Chewy and soft peanut butter cookies with 3 main ingredients; almond flour, peanut butter, and date paste. These one-bowl vegan peanut butter cookies are plant-based, sugar-free, and without added oils or fats. Perfect as a snack or dessert.
This recipe is super simple to make and great for baking with your kids. They will fall in love with these wholesome, nutritious fiber-rich cookies.
I love making these for my diabetic dad, since they don't spike the blood sugar due to the fact of not containing any processed white flour and white sugar.
Where did peanut butter cookies originate?
Interestingly peanut cookies, were made by the Aztecs. Peanut butter, however, was not used in cookies until the 1930s. The cookie balls became famous for a Pillsbury Flour Mills company recipe and are known for the criss-cross fork marks.
Ingredients
- Almond flour. To make these gluten-free, almond flour is the best option. It allows these to be moist and chewy since the almond flour is also very fatty. This is perfect since these cookies dont have any added oil or butter. You can also use coconut flour, but coconut flour makes these much dryer and crumbly. If you change for this, use less of the coconut flour.
- Date paste. Check the whole recipe for date paste HERE.
- Peanut butter. Use sugar-free organic peanut butter. Any other nut butter will work also. If you want to use strong-tasting spices, cashew- or almond butter will work better for the cookies since peanuts have a strong flavor.
- Vinegar
- Baking soda. You don't have to use baking soda and vinegar, but they make the dough a bit fluffier and make them rise slightly in the oven.
- Spices. I used 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice and some vanilla in this recipe. These cookies are delicious without any additional seasoning since peanut butter, and date paste has sweetness and nuttiness.
Other spices you can use if you want to.
- Vanilla
- Cinnamon
- Cardamom
- Grated orange zest
- Chocolate chips
- Chocolate powder
- Punch flavor
- Bitter almond flavor
- Rum flavor
Instructions
- Measure your ingredients. Preheat your oven. Mix all dry ingredients together.
- Add the date paste, peanut butter, and vinegar. Mix everything together. Mix with a spoon until firm dough.
- Roll balls from the dough. You should get about 15 small cookies from this amount of dough
- Press down the balls. You can use a fork, a glass, your hands, or a cookie press for this. Bake your cookies for 12 minutes at 350 F, or 175 Celsius. If you want less soft and more dry consistency, then bake for up to 20 minutes. Make sure they only get golden brown and not burnt on the edges.
Serving tips
- Great as a tea or coffee snack.
- Nutritious snack for kids.
- Use as sandwich cookies. Make the cookies a bit flatter, bake them for 10 minutes. Fill with cashew cream flavored with vanilla.
How to store
You can store these at room temperature for up to a week. If stored on the countertop, they can get a bit dryer. If stored in refridgerator, they will last longer. The cookies can be frozen for up to three months.
Recipe variations
- Chocolate chip peanut butter cookies: Mix some vegan dark chocolate chips in the dough.
- Energy bars: Make them to a bar form, change ¼ cup of almond flour to rolled oats. Mix in also 2 tablespoon of raisins and some crushed nuts.
FAQ
A fork is easy to use to press down the cookies, so they bake evenly. Otherwise, the cookies are too dense. The earliest recipes of peanut butter cookies suggested pressing the dough balls with a fork, hence the famous marking.
You added too much flour or baked them too long or at too high temperature.
You can add chocolate chips, raisins, orange or lemon zest, dried cranberries, rolled oats, crushed nuts, different spices like cinnamon, vanilla, ginger or artificial flavoring.
📖 Recipe
Gluten-free peanut butter cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour 2,4dl
- ½ cup date paste 1,2 dl
- ⅓ cup peanut butter 80 ml
- ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar or drops
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice optional
Date paste
- 1 cup pitted Medjool dates or other soft dates
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- Put your oven on at 350F, 175 C
- If you don't have ready-made date paste, make the paste by blending soft dates and water in a food processor.
- Measure all your dry ingredients and mix them in a bowl.
- Warm your peanut butter in the microwave for 1 minute, so it becomes a bit softer. Mix in the date paste, peanut butter, and vinegar with the dry ingredients.
- Roll the dough into even-sized balls. This amount should make 15 small cookies.
- Press the dough balls with a fork, glass, or cookie stamp, so they become flattened.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 12-15 minutes. If you want them crispier and not soft, then bake up to 20 minutes, but make sure they don't burn.
Notes
- Vanilla
- Cinnamon
- Cardamom
- Grated orange zest
- Chocolate chips
- Chocolate powder
- Punch flavor
- Bitter almond flavor
- Rum flavor
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