Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

Here’s another easy 7-ingredient paleo recipe for you! These Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies are a classic dessert that’s better than the real thing. Fans tell me it’s their go-to cookie recipe, and I can’t argue with that because we love them too!

In addition to being a wonderful paleo cookie, these are a great low-carb dessert with only one-quarter cup of sweetener in the entire recipe! To truly make these a paleo treat, use sunbutter rather than peanut butter. Since peanuts are legume, they are not part of the paleo diet.

These Vegan Peanut Butter cookies are gluten-free, grain-free, and egg-free. I based them on the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe on 101 Cookbooks. I made a number of changes to that recipe. Of course I eliminated the wheat flour. Then I cut the amount of sweetener and switched up the oil. I haven’t ever met a recipe that I didn’t want to completely rewrite.

Comments

This is my go to recipe for PB cookies. I did swap in room temp butter instead of shortening, and added an egg to keep it together. Being type 2 diabetic, most cookies are not worth the trouble as you get MAYBE 2 cookies from all the sugar. I get about 12 cookies per recipe with my scoop and I did the math, they average 5 grams of carbs per cookie so I can have 3 or even 4 as a splurge. Thanks for sharing.

I made these with sun butter and they turned out great! I could only find the crunchy sun butter so I threw it in my blendec twister jar to make it creamy. The dough was very oily, but after the cookies baked they were perfect!!! Thanks for another great recipe.

I just made these and the same thing happened. All peanut butter is not created equal… mine did not have very much oil so I added a few tablespoons of coconut oil to the batter and that did the trick. I hope this helps.

Hi Mary, I am able to eat all nuts and am so thankful, because so many other foods are off limits for me since I’m on a strict grain-free diet! For more information on why I use almond flour read this:

My boyfriend has Crohn’s disease and can’t eat any sort of flour other than nut flours. Coconut flour and almond flour are a lot healthier than corn flour or all-purpose. They also don’t cause inflammation.

I’ve recently been on a peanut butter kick too after reintroducing it.
I made these cookies today and they were absolutely AMAZING.
Once cooled I topped with the tiniest smidge of crunchy peanut butter too and they were SO good.

I halved the recipe, however was wandering how is best to store these for a couple of days – should I refrigerate?

These were fabulous! I followed the recipe and used local raw honey as I dont like other imitation sugars and they were so great. Halved the recipe and it made 6 perfect cookies, slightly more then 1 tbsp a piece. I cooked them for the full 12 min. Thank you elana for being in the world! :)

Hi Kitty, thanks for your comment! I’m sorry to hear the cookies did not turn out correctly for you. The consistency can be different depending on the brands used when baking. Best results come from using the brands that are shown when clicking on the green text in the ingredient portion of the recipe. This is especially true when it comes to brands of almond flour! Hopefully you enjoy the cookies in the future! For more information on almond flour and how it affects the results of my recipes, please see this post:

I used coconut oil too and mine fell apart. (I was dumb and softened it first to help with measuring with honey, so maybe that was the problem.) I used regular table salt and would definitely only put in half next time. (My peanut butter probably had salt in it too. I’ll have to check.) I did like the dough better, so I froze some to eat instead of baking.

Hello – I am wondering why the use of Palm oil shortening – given that deforestation of the Palm is really really awful. Why not coconut oil or something else instead? Any help with a substitution for someone who doesn’t want to use palm for ethical reasons?

Thanks for your comment Dt! I use sustainably harvested palm oil. I haven’t tried making these cookies with something in place of this ingredient so not sure how that would go. Here’s a link to one of my cookie recipes that I think you’ll love!

I haven’t used your recipe yet, but from experience sunflower seed butter (though delicious in traditional peanut butter cookie recipes) will turn your cookies bright green. It is the combination of the sunflower seeds with the baking powder.

3) Time: needed to bake a good 15+ minutes to smell “done” and didn’t really brown too much

Review: The sweetness was perfect. The cookie texture was perfect, a little darker/wetter in the center but baked on the outside. I did not like the flavor of coconut in this cookie. It distracted me from the pleasure of peanut butter. Maybe ghee next time.

So Elana, as usual, had it right in the first place with shortening instead of coconut oil.

On a side note, I actually baked paleo peanut butter cookies from another blog immediately prior to making these. The other blog’s cookie are indeed “The Worst Cookies Ever”. Maybe I could salvage them by breaking them up and pouring coconut milk over them, Dog biscuits.

The other blog’s recipe used 1/2 cup coconut flour, but not enough wet ingredients, only 1 egg. It’s as if that blogger never made one of Elana’s coconut flour recipes with plenty of egg and experienced that “expansiveness” of a good coconut flour recipe.

Moral of the story:
a) 3 Cheers for you, fellow bakers, for sharing your experiences here. Your comments say so much to confirm if readers should invest time/ingredients in that recipe, or keep seeking.

Brandon and Elana…can you specify what you mean by ‘not feeling great’ with a lot of peanut butter? I’m wondering whether any if my symptons correlate…I’ve kinda noticed it but didn’t want to acknowledge it because I LOVE peanut butter…any advice/clarity would be much appreciated!

I am not Elana but I know what you are experiencing. You probably get a stomach ache because peanuts can get moldy and sometimes a moldy peanut can get mixed in with the regular peanuts which can cause you to experience a stomach ache.

I don’t know what she is referring to…..but Peanuts are actually legumes, not nuts, which are grown underground as part of a root system.

It is primarily due to the peanuts’ direct contact with the soil that they have become harmful, and even dangerous, to your health.

Peanuts have a soft and porous skin and they grown in the ground. When the environment surrounding the peanut becomes warm, humid and wet — as it does in most regions of the U.S. where peanuts are commonly grown — a fungal growth/mold occurs.

The fungus itself is not dangerous, but the poison it releases, known as “aflatoxin,” is. This cancer-causing toxin damages the liver, is one of the more deadly food-borne toxins in existence, it feeds candida and more

Choose ORGANIC varieties grown in a dry regions where aflatoxin have not been reported as a problem, such as New Mexico.

Just made these for the dozenth time. We’re not a GF or SF family yet everyone LOVES these cookies anyway.
I used chunky peanut butter. This time. It worked really well. Watch your salt, though, I probably could’ve cut the recipe amount in half… or next time pick up a low sodium pb.

I just took my first batch out of the oven. I used brown rice syrup and xylitol as the sweeters. I added a homemade chocolate chip on top of each cookie.They tuned out great! I just got a thumbs up from my taste tester.

Just made these and they were yummy! I used butter instead of shortening, and I flattened them with a fork for the classic PB cookie look. I used a small disher to portion them out and cooked them for 7 mins. Perfect!

Made these tonight and they are delicious! I used Earth Balance instead of shortening and they turned out great. The first batch was a little overdone on the bottom at 9 min, the second batch were perfect at 7.5 min. I was able to use a fork to flatten them before baking.

made these last night with trader joe’s almond meal, butter & maple syrup. they were fantastic! definitely had to wait for them to cool all the way or they’d fall apart. once cooled, they were perfect!

Just made these today and they turned out delicious!
It was my first attempt at baking with the honeyville almond flour.
Substituted maple syrup for the agave and used butter in place of the shortening.
Very easy to make and a great healthy snack!
Thanks for the recipe!

I’m going grain free and dairy free for a little while, and these were a great treat tonight. I didn’t pat them down and they cooked into rounded shapes like those Enjoy Life cookies at the store. These were delicious. I loved the texture and flavor. They weren’t overly sweet either. Yum! They made my outlook on a grain free, dairy free bit of time not so gloomy.

These are fabulous. I made a few substitutions. Replaced the agave syrup with 1/4 cup maple syrup and about 3 tbl of organic coconut palm sugar. Also replaced the palm shortening (didn’t have any) with 1 tbl of coconut oil. Used Trader Joe’s chunky unsalted organic peanut butter. I’m not a vegan, so I think I’ll try swapping the oil out for an egg. I eat grain/sugar/gluten free and am so happy to have this recipe. Will definately make again….and again.

This is a fabulous recipe. Calories per cookie-118, fat-7.3 grams, protein-3 grams. I made half a batch and yielded 7 perfect cookies. I will add stevia next time in addition to the agave to make it sweeter.

If you yield a different number of cookies and would like to calculate these nutritional values, here are are the values for the entire full recipe: calories-1650, fat-110, protein-42. Just divide by the number of cookies in your batch for per-serving values.

I run the numbers because I am into fitness. I need to know what’s going in me so I know what I need to burn. During my weight-loss years I would never have tried to work almond flour recipies into my regime, due to (baseless) fear of the fat almonds deliver. Now I run the numbers and welcome almond flour-based foods. So long as my total calorie count for the day is around or less than what I burn. So go ahead, have a cookie ;-)

I made these cookies last night, substituting sun butter for the peanut butter. They were amazing! I’m using the past tense because the cookies are GONE already! My significant other loved them as did two of my co-workers. I love them and will make another batch tonight as I have guests visiting this weekend.

What can I use instead of the almond flour? I have the following on hand. Tapioca flour, flaxseed, potato flour, brown rice flour, super fine brown rice flour, and sweet sorgum flour.
I am new at GF baking and these are the only flours I have been able to buy in my area, and had to travel 50+ miles to get them.
Thanks,

Hi Heather and Moe! Thanks for your comments. I’ve been grain-free since 2001, and I haven’t baked with typical GF flours in over 15 years so I’m probably not the best person to give you advice on how to make these using ingredients such as rice flour. If you do experiment I hope you’ll leave a comment to let us know how it turns out!

I looove peanut butter and have my own collection of pb recipes on my healthy vegan blog. I used to love making flourless peanut butter cookies but stopped making them due to the unhealthy and unvegan ingredients. But with your recipe, I want to try again!

Yummm, I am a huge fan of peanut butter. I eat it more than the average normal person should .. And these cookies look amazing. I like the denseness that almond flour gives to baked goods, so I can only imagine how good these are.

These are delicious! I subbed coconut oil but mine didn’t turn out properly…they’re like earthquake cookies…turned into fractured pieces and a pile of crumbs. Tasty, but this didn’t work for me. I’m in Houston, so could it be an altitude difference??

Mine did these too when I over baked them. They really only need the 6 or so minutes and then will cool to perfection. (Though I did really enjoy just pouring a bit of Almond Milk over the crumbs and eating them with a spoon–almost like a dessert cereal.)

I cant eat peanut butter at all. So I decided to give it a whirl with the sunbutter as a substitute. I also added some unsweetened carob chips and they were TERRIF!!!! Cookies dont normally hang around my house for long, but these cookies stay was much shorter than normal!

I used your recipe w/ a few modifications. I used almond butter instead of peanut butter and xylitol as a sweetener. But since your sweetener is liquid, I added a splash of unsweetened almond milk to the batter, until it got the consistency of cookie dough. Looooooved the result. Yay for a low carb, sugar free cookie. Thank you so much for your recipes! I loooooove your blog!

I made these subbing sunflower seed butter for the peanut and grapeseed oil for the shortning (just ‘cuz the shortning is so darn expensive and the grapeseen oil was on sale at my local co-op), and they just turned out lovely. I didn’t quite trust the short cooking time on the first batch and overcooked them a bit, but the second batch…oh boy! Thank you Elana–these were lovely!

Has anyone tried this with almond butter? I’m still off peanuts, but good to know that that can change. Just tried chocolate banana cake from he Gluten-free Almond Flour cookbook. It was very satisfying on so many levels–tasted great and actually felt like I was doing something good for my body.

Made a batch of these this afternoon with a little twist. Used almond butter rather and peanut butter, substituted coconut oil for the shortening and topped each one with one chocolate chip! They are no long Vegan because we use Dagoba which contains milk. They are a really good quick snack. Not too sweet with a bit of chocolate surprise. Very nice! Thanks Elana for the inspiration.

That’s funny because I was just thinking since I didn’t have enough peanut butter if I could use almond butter. I just made half the batch with the peanut butter I had. I may try the almond butter next time. Thanks for sharing the twist. I’m not good at twisting and experimenting in the kitchen. :)

Thank you Elana. I’m a in-bed-by-nine-pm kind of girl, but when I saw your post I had to make these. I did substitute Crunchy Sunbutter for the peanut butter and used coconut oil for the Spectrum and they were wonderful. Your recipes are so yummy!

These sound wonderful! I will, however, be subbing with Sunbutter since my son is allergic to peanuts. And I haven’t been able to find the Spectrum shortening lately, so I think I’ll try Earth Balance.

Is your son allergic to tree nuts as well? I am allergic to peanuts and I am going to try this recipe with Barney Butter- my new peanut butter substitute of choice. It is sweet and creamy, and the closest thing to “Jif” creamy peanut butter as I can remember. It is a gluten free and peanut free facility.

Just put them in the oven! I love that I can read one of Elanas recipes, jump up, have all the ingredient and just make something new! BTW, I didn’t have any shortening so I used vegan butter. Pretty sure they will be delish!

However I am wondering if the vanilla is vegan. It is organic alcohol but they don’t mention whether or not the alcohol is filtered with fish bladders (like many grain or fruit based alcohols are). I’ve contacted them for clarification but since it’s the weekend…

Maybe you’ve already got the heads up on how they filter their alcohol for the vanilla?

Oh my goodness. Instead of fretting about the vanilla in the recipe being filtered through fish bladders (geez almighty) Just buy yourself some organic vanilla, or pick up some organic vanilla beans, a jar, some good brandy, or vodka, or everclear, and make your own organic vanilla extract.

With all due respect (which you clearly aren’t affording me), I wasn’t fretting about it being organic.

Simple lesson: Organic does not equal vegan.

I myself am not vegan but I have friends who are. They will not eat anything that contains an ingredient that isn’t vegan. If the alcohol used in the vanilla isn’t vegan (fish bladders) then then vanilla isn’t either. If the vanilla isn’t then the cookies aren’t. It is wrong to label cookies as being vegan if they contain an ingredient that isn’t.

And yes, I do actually make my own vanilla. The alcohol I use isn’t vegan so my vanilla isn’t either. I’d hoped the link to the vanilla she used would not only be gluten free but vegan certified as well since I was hoping to find a vegan vanilla for friends.

I fail to see how my comment seeking clarification should merit such a derogatory and dismissive remark.

I know the difference between organic and vegan thank you. No lesson needed.

You are making a mountain out of a mole hill here. This was a simple cookie recipe post, courtesy of Elana, that readers could choose to make or not choose to make.

Your question about the vanilla used in the recipe was unnecessary. If a person reading this recipe happens to be a vegan, they will use the vanilla they always use for baked goods, or a vanilla bean or their own homemade vanilla.
Why you felt the need to overemphasize isinglass used in some filtering, (that incidently is becoming rarer and rarer) is beyond me, and probably a good many others.

Good lord, check out the dozens & dozens of vegan cookbooks, or website that offer vegan recipes that call for vanilla. You’d be hard pressed to find one that says, be sure you use vegan vanilla. You won’t find it as 99% of vegans know what vanilla to use.

I too have quite a few vegan friends. and believe it or not, they know what baking supplies are vegan or not vegan, without me having to tell them. They also know where to buy thier vegan baking supplies, how to make their own vanilla, and, what beer, wine, or spirits, are vegan or not vegan also. Isn’t that amazing?

As for your homemade vanilla being non vegan when you have vegan friends. How odd..

I’ll admit my first response was not my best, I was a tad shell shocked by the extent of your response to a simple question. And as to pointing out that vegan does not equal organic, well the amount of time spent informing me how to just go get organic vanilla when that wasn’t the point of my question at all suggested that it might not be a fact you were fully aware of.

At this stage I’m firmly of the belief that you are the one turning this into a contentious issue. All I asked was if Mrs Elana knew how the vanilla alcohol was filtered. I’ve been looking for a commercial source of vegan vanilla, it was an innocent question.

Your response, when it wasn’t a question aimed at you, was dismissive and had no point other than to ridicule. How is that helpful?

Furthermore your comment that I have vegan friends but I’m not in possession of vegan vanilla (and that is ‘odd..’) is insinuating at best and at worst insulting. Your experience with your vegan friends does not equal how it is for everyone else, nor does everyone else have the same amount of experience as you in different topics of diet. Please be considerate.

So if you don’t have anything further that is helpful on this subject I will consider it closed with you.

I apologize if I found this back-and-forth entertaining. I just wanted to add that I made these without vanilla (as I was out) and they were delightfull–you would never have noticed. I think if you were unable to find an appropriate vanilla you could just leave it out or sub Orange Flower water or Rose water as the flavor profiles matched.

Love your recipes Elana! I always look forward to them arriving in my in box;)
One question for you in relation to almond flour I was hoping you could answer- are you an advocate of soaking nuts to remove the phytic acid, among other things? Have you ever tried soaking pre ground almonds for your recipes, and if so what kind if results did you find?

Have any of your readers tried soaking almond flour for the health benefits them dehyrating to make it easier to use in recipes?

I soak my almonds before I make almond milk. Then I sometimes dehydrated the pulp and grind it in my grain mill or blender for almond flour and it works great. I also use the pulp damp in pancakes and in Elana’s recipes she has for crackers using the damp pulp. I still haven’t perfected using the damp pulp in bread recipes. The damp pulp also freezes well.

We like soaking our almonds. We use 1 Tbsp. salt to 4 cups water, then let the almonds soak 12 hours. We drain them and spread them a layer thick on cookie sheets and place them in the oven. We bake them all day at a very low temperature, till they are dry and snap easily. They taste SO good- way better then the roasted nuts at the store.

Get free recipes by email!

Categories

Categories

Archives

Archives

Like my recipe and health tips?

Get free updates sent to your inbox!

Get free recipes by email!

Email Address

All content on elanaspantry.com is licensed and the original creation and property of elana's pantry (unless otherwise noted). You may use recipes from elanaspantry.com as long as their usage adheres to the following license criteria: (i) the recipe is to be credited to elanaspantry.com; such credit is to be linked back to the original recipe at http://www.elanaspantry.com/ (ii) you may not use any recipes for commercial purposes. Photos on elanaspantry.com may not be used.