Rich but not too sweet, these vegan, gluten-free peanut butter cookies couldn’t be easier to make. Top them with a crunchy, palate-pleasing combo of flaky sea salt and turbinado sugar, or go thumbprint style with a dollop of your favourite jam or chunk of chocolate.
Ingredients
These peanut butter cookies are made with natural peanut butter. Natural peanut butter tends to need stirring when you open the jar, as the oil will be sitting on the top. Make sure it’s well stirred before you measure it.
The other ingredients are: almond flour, coconut sugar, aquafaba (which is the liquid from canned or cooked chickpeas and which serves as the egg replacer), a little bit of margarine, vanilla, and baking powder. If you don’t have coconut sugar, regular white sugar would work too. (If you’re vegan, you’ll need to check whether the white sugar is vegan – some is and some isn’t).
Making the Crunchy Topping
For the crunchy topping, mix equal amounts of flaky sea salt and turbinado sugar, which is also called raw sugar (although it’s not actually raw). Sea salt and turbinado sugar both have larger crystals than regular salt and sugar, adding a nice textural contrast. If you don’t have these on hand, you can replace with sea salt and more coconut sugar.
Making the Cookies Thumbprint Style
If you want to make a thumbprint style cookie, use your thumb or finger to make an indent in the middle of each cookie. Then add your choice of jam, jelly, or chocolate.
Making the Peanut Butter Cookies
Preheat your oven to 350F.
Put all ingredients in mixing bowl and mix… 
for 1-2 minutes, until the mixture is well-combined. It will look crumbly but should be easy to roll into a a ball 
Make 12 cookies 
Use a fork to flatten the cookies slightly. Then top with sugar/salt mixture. (Or make a thumbprint and add jam, jelly, or chocolate.)
Pop them in the oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just starting to brown. Let them cool on the baking sheet. They will look quite soft when you remove them from the oven, but they’ll firm up as the cool down.
These cookies are rich and dense, so you’ll want to enjoy along with some milk or tea.
Other Cookie Ideas?
- Vegan Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies
- Vegan Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Ginger Molasses Cookies.
Printable Recipe Card: 1-Bowl Peanut Butter Cookies
Peanut Butter Cookies (Vegan and Gluten-Free)
Materials
- 1 cup peanut butter all natural, sugar-free, salt-free
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 2 tablespoons margarine
- 3 tablespoons aquafaba (liquid from canned or cooked chickpeas) (See recipe notes)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
Salt and Sugar Topping
- .5 teaspoon raw sugar (or substitute coconut or white sugar)
- .5 teaspoon flaky sea salt (or substitute with sea salt, or table salt. If using table salt use about half the amount as it's saltier.)
Optionally
- jam or jelly
- chocolate (either a few chips or chunks from a bar)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix for 1-2 minutes, until the dough is well combined. It will look crumbly but it should be easy to roll into a ball.
- Roll into 12 balls. Use a fork to flatten each cookie slightly and then top with a good sprinkle of the salt/sugar topping. Alternatively, flatten slightly and then use a thumb or finger to make an indent in the middle of the cookie. Drop in a dollop of jam or jelly or a chunk of chocolate (or even a few chocolate chips)
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just starting to brown.
- Let them cool on the baking sheet. They will look quite soft when you remove them from the oven, but they will firm up as they cool down.
Notes
Peanut Butter
I have only tested these with all natural peanut butter. Your results may vary if you use sweetened peanut butter.Aquafaba
See our post, Aquafaba: An Easy Vegan Egg Replacer.Almond Flour
This is also called ground skinless blanched almonds. I use superfine almond flour. If you’re buying almond flour to make this recipe, also check out the Mother Mix recipe, which uses almond flour. It’s an awesome pantry staple that you can use to make over 15 different dairy-free comfort food recipes.Nutritional Information
Nutritional information is an estimate only, without the toppings.Nutrition
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2 comments
Omg these are awesome. I only substituted aquafaba with flax egg and they were still great. My little toddler is gobbling them up as I type this!
So happy you and your little one enjoyed them!