These flourless peanut butter chocolate cookies are so rich and indulgent tasting, you won’t miss the flour and butter. Made with only 7 simple ingredients, you’ll find any excuse to make them!
This recipe may not be considered health food (this is a dessert recipe website, after all), but I absolutely will put these indulgent-tasting chocolate peanut butter cookies into a healthier/healthy-ish dessert category. Flourless cookies, starting from a base of just natural peanut butter and unsweetened cocoa powder, is absolutely a healthier choice than say, chocolate chip cookies or peanut butter cookies.
These 7 ingredient cookies taste like thick, incredibly chewy peanut butter brownies. Thick, chewy chewy chewy brownies. We loved how soft and rich tasting they were and how the centers of the cookies were moist, yet somewhat crumbly. A texture lover’s dream cookie, indeed.
This gluten free cookie recipe is an adaption of my Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies, which came from my Flourless Almond Butter Cookies, which I adapted from King Arthur’s Flourless cookies. See what happens when you find a winning basic cookie recipe?
There are so many ways to play around with this nut butter based flourless cookie recipe. Clearly, I have a little too much fun in the kitchen sometimes.
I made today’s cookies with my favorite homemade peanut butter. If you look closely, you can see some of the peanuts not ground up in the cookies. I like my peanut butter on the crunchy, grainy side. My homemade peanut butter is made from honey roasted peanuts and has won the hearts of all my friends and family who’ve tasted it. I’m pretty sure there is a honey roasted peanut shortage in my area, solely because of that recipe.
Whoops?
Other ingredients used: 1 egg, brown sugar (I successfully reduced the amount), a dash of vanilla extract, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda for some lift, and peanut butter chips. The peanut butter chips are optional and you may certainly use a healthier add-in option like peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, etc. Some readers have had luck using a vegan flax egg option.
A note on the brown sugar: I have never had success using a liquid sweetener like maple syrup or honey in this gluten free cookie recipe. Update: I have, however, successfully made them with coconut sugar instead of brown sugar. Very tasty!
The secret to their soft, chewy centers? Bake the cookies for only 9-10 minutes. Under-baking is key to their soft brownie-like interior! If you over-bake them, the cookies will be quite hard and crispy.
It’s a total head scratcher that a simple 7 ingredient cookie can taste so darn fudgy and rich.
These flourless brownie-like cookies are little miracles! Go ahead and double the recipe… you’ll be thankful you did! And then go try these flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies next.
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Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12-13 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These flourless peanut butter brownie cookies are so rich and indulgent tasting, you won’t miss the flour and butter. Ultra chewy, melt-in-your-mouth, and gluten free. They taste so indulgent.
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup (250g)ย honey roasted peanut butter, at room temperature (not warm)*
- 1/3 cup (67g) light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup (21g) unsweetened cocoa powderย (Dutch-process canย be used)
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup peanut butter chips*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ยฐF (177ยฐC) and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In a medium bowl, whiskย the egg until beaten. Mix inย the peanutย butter, then the brown sugar, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Mix everything together very well, then mix in the vanilla extract. Finally, fold in theย peanut butter chips until combined.
- Scoop the dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons each (I like using this medium cookie scoop), onto prepared baking sheet. Bake two batches – 6-7 cookies on each baking sheet each. Gently press down on the dough mounds with the back of a spoon. If you find the cookie dough balls are a little oily from your peanut butter (mine usually are), blot each with a paper towel.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes. The cookies will look very softโthat’s ok! For crispier cookies, bake up to 11-12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Sometimes I press a couple more peanut butter chips into the tops of each cookie immediately after coming out of the oven. This is optional and only for looks!
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. Baked cookies freeze wellโup to three months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze wellโup to three months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Peanut Butter: You can use homemade, natural, or commercial peanut butter butter, however the type you use will alter their texture slightly. I found the best texture was with 1 cup of my homemade honey roasted peanut butterย or 1/2 cup Skippy Natural PB and 1/2 cup all-natural, organic peanut butter. Be sure to stir in any excess oil on top of the natural brands, and get it completely mixed in. Otherwise, your cookies will spread. You may want to add another Tablespoon of brown sugar if your peanut butter isn’t sweet like the honey roasted kind I use.
- Sweetener: I have not had luck using a liquid sweetener such as honey, maple syrup, or agave. Update: I have, however, successfully used coconut sugar instead of brown sugar. Very tasty!
- Add Ins: Instead of peanut butter chips, try dark chocolate chunks, colorful sunflower seeds (like here), sliced almonds, honey roasted peanuts, or chocolate chips.
- Adapted from my Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I use this site for almost everything I bake and Iโve fixed some of the savory recipes too. I wasnโt successful with this recipe though. I didnโt substitute anything and I thought I baked as instructed but the cookies taste dry and are texturally dry. Oh well, I know there are plenty of other recipes on this site that are delicious. As a matter of fact, I just took the peach cake out of the oven!
Hi Leslie, thank you for letting me know. What brand of peanut butter did you use? I may test it out with that exact brand to see what’s going on. Thank you! Enjoy the peach cake; it’s one of my favorites.
I am a cookie connoisseur and these cookies surpassed my taste testing. EXCELLENT cookies that leave you wanting another and another! I recommend pairing them with icecream:)
I love your website for sweets, so I came here to find a new cookie recipe to bring to a potluck. This peanut butter chocolate cookie recipe was amazing!! I’m a bit skeptical of gluten-free items, but these tasted so rich and delightful! Straight off the baking sheet, the peanut butter chips make them melty and delicious, and after some time in the fridge, these cookies are just so yummy! I had to come back and add a review. I’d agree with another reviewer, these are best with a glass of milk! If you love chocolate and peanut butter, these cookies are for you!
Made as is (with a flax egg) and they were a little dry/crumbly. Then made another batch with a flax egg but made a healthier version. Subbed cacao for cocoa and coconut sugar for brown sugar. Added dark choc chips to this batch. We loved the 2nd batch! Super rich and fudgy!
I was looking for something gluten free to make for Mother’s Day and found this recipe. These are really yummy! My dough was dry so I added an egg yolk, which helped some. Next time I will probably add a whole second egg. I used butterscotch chips, which tasted really good in these cookies. Thank you for the recipe, Sally!
My cookies were really good but a bit dry & crumbly. They fell apart. I went by weight. This recipe calls for 250 g peanut butter, other recipes call for 1 cup (240 g) so Iโll try the lesser weight next time.
Hi-
I was wondering if anyone else has encountered an issue with the cookies crumbling? I am a regular baker and this is my first time with crumbly cookies! Tips are welcomed!!
Sorry! Just seeing that someone else posted the same question โบ๏ธ
Will try that!
Not sure what I did wrong but these were super dry crumbly, they just fell apart.
Hi Anja, Thank you for trying this recipe. What type of peanut butter did you use? It’s best to avoid using peanut butter that is very oily or they could be dry. Also, but sure not to over bake – the centers will look very soft when you take them out of the oven.
So far, we’ve made your Red Velvet cake, your Carrot Cake (twice) and now
these flourless PB cookies. You are a go to person for desserts in this house.
We did prefer the cream cheese frosting from the Carrot Cake over the frosting
from the Red Velvet recipe. Both absolutely delicious, but a little less sweet from
the Carrot Cake recipe.
If I want to leave the cocoa powder out and replace the peanut butter chips with chocolate chunks, would it still work? Still want that peanut butter flavour with chocolate.
Hi Sher, I recommend my regular flourless almond butter cookies instead. Replace the almond butter with your peanut butter of choice and use chocolate chunks/chips.
I made this recipe last week and it yielded perfect cookies. I used a mixture of creamy and crunch skippy peanut butter, added M&Ms as well as chocolate chips. The cookies tasted like peanut buttery brownies without the guilt of butter, flour. I will be making this again!
These cookies were fantastic!!!! Definitely going to be my go to when I need a chocolate fix Iโm drooling as I write this so so so good!! Thank you for this recipe!!!
Loved these, I used plain crunchy peanut butter and they turned out great. Hubby doesnโt like things too sweet but (unfortunately) he loved these!
Sally,
These cookies are wonderful! I used 1/2 cup natural peanut butter from our local co-op, which has no sugar and is not oily at all, and 1/2 cup Skippy. I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar. The cookies are just the tiniest bit dry, which I think is due to the quite dry peanut butter I used. Oh…and I threw in some semi-sweet chocolate chips because that’s what I had on hand. Great recipe!
I figured out the calories using ones provided by ingredients. Tho I had tweaked mine a bit due to what I had on hand. The peanut butter I used was extra crunchy and it made the cookies appear as if I’d put peanuts in the dough and about half a cup of chopped up 66% German Chocolate bar or 4 ounces. The cookies came out an even dozen, so it was 144.16 calories per cookie. Not bad at all…
Can you make these with nutella instead of peanut butter?
Hi Jamie! Nutella is on the thinner side and I fear the cookies wouldn’t set up properly. You can try this recipe with nutella instead though. I recommend increasing the oats to 3/4 or 1 cup.
Can you make these ahead and freeze the dough?ย
Absolutely!
Can I use regular creamy Jif in this recipe, or will that affect how it turns out?ย
Sure can! That’s what I’ve used many times making these.
Wow, the Flourless Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies were incredible! I love desserts, but trying to eat only unprocessed and healthier food. These are a great compromise. Not too sweet, and I know exactly what’s in them. Instead of the peanut butter chips, I used unsalted Pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) These gave a wonderful texture to the cookies, and further cut down on the sugar. But, they still tasted decadent! Somebody I live with claimed they were the best cookie he has ever had. And, he’s 86!!
Thanks Sally so much for this recipe! I’m so glad I can stay true to my diet guidelines while still enjoying dessert. This one is a keeper!
You are welcome, Mike! So happy you like them and the pepitas were a great substitution!
I made these cookies the other night but with crunchy peanut butter, and left out chocolate chips (didn’t have any). Ate them with low fat vanilla ice cream – Delish!
I am a huge fan of all your recipes so I was so excited to find a simple gluten free cookie I could make for my boss. I know the type of peanut butter used in this recipe is crucial and so I wasn’t sure if the generic brand I had would make the cookies dry. I added a tablespoon of water and the texture is great!! I also misread the recipe so instead of adding baking soda, I put baking powder (3 tsp to be exact!). Although I made a few changes, these cookies are fabulous!!! Thanks so much!!
These were delicious – thanks!
I made these, but used regular white sugar instead of brown sugar. I also used regular Jif peanut butter because that was all I had. I baked them for 9 minutes and oh my goodness did they turn out good. This is one of the best cookie recipes I’ve ever tasted. They were very light and fluffy and had a unique texture that I loved. They would be tasty with a glass of milk. I will definitely be making these again!
Sally these cookies are delucious! ย Came out exactly as you described! ย I can’t get peanut butter chips here so used chocolate chips. ย I’ve yet to have one of your recipes fail-thanks for doing all the hard work!
Hi there! I just made these cookies and they turned out wonderful! To make them vegan as well, I used a flax egg in replacement for the regular egg and cacao in place of cocoa. Perfection! Thanks for the great recipes Sally! Love love love your blog!ย
I used coconut sugar without problems to replace the brown sugarย
Pretty good. Either my peanut butter wasnt sweet enough or these cookies need more sugar!
Mmm! These cookies we’re scrumptious! I started making these and realized too late that I didn’t have any chocolate chips.I baked them anyways and they still turned out wonderful! I subbed the peanut-butter for sunflower seed butter and the sugar for coconut sugar. They weren’t dry at all. Thank you for a great recipe. I’ll be making these again!