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
Here's what goes into these cookies:
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.
Visual Overview: Making 1-Bowl Peanut Butter Cookies
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix for about 1-2 minutes.
Put all ingredients in mixing bowl and mix...
The mixture will look crumbly, but the dough should be easy to roll into a ball.
Roll the dough into 12 balls and place on a baking sheet.
Make 12 cookies
Use a fork to flatten the cookies slightly. Top them with the sugar/salt mixture Alternatively, for thumb drop cookies, make an indentation with a small spoon and add jam, jelly, or chocolate.
Use a fork to press them down gently and then topping with sugar/salt mixture.
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.
Use a fork to press them down gently and then topping with sugar/salt mixture.
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.
Toppings for thumbprint version of 1-Bowl Peanut Butter Cookies
1-Bowl Peanut Butter cookies
Tips: Replacing eggs
Eggs serve different purposes in different recipes, including leavening and binding. There's a variety of ways to replace eggs in plant-based cooking, but we prefer aquafaba for most recipes, especially for baking. Aquafaba, meaning bean water, is the liquid from canned or home-cooked beans. Read more about this wonder ingredient: Aquafaba: An Easy Vegan Egg Replacer.
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Recipe Card
Peanut Butter Cookies (Vegan and Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
- 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.
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!