Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies
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Published Dec 09, 2020, Updated Feb 08, 2023
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These delicious and healthy peanut butter cookies are made in one bowl and with only 4 ingredients. Sweetened with maple syrup and made without eggs or butter! Vegan + gluten-free.
While I love my healthy peanut butter blossoms, I’ve been wanting to create a classic peanut butter cookie recipe and here they are!
And guess what? You only need FOUR ingredients to make these… no butter, no eggs and no traditional flour! I know it doesn’t seem right… but it is correct and these cookies are simply delicious!
In years past, I have always loved getting together with my family and friends for cookie baking and cookie exchanges! This year looks different, but I’m still determined to get creative and connect. I see Zoom or FaceTime baking days in my future… with ugly holiday sweaters, holiday music, the whole shebang.
This recipe would be perfect to make while Zoom-ing with a loved one – just gather the ingredients, mix and bake!
Peanut Butter Cookie Ingredients
Like I mentioned above, you only need four simple ingredients (five if you decide to add the salt). If you’re like me you probably have all of the ingredients to make these cookies sitting in your kitchen right now!
- creamy natural peanut butter – look for a brand with just one or two ingredients (peanuts and salt).
- maple syrup – make sure to get pure maple syrup, not the artificial pancake syrup.
- vanilla extract
- almond flour – look for blanched super-fine almond flour. I like Bob’s Red Mill.
- flaked sea salt – optional but I like sprinkling on top for added flavor.
Substitutions & Notes
- Almond flour – I highly recommend using almond flour for this recipe for the best result, but I have tested it with oat flour and the cookies will still turn out, but they are a bit more dry tasting because oat flour has less fat than almond flour.
- Peanut butter – I’m assuming you can swap with any nut or seed butter, but I’ve only tested the recipe with natural peanut butter and almond butter, which is also delicious!
- Maple syrup – You can totally use another liquid sweetener like coconut nectar or honey. I’ve tested these with honey and they were yummy, but I personally like the flavor of maple syrup better.
How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies
Because we’re not using eggs, butter or traditional flour, these cookies can be made in one bowl. Woo-hoo for less dishes! Here’s how to make them:
- Mix wet ingredients – Add peanut butter, maple syrup and vanilla into a mixing bowl. Stir until combined.
- Add dry ingredients – Add the almond flour to the wet ingredients and stir until incorporated.
- Shape cookies – Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten each dough ball with a fork, making a criss cross pattern and sprinkle with sea salt if using.
- Bake – Bake at 350ºF for 12 minutes or until the cookies begin to brown. Let cookies cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
More Cookie Recipes
- Almond Flour Crescent Cookies
- SunButter Cookies
- Lemon Almond Flour Cookies
- Healthy No Bake Cookies
- Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
- Oatmeal Date Cookies
- Healthy Sugar Cookies (Cut-Out Cookies)
- Dark Chocolate, Pistachio and Cardamom Cookies
- 5-Ingredient Peanut Butter Protein Cookies
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Almond Cookies
- Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Lemon Ricotta Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Oatmeal Scotchies
Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup maple syrup, or honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup almond flour
- flaked sea salt for topping, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add peanut butter, maple syrup and vanilla into a mixing bowl. Once combined, add in almond flour and stir until incorporated.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet. Alternatively, you can scoop dough with a spoon and roll it into a ball.
- Flatten each dough ball with a fork, making a crisscross pattern and sprinkle a little flaked sea salt on top of each cookie, if using.
- Bake in a preheated oven for about 12 minutes or until cookies begin to brown. Remove from oven, allow cookies to cool on a wire rack and enjoy.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Thank you for this simple recipe. I used 3/4 cup of almond flour and 1/4 cup oat bran. Also, 1/2 honey, 1/2 stevia powder. As it was a bit dry, added 1/4 cup almond milk. Very tasty. As another mentioned, they can burn easily especially on the top rack of the oven. Looking forward to trying your sugar cookie recipe and lots of others on your website.
Yay! I am so glad this recipe worked out for you, AJ. Thank you so much for sharing your review + star rating, I appreciate it and hope you enjoy the sugar cookies too!
these did not form into cookies and came out tasting terrible. i threw the whole batch out.
Oh no, I am so sorry to hear that these did not turn out for you, Sarah. Did you change anything about the recipe?
Just made these yesterday and I already had to make another batch! I think they harden PERFECTLY if they are underdone. So tasty!!!
WOO! I am excited to hear that you are enjoying these tasty cookies, Alex. Thanks so much for coming back and sharing your review + star rating, it means so much to me!
I really was hoping to love these as I was happy with the list of ingredients. But none of us could eat these. Threw them away. They were crumbly and beyond dry. I used the same almond flour as you and used honey rather than maple syrup. Is there an ingredient missing from the list maybe? Only one other comment is like mine. Where did we go wrong??
Hi Dena – I am sorry to hear these did not turn out as you had hoped. The recipe should have worked fine with honey, it just sounds like they may have been a tad over baked, because there aren’t any ingredients missing from the list. Make sure you bake them for the time listed above and remove them, they will continue baking on the hot pan until you remove them to the wire rack for cooling. Hope you will give these another try.