unfortunately, we’ve had to cut sugar out of our lives. If anyone tries with a powdered sugar substitute, I’d love to hear it!
This recipe works perfectly with Lankato powdered & granulated monkfruit sweeteners!
My dough just fell apart. I tried adding my powdered sugar but it didn’t help. Any idea what I did wrong?
It sounds like the moisture ratio was off somehow. My guess is that either your peanut butter was drier than mine or perhaps you used a different size egg?
5 stars
5 stars! really good!
So delicious! Followed recipe and dipped half the cookies in chocolate.
Yum!! This will be my go-to flourless pb cookies recipe from now on! I’ve tried different recipes before but the addition of powdered sugar in this one is genius because the cornstarch in the powdered sugar acts as a binding ingredient in place of flour. Thank you for this recipe, Beth! :)
If anyone else is using Kirkland Signature Organic Peanut Butter and prefers to measure by weight for the pb & sugars, I used:
256g natural pb
150g granulated sugar
65g powdered sugar
This worked out perfectly for me & hope this helps someone!
Forgot to rate 🤦 Five stars all around!
For those who also prefer to bake by weight instead of volume I tested the following:
240g Peanut Butter
166g Sugar
90g Powdered Sugar
6g Vanilla
2g Baking Powder
Each dough ball came out to be 45g and I baked for 15 minutes for a crisper cookie.
Omg these were so good!!
I know right?? They were amazing!!
Hii! I made these and at 12 minutes they were super mushy so I cooked them longer and 5 minutes later they were burnt (but still soft?).
Tasted delicious anyway but any idea what went wrong?
Yes, they will be quite soft when they’re hot but they firm up as they cool, so they were probably just right at 12 min. :)
You were right. Thank u so much for the help ! ♡
Does this recipe assume the peanut butter is salted? What if it isn’t- how much salt would you recommend?
Yep, use peanut butter that contains salt. I’m not sure how much to add if using unsalted. I’d need to test it to find out.
For me …. they are too sweet.
ok
yum! I wonder if it would work to make an indentation in the center and put in a spoonful of jam, either before or after baking. will have to experiment…
Good idea. Like thumbprint cookies? It’s probably best to add the jam after cooking as the jam can dry a bit in the oven
Oh shoot! Sorry – you totally answered my question at the top of your post. Still excited to try!
YUM. I always have these things on hand. Can’t wait to try them. Quick question: would it work okay to use just regular ol’ peanut butter or does it have to be natural?
Thanks!
Yes, just to clarify what’s in the post, most recipes out there for flourless PB cookies use 1 cup granulated sugar total in place of the granulated and powdered that I used here. Do not sub granulated 1:1 for the powdered sugar in my recipe below because powdered sugar is far less dense so you need more of it.
I remember making these with sunflower butter once, and as I recall, they turned green! Just a headsup for anybody who wants to try a non-peanut butter.
Sounds great for St. Patrick’s Day!
Ha! The scientist in me really wants to know what reaction caused the color change! :D
From the Sunbutter website: When substituting SunButter in your existing recipe, you may have to reduce the baking soda/powder by about 1/3. The chlorogenic acid (chlorophyll) in sunflower seeds reacts with the baking soda/powder when baked, causing the green color when the cookies cool. This is completely harmless!
So interesting!! Thank you for looking that up for me! 😄 #ilovescience