Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

How to make delicious peanut butter cookies that are naturally free of flour, butter, and dairy. One of our favorite cookies!

Homemade Peanut Butter Cookies

Our recipe is based on an old-fashioned three ingredient peanut butter cookie recipe which only calls for peanut butter, sugar, and eggs. By taking that simple recipe and adding a few extra ingredients, you can make fantastic peanut butter cookies everyone will love.

If you love peanut butter cookies, take a look at our recipe for edible peanut butter cookie dough!

How to Make the Best Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

When we first made these easy cookies without flour, we were skeptical. How can you make cookies with no flour? Well, thanks to peanut butter, you can, and they are amazing!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

To make the best peanut butter cookies that are soft, extra peanut buttery, and delicious you will need the following main ingredients:

  • Peanut Butter — You can use crunchy or creamy PB. For the best results use very well stirred peanut butter or the jarred peanut butter sold pre-mixed at the store. For cookies that are completely from scratch, try making your own homemade peanut butter (just make sure it is well stirred before making the cookie dough). You can also swap the peanut butter for almond butter.
  • Egg — We use one egg for 1 cup of peanut butter, which adds structure, flavor, and moisture to the cookies. For very soft peanut butter cookies, add one more egg. If you add an egg, the dough will be stickier.
  • Sugar — You can use pretty much any sugar here. We love a combination of white granulated sugar and brown sugar. The combination makes the cookies taste great with the right amount of sweetness. As a base recipe, we use 3/4 cup of sugar, but for a cookie that’s slightly less sweet, you can reduce the sugar down to 1/2 cup without any issues.
  • Baking Soda — Baking soda helps the cookies brown nicely, adds texture, and makes the cookies taste better. If you are wondering whether or not you can make peanut butter cookies without baking soda, you can! They will be softer and more cake-like in the middle.

From there, you can make the cookies extra delicious with these optional ingredients:

  • Salt — We’re firm believers in adding salt to sweet recipes. For these cookies, taste your peanut butter first. If it’s on the salty side, you may not need to add much salt at all. A small pinch should do it.
  • Vanilla extract — It’s rare to see us making cookies without a splash of vanilla. It adds a lovely richness to sweet recipes.
  • Molasses — This is an optional ingredient and not seen too often in peanut butter cookies. That said, if you have some in the kitchen, try adding 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of molasses to the cookie dough. It adds color, richness and a little tanginess which cuts through the sugar.
  • Cinnamon — Here’s another unusual ingredient, but I love the combination of cinnamon and peanut butter.
  • Crushed peanuts — For extra crunchy cookies, stir in 1/4 cup of crushed peanuts to the cookie dough.
  • Chocolate chips — For peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, stir in about 1/3 cup of chocolate chips.

The cookies are excellent plain, but as you can see from our photos, you can have some fun and make jam filled or chocolate drizzled cookies. We’ve given all the details in the recipe below.

Baked Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Can I Make the Dough in Advance?

Peanut butter cookie dough will keep in the refrigerator up to 3 days. Even though you can bake straight away, chilling cookie dough makes better cookies. You can also freeze the cookie dough.

Since it’s just the two of us, we freeze cookie dough all the time. Frozen cookie dough will last in the freezer up to 3 months. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
  2. Prepare the cookie dough as usual
  3. Scoop out cookie dough mounds onto the baking sheet. You can crowd the cookie mounds together, just do not let them touch
  4. Freeze until hard
  5. Transfer the frozen dough mounds to an airtight container or plastic bag. Store in the freezer up to 3 months
  6. When a craving hits, bake the frozen cookies without thawing. It will add an extra 2 to 5 minutes of bake time

If you loved these cookies, here are some more easy cookie recipes to try:

Ridiculously Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

  • PREP
  • COOK
  • TOTAL

Make a batch of these flourless peanut butter cookies in less than 15 minutes! They are soft and absolutely delicious plain, with a dollop of jam or a drizzle of chocolate on top. We prefer these with a blend of granulated and brown sugar, but you can use just one type of sugar. (We use 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white)

**If making the jam-filled cookies, it is best to add the jam the day of serving. If left overnight, the cookies will soften too much from the extra moisture. Store plain cookies and chocolate drizzled cookies in an airtight container up to 2 days or freeze wrapped individually up to 3 months.

Makes about 16 cookies

You Will Need

1 cup peanut butter, creamy or chunky, see notes

1 large egg

3/4 cup sugar, use granulated, brown sugar or a blend

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon molasses, optional

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional

Pinch of salt, to taste, see notes

Directions

    1Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or use silicone baking mats.

    2In a medium bowl, mix the peanut butter, egg, sugar, baking soda, a pinch of salt, vanilla, molasses (optional), and the cinnamon (optional) together until blended and scoopable.

    3Scoop or roll into 1-inch balls and place two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Press the mounds down with the back of a spoon or the tines of a fork to flatten the cookie out a bit.

    4Bake until the outer edges are starting to turn light brown and the tops look dry, 8 to 11 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet, without moving them, for 10 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. (The cookies will firm up as they cool).

  • Jam or Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
  • 1For jam-filled peanut butter cookies, before baking, use a spoon to make a small indent in the middle of the cookie dough balls. When the cookies are baked and cool, spread a teaspoon of jam into the middle of each cookie.

    2For the chocolate drizzled cookies, when the cookies are baked and cool, melt 1/3 cup chocolate chips and drizzle over cookies. For chocolate-peanut butter drizzled cookies, add one tablespoon of peanut butter to the chocolate chips before melting.

Adam and Joanne's Tips

  • Best peanut butter to use: For the best results use very well stirred peanut butter or the jarred peanut butter sold pre-mixed at the store.
  • Salt: Before making the cookies, taste your peanut butter. If it is on the saltier side, you may not need to need to add the additional pinch of salt to the cookie dough.
  • Reduced sugar peanut butter cookies: Use 1/2 cup sugar. The cookies will be a little stickier and won’t be as easy to indent with the fork. They still bake well and taste great, just not as sweet.

If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste

Nutrition Per Serving Serving Size 1 cookie / Calories 128 / Total Fat 8.6g / Saturated Fat 1.8g / Cholesterol 11.6mg / Sodium 163.5mg / Total Carbohydrate 10.5g / Dietary Fiber 0.8g / Total Sugars 8.5g / Protein 4g
AUTHOR:  Adam and Joanne Gallagher
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13 comments… Leave a Review
  • Joanne February 2, 2023, 1:36 pm

    Oh no, we are sorry to hear that, Kayla. What brand of peanut butter did you use for these?

    Reply
  • Fiona Woods January 31, 2022, 9:07 pm

    I made this for my family and they loved it. They were so surprised when I told them I didn’t use any flour. This is great for my lactose intolerant brother!! Even though he doesn’t like peanut butter, he still said the flavor was good. Thank you so much.

    Reply
  • Lydia November 8, 2020, 8:16 pm

    They came out delicious! So surprised that it could taste like that without flour or butter! I added a bit of cocoa powder and half a mashed banana.

    Reply
  • Jane June 1, 2020, 12:50 pm

    Hi! Can I use a hand mixer to mix the ingredients?

    Reply
    • Joanne June 5, 2020, 3:23 pm

      Yes, absolutely.

      Reply
  • Megan January 12, 2019, 8:55 pm

    LOVE your recipes! I’ve tried many of them and they all come out brilliantly. I have been making your brownies for several years and my family always request them for their birthdays; a true family favorite! Your lasagnas are delicious and I love the lemon chicken thighs and chicken wings too. Whenever I’m in the mood to cook I always check your site first! As expected, these peanut butter cookies are winners just like your other posts. Thanks for the continuously great cooking ideas!

    Reply
  • Jesse December 18, 2018, 2:52 pm

    Those look amazing! I was going to make them and realized I’m all out of eggs; it’s the only thing I’m missing. My hens sure are freeloading right now, but it’s winter and laying is sporadic at best. I may use a flax egg so I don’t have to run to town! I sure hope it works 🙂

    Reply
  • joan nass November 3, 2018, 3:03 pm

    OMG The cookies just came out of the oven. My kitchen smells fantastic. I ate one and it is so yummy. (They even looked good.) Looking forward to trying other of your recipes. Thank you.

    Reply
  • joan nass November 3, 2018, 1:19 pm

    I am a baker so I know when to add the vanilla extract.Only suggesting you correct the directions, for beginners. Making it at this moment. Hope mine come out as beautiful as yours. Have a great day.

    Reply
    • Adam November 3, 2018, 2:39 pm

      Thank you for pointing that out. We forgot to mention when to add the vanilla. We just fixed it 🙂

      Reply
  • Linda Hicks November 2, 2018, 2:54 pm

    Hello, Thank you so much for the great peanut butter cookie recipe. So simple, yummy. Great for a diabetic, now I have a cookie I can eat and not worry. Thanks again, really enjoy your recipes.Thanks Linda

    Reply
  • Conni November 1, 2018, 6:41 pm

    Hi guys! I love your recipes. You cook much the same way I do which make your recipes feel good and familiar to me. Someone in my family was diagnosed with Celiac Disease so I’m wondering if your flourless PB cookies are gluten free?

    Reply
    • Adam November 2, 2018, 8:01 pm

      Hi Conni, So glad that you like our recipes. Since no flour is called for to make these cookies they should be gluten-free. I would just make sure none of the other ingredients have sneaked in gluten. (This shouldn’t be the case)

      Reply

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