If you are looking for the absolute BEST Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies, then you are in the right place. These egg-free & dairy-free peanut cookies can be made in 1 bowl and require no chill time for the perfect chewy & crinkly cookie!
These peanut butter cookies have been a long time coming. I've sort of made it my *thing* to make every sugar cookie flavor possible including some unique flavors like Earl Grey Sugar Cookies, Matcha Sugar Cookies, and even Brown Sugar Chai Cookies. However, one flavor that has been sorely missing is peanut butter.
Now, the #1 problem I have with a lot of eggless & dairy-free peanut cookie recipes is that they tend to be kind of dry. My goal with this recipe was to make a vegan PB cookie that is chewy on the inside, spread while baking, and that is full of peanut butter flavor. Let's just say, we definitely succeeded!
Ingredients:
Ingredient notes:
- Peanut butter: It is SUPER important to use smooth, runny peanut butter for this recipe with no additives. Otherwise, the cookies will not spread as much. In fact, if you use a drier peanut butter, the cookies may not spread at all. Also, while I used Nature's promise salted peanut butter you can use unsalted peanut butter and just add about ½ teaspoon of salt to the cookie dough.
- Brown sugar: I used light brown sugar for this recipe. Brown sugar is what interacts with the baking soda and alllows these cookies to spread, so it cannot be substituted. You can use dark brown sugar, but it will slightly change the texture of these cookies (they will be softer and may spread a bit more).
How to make chewy peanut butter cookies
Cream butter & sugar
This is a really important step that helps to build structure in vegan cookies. By creaming together the vegan butter, brown sugar, and cane sugar, you are incorporating air into the batter.
Mix in peanut butter, flax egg, & vanilla
Add the creamy peanut butter, flax egg, and vanilla to the bowl of creamed butter and sugar. I decided to use vanilla bean paste because it's SO much more flavorful, but you can also use vanilla extract.
Then, just mix everything together for another minute.
Add in dry ingredients
To keep this a one-bowl peanut butter cookie recipe, we are adding the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt directly to the bowl of wet ingredients.
The best way to do this is by adding the flour first and then piling the other ingredients on top. This way they get better mixed into the dough and the leavening ingredients won't clump up.
The end result of the cookie dough should be smooth, soft, and not dry at all. If the cookie dough is dry, it's either because you have added too much flour or used peanut butter that was too dry.
Scoop & roll in sugar
Once you have the peanut butter cookie dough ready, scoop it into 18 cookie dough balls and roll in a bowl of the remaining sugar. This step is definitely optional, but rolling the cookies in sugar does serve a purpose.
First, it helps them get that gorgeous crackly texture on top. Second, it actually makes these dairy-free peanut butter cookies a tad bit sweeter!
Bake the cookies (no chill time needed!)
Then, add the cookie dough balls to a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 350F for 11-13 minutes.
Pro-Tip: It is highly likely all the PB cookies won't fit on one tray, so if that's the case just make sure to bake only one tray at a time for the best results.
Bang tray after baking
This step is SUPER important to get that crackly cookie texture.
Immediately after removing the tray of warm PB cookies from the oven, bang the tray on a hard surface. The cookies will naturally deflate while cooking, but this should help them deflate a lot faster allowing them to "crack" on top.
Let the vegan peanut cookies cool on the baking tray for at least 5 more minutes, then move to a wire cooling rack, serve, & enjoy!
FAQ & Tips:
As mentioned above, it is SUPER important to use smooth, runny peanut butter for this recipe. Otherwise, the cookies will not spread as much. In fact, if you use drier peanut butter, the cookies may not spread at all.
Also, while I used salted peanut butter you can use unsalted peanut butter and just add about ½ teaspoon of salt to the cookie dough.
Peanut butter cookies can be stored in a closed container at room temperature for 3-4 days, in the fridge for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 1 month. I like storing them between sheets of parchment paper so they don't stick together.
I highly recommend freezing cookies over the other storage method as it helps them maintain their chewy texture. Just remove from the freezer and let them defrost at room temperature for 30 minutes-1 hour before serving.
Definitely! Before freezing, scoop the cookies and roll them in sugar. Then, place the cookie dough balls on a cookie sheet and place them in the freezer until solid.
Remove the tray of cookies from the freezer and then place them into a freezer-safe bag or container to store.
To bake frozen cookie dough balls, you'll need to add an extra 2-3 minutes of baking time. Also, the cookies will likely spread a tiny bit less.
While I don't recommend it (these are peanut butter cookies after all!) you can technically replace the peanut butter with any other nut-butter like almond butter or sunflower butter. Just make sure that the nut butter is runny and smooth for the best results.
I truly hope you love these crinkly Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies as much as I do. They are a great addition to a Christmas cookie box and are great as a year-round cookie to bake too. Enjoy!
-TSG
More vegan cookie recipes you will love:
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Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter I used salted, if using unsalted add ½ teaspoon salt to cookie dough
- ¾ cup cane sugar (½ cup for cookie dough, ¼ cup for rolling cookies before baking)
- ½ cup brown sugar light or dark brown sugar works
- 1 flax egg (1 Tablespoon/ 8 grams ground flaxseed mixed with 3 Tablespoons water, left to sit 5 minutes)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- First, add the vegan butter, brown sugar, and ½ cup of the cane sugar to a large mixing bowl. Then, cream together with an electric mixer until soft and fluffy.
- Next, add in the peanut butter, flax egg, and vanilla and whip together for another minute.
- Add the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and baking powder to the mixing bowl. If using unsalted peanut butter, this is also when you would add in the additional salt. Make sure to add the flour first and then add the other ingredients on top. Then, use the electic mixer to mix everything together until a thick cookie dough forms. The dough will be slightly sticky and easily to handle, but not dry.
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Then, fill a small bowl with the remaining ¼ cup of cane sugar.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop out 14 evenly sized cookies (about 45-50 grams per cookie). Roll into balls between your palms and then roll in the bowl of sugar until the cookies are coated.
- Place each cookie dough ball onto the parchment-lined baking sheet making sure to leave the cookies 2-inches apart. All of the cookies will not fit on one baking sheet, so I recommend baking 9 cookies at a time on one tray vs. putting two trays in the oven at the same time. Make sure the cookies are about 2-inches apart as they will spread quite a bit while baking.
- Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes until the cookies are cooked through but have slightly soft centers (If making large cookies adjust baking time to 13-15 minutes). The cookies will continue baking after they are removed from the oven so the centers should still be soft, but not glossy or raw,, when they are removed from the oven.
- As soon as you remove the tray of cookies from the oven immediately "bang" the tray of cookies on the counter to help the cookies deflate. This will also give them that desirably crackly texture.
- Then, let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. The cookies will continue to naturally deflate a little while cooling. After 5 minutes transfer the cookies to a wire rack to continue cooling. Once cooled, serve & enjoy!
Notes
- It is SUPER important to use smooth, runny peanut butter for this recipe with absolutely no additives in it. Otherwise, the cookies will not spread as much. In fact, if you use dry peanut butter, the cookies may not spread at all.
- I used Natures Promise peanut butter for this recipe
- To make cookies gluten-free you can substitute with a GF all-purpose baking flour.
- I used light brown sugar for this recipe. Brown sugar is what interacts with the baking soda and allows these cookies to spread, so it cannot be substituted. You can use dark brown sugar, but it will slightly change the texture of these cookies (they will be softer and may spread a bit more).
- Peanut butter cookies can be stored in a closed container at room temperature for 3-4 days, in the fridge for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 1 month. I like storing them between sheets of parchment paper so they don't stick together.
- I highly recommend freezing cookies over the other storage method as it helps them maintain their chewy texture. Just remove from the freezer and let them defrost at room temperature for 30 minutes-1 hour before serving.
- To freeze cookie dough before baking, scoop the cookies and roll them in sugar. Then, place the cookie dough balls on a cookie sheet and place them in the freezer until solid. Remove the tray of cookies from the freezer and then place them into a freezer-safe bag or container to store.
- To bake frozen cookie dough balls, you'll need to add an extra 2-3 minutes of baking time. Also, the cookies will likely spread a tiny bit less.
N says
Perfect! Chewy cookie, Crispy sugar ”crust”. I will be making these again and again! Non-vegan friends loved them!! Thank you
Megan says
Yay love hearing that thanks for the review :)!
Melanie says
These were really good. I made a few changes. I swapped the came sugar for maple sugar and the brown sugar for honey. I added oats and vegan chocolate chips because my dough was a bit wet (I'm assuming it was because of the honey). Turned out great!
Zelda says
We've tried a number of other vegan peanut butter cookie recipes but could not find one that tasted like a real peanut butter cookie or didn't crumble. This recipe was excellent and pretty easy to make. We would never have guessed it was vegan.Thank you, Megan!
Megan says
I'm so happy to hear that!! Thanks for the review 🙂