This easy peanut butter cookies recipe is so simple that my kids now make it by themselves! It's a one-bowl recipe that produces delicious peanut butter cookies in just 15 minutes from start to finish with very little mess involved. They are also gluten-free and vegan but you’d never know it when you taste them as they are just perfect little peanut butter cookies and devilishly moreish!
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Quick - you can have fresh homemade cookies on the table within 15 minutes of having the idea to make them!
- Easy - anyone can make these cookies and they don't need any fancy equipment. They are pretty mess-free too!
- Healthy - as cookies go, these are healthier than others! The peanut butter provides good plant-based protein, it uses unrefined sugar and they are of course gluten-free and vegan too!
- Tasty - with a rich peanut butter flavor, these cookies are so delicious, you won't be able to only eat one!
Main Ingredients
The vegan and gluten-free ingredients are super simple:
- Peanut Butter: make sure you use a plain un-sweetened natural peanut butter otherwise your cookies will turn out desperately sweet! I also avoid palm oil which you can find in a lot of peanut butters so check the ingredients label carefully. (see this article or search google for the many reasons why to avoid palm oil). Or make your own peanut butter - see this quick and easy recipe for delicious homemade peanut butter!
- Oat Flour: if you are coeliac, make sure to use gluten-free oat flour (but you probably already know that!). I usually make my oat flour by whizzing up normal porridge oats in the food processor (1 min / sp. 10 in the Thermomix).
- Dark Muscovado Sugar - this is a type of brown sugar that is deep and rich and less refined than white sugars. It works really well in these peanut butter cookies. You could use coconut sugar instead if you prefer. If you want a crispier cookie, you will need to substitute this sugar for the more refined sugar like caster sugar.
- Coconut Oil - don't worry, it doesn't make the cookies taste of coconut! You can use vegan butter if you prefer.
- Ground Flax Seeds - mixed with a little water and left for 5 minutes, these little seeds perform the same function as eggs would in a regular cookie recipe. This flax egg mixture ensures that the cookie will have a little softness and not be completely brittle. They also provide essential omega-3 fatty acids to our diets!
- Oat milk - you can use any plant-based milk that you like. Oat milk works well since we are also using oat flour but really you can use whatever you have in your fridge! Just make sure to use an unsweetened plant-based milk.
Please see the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for full list of ingredients and their quantities.
Basic Instructions
- Measure out all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix together. (There's no need to do wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately like some other recipes).
- Place small spoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking sheet (lined with parchment paper). Then press each cookie dough ball down with the back of a fork.
- Bake at 180°C / 350°F for 10-12 minutes.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack.
Note that the cookies will still be quite soft when you take them out of the oven. They will harden on cooling.
This is a summary only. Please see the printable recipe card at the bottom of this page for full instructions.
CHEF'S TIPS
- It is easier to mix the ingredients together if your coconut oil (or vegan butter) is at room temperature.
- Due to the peanut butter, these cookies are quite dense so I find it better to make small cookies rather than larger ones. It also means that they cook quicker. Use a dessert spoon or a small cookie scoop to portion out the balls of dough on the baking tray. If you would prefer larger cookies, try to press them down flatter and cook them a little longer.
- You can of course press the cookie dough balls down with your hand instead but I like using a fork so that it is pressed down evenly and it leaves those classic fork marks on top. Press the fork twice in opposite directions to give a crisscross pattern on top too.
Variations
- You can substitute the oat flour for another gluten-free flour of your choice. I would stick to the firmer wholegrain flours like rice flour, millet flour, or sorghum. A plain gluten-free flour mix would also work (something like Dove's Farm gluten-free flour mix). You could even make these peanut butter cookies grain-free if you substitute the oat flour for almond meal or coconut flour.
- If you are not a peanut butter lover (or you're allergic), you can switch to any other nut butters that you prefer. Almond butter would work particularly well, especially if you are also using almond flour in place of the oat flour.
- You could also add some chocolate chips to the cookie dough to make chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. (This is what my children like to do!)
- The ground flax seeds do the job of eggs and give the cookies that soft chewy texture so try not to leave those out. If you prefer, you can substitute with other egg alternatives.
Batch Size
I make these cookies in small batches because I try to limit the number of biscuits my family eat. They are so easy and quick to make anyway so it's easy to make more if you need to. The recipe is enough for 9 small cookies but feel free to double or triple the recipe if you want to make more!
Peanut Butter Cookies FAQs
I am paranoid about other people’s children coming to our house with a peanut allergy that I haven’t been told about. So, I hardly ever serve peanut items to anyone other than my own family, just in case. If you do have a peanut allergy, you could substitute for almond, hazelnut or cashew butter instead.
Well… ahem… don't last long in our household! However, if you have more willpower than we do, they should last for up to 3 days in a sealed airtight container.
Instruction Video
See the 15-minute peanut butter cookies (vegan and gluten-free) web story.
📖 Recipe 📖
15 Minute Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 55 g oat flour, (or other gluten-free wholegrain flour)
- 45 g dark muscovado sugar, (or any brown sugar)
- 45 g peanut butter
- 20 g coconut oil, (or any other flavourless oil)
- 1 tablespoon oat milk, (or any other plant-based milk)
- ½ tablespoon ground flax seeds
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch Himalayan pink salt
Instructions
- Set the oven to 180°C / 350°F (or 160°C fan) and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Measure all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix together until really well combined.55 g oat flour, 45 g dark muscovado sugar, 45 g peanut butter, 20 g coconut oil, 1 tablespoon oat milk, ½ tablespoon ground flax seeds, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract, pinch Himalayan pink salt
- Take a small amount and roll it into a ball (I use a ½ tablespoon of mixture for each cookie) then place the ball onto the baking tray and lightly press down with a fork in two different directions. Repeat until all the mixture is used. It should make about 9 small cookies.
- Put the baking tray in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
- Check after 10 minutes to see whether the cookies are nicely browned and slightly firm to the touch. They may need 2 or 3 more minutes depending on your oven.
- When ready, pull the baking paper onto the wire rack to quickly remove them from the hot baking tray. When cool enough to handle, carefully remove the cookies from the baking paper and leave to cool on the cooling rack. (They harden up on cooling so you really need to try and hold back the urge to eat one straight away! Believe me, it’s worth the 10 minute wait!)
Notes
- This recipe makes a small batch of 9 small cookies. Double or triple the recipe to make more. If you want to make larger cookies, flatten the dough balls more and cook for a little longer.
- Using caster sugar instead of dark muscovado sugar will give a crispier cookie.
- If you don’t have oat flour, don’t worry, it can easily be made from plain oats. Just weigh the same weight of oats into a food processor or blender and whizz until it forms a powder. (In the Thermomix, do 1 min / sp. 10). Alternatively, you can substitute with other gluten-free flours. (See blogpost for more details).
Nutrition
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