These Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies are easy one-bowl vegan cookies with a delicious crunchy texture and peanut butter flavors.
If you can call yourself a peanut butter lover, you’ll love this new vegan cookie recipe. It’s a simple vegan peanut butter cookie recipe that I make all the time. It’s kinda the mother recipe of all of my vegan gluten-free peanut butter cookies, 2-ingredient peanut butter cookies, and 3-ingredient peanut butter cookies with oat flour.
It’s quite possibly the one type of cookies I make the most. There’s something about peanut butter that gives the cookies a delicious taste and a fantastic texture that is both crumbly and buttery. This recipe is the vegan version of the most simple, classic peanut butter cookies.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make crunchy peanut butter vegan cookies are:
- All-Purpose Flour – You may find success using an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend. As long as your blend contains added gum, the cookie dough should come together just fine.
- Creamy Peanut Butter – Use natural peanut butter with no added oil, no added sugar, or added salt.
- Almond Milk – Or any other plant-based milk.
- Granulated Sweetener – I like either coconut sugar or unrefined cane sugar, but white sugar works as well.
- Baking Soda and Baking Powder – for a perfect cookie texture.
- Vanilla Extract – for flavor.
- Salt – skip if your peanut butter is already salted.
How To Make Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
There are many ways of making crunchy peanut butter cookies without eggs or dairy.
You can, for example, make my almond flour peanut butter cookies, but if you prefer baking with regular wheat flour, this is how.
- First, in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer using the paddle attachment, add the creamy peanut butter, almond milk, vanilla extract, and sugar until smooth. It takes under 1 minute on low-medium speed.
- Stop the beater, and add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Beat on low speed to gently incorporate, or use a spoon or silicone spatula to bring the ingredients into a cookie dough ball. The dough dries out as you go. If you work by hand, you may need to knead the dough and squeeze the ingredients together to bring them into a dough ball.
- Place the ball in a smaller bowl, cover it with plastic, wrap it, and chill it for 15 minutes. Don’t over-chill the peanut butter cookie dough, or the peanut butter hardens, and it gets oily and hard to work with.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly oil them with coconut oil or cooking oil spray. Set it aside.
- Scoop out one tablespoon of dough, roll it into a ball between your hands, and place it on the prepared baking sheet leaving a thumb of space between each peanut butter cookie. These vegan cookies won’t expand much in the oven. However, it’s preferable to leave space around them as you need to flatten them down.
- In a small bowl, add the sugar. Then, roll the unbaked peanut butter cookie dough balls evenly. Place them on the baking sheet. Skip for low-sugar vegan peanut butter cookies.
- Use a fork, slightly oil, so it doesn’t stick to the cookie dough, and press down the dough ball twice, crosswise.
- Bake the cookies at 350°F (180°C) for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
- Let them cool down for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Storage Instructions
These vegan peanut butter cookies store very well at room temperature in a sealed jar for up to 5-6 days. You can freeze leftover cookies in zip-lock bags or airtight boxes and thaw them at room temperature the day before.
Add-Ons
Of course, you can use this recipe as a base to create a range of vegan peanut butter cookie flavors. Feel free to stir some of the following in the dough at the same time you add the flour:
- 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup of your favorite vegan chocolate chips for a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe.
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup of crushed peanuts
Allergy Swaps
These cookies are naturally egg-free and dairy-free. But, if some of the ingredients listed in the recipe card below are not suitable for you, try some of the alternatives below:
- Gluten-Free – I didn’t try gluten-free all-purpose flour in this recipe, but I am confident it will work. Otherwise, try my 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies for a vegan, gluten-free option. Always make sure your baking powder is gluten-free.
- Sugar-Free – Some natural granulated sweeteners work as 1:1 replacements for sugar, but watch out! Some are making cookies super-soft, including allulose and xylitol. The best option is golden erythritol or white erythritol for crunchy sugar-free vegan peanut butter cookies.
- Nut-Free – You can use this recipe with sunflower seed butter and nut-free plant-based milk, like soy milk, coconut milk, or oat milk.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are my answers to your most common questions about this cookie recipe.
Yes, absolutely! But make sure you stir very well the peanut butter before using it. In fact, crunchy peanut butter is a bit less drippy, and if the jar is not fresh or well combined, the cookies will be dry.
Yes, you can use fresh, drippy almond butter to replace peanut butter.
More Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
If you love making vegan cookies, try these other recipes:
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Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Peanut Butter (Unsalted) - note 1
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Sugar - note 2
- ⅓ cup Almond Milk - note 3
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
To coat cookies – optional
- ¼ cup Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly oil the paper with an oil spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, stir the creamy peanut butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and milk until creamy.
- Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. The dough will be difficult to stir with a spoon. Feel free to use your hands to squeeze and knead it to form a smooth cookie dough ball.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes.
- Shape 16 cookie dough balls of about 1 tablespoon each.
- If you want a boost of sweetness, place the extra sugar listed in the optional ingredients in a bowl. Then, roll each cookie dough ball into sugar to coat it evenly.
- Place each cookie dough ball on the baking sheets leaving a thumb space between each cookie. They won't expand much.
- Use the back of a fork to press down the cookie dough balls and form a crisscross shape on top of the cookies.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies are just golden brown on top.
- Remove from oven, cool down on the rack until they form up then transfer to a cooling rack.
Storage
- Store in a cookie jar at room temperature for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months in airtight bags.
Delicious cookies, I followed the recipe to the t and they turned out… fantastic
Thank you ☺️☺️
Best vegan peanut butter cookies I’ve ever tried. by far.
I really like this recipe.