Easy to make with pantry ingredients, these easy one-bowl Peanut Butter Cookies are chewy, delicious, and packed with peanut butter goodness. Vegan-adaptable!
Why you’ll love our Peanut Butter Cookies!
The classic peanut butter cookie is hard to beat. Simple and straightforward, it celebrates one of America’s favorite staples. We didn’t stray too far from the traditional peanut butter cookie, making a few healthy swaps. We left out the egg, lessened the sugar, and opted for all-natural peanut butter.
This Peanut Butter Cookie recipe yields chewy yet soft, tender cookies with rich peanut butter flavor. A hint of maple syrup complements perfectly, enhancing the peanut flavor and reducing the refined sugar a bit. It’s vegan-adaptable using vegan butter.
Simple minimal ingredients, one bowl. Easy and delicious!
Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe Ingredients
- Butter – use salted or unsalted, or for a vegan version use vegan butter!
- Peanut butter (smooth or crunchy) Use all natural salted peanut butter with no other additives if possible.
- Sugar– we’ve cut back the sugar, but it still needs a little. Feel free to sub coconut sugar.
- Maple syrup – for extra depth of flavor!
- All-purpose flour – or substitute fine pastry flour.
- Vanilla extract – for warm toasty flavor.
- Salt– to bring out all the other flavor.
- Baking soda– the leavening agent.
Peanut Butter Cookie Variations
- Add chocolate chips, chocolate chunks or cocoa nibs
- Add coconut flakes or shredded coconut
- Add dried cranberries or other dried fruit
How to make Peanut Butter Cookies
Step 1. Combine softened butter, peanut butter and sugar in a large bowl and stir until smooth and creamy.
Step 2. Stir in maple syrup and vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
Step 3. Add the flour and sprinkle in salt and baking soda evenly over the flour.
Step 4. Mix it altogether. The dough will be a little stiff but should easily stick together.
Step 5. Scoop out or roll into balls the size of a walnut. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, 3 inches apart. Press down with the tines of a fork, first one way and then the other to create a criss-cross pattern. You could sprinkle with coarse sugar if you like.
Step 6. Bake at 375 F for about 11-12 minutes, until edges are crisp. This will yield a cookie that is chewy and soft in the center. 
Storing your peanut butter cookies
Store in an airtight container for up to a week, for a delicious, any time of day treat. Or freeze them for later!
Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe Tips
- Peanut butter: If your peanut butter has separated in the jar, stir in the oil until fully incorporated before measuring, for the best cookie consistency.
- Do not overbake cookies for soft, chewy cookies. They will be soft when you pull them from the oven but will firm up as they cool.
- For the best texture try using pastry flour!
Hope you enjoy these!
More Favorite cookie recipes!
- Vegan Oatmeal Cookies with Chai-Soaked Raisins
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies with Hazelnuts
- Chocolate Sesame Cookies
- Thumbprint Cookies with Walnuts and Apricot Jam
- Spicy Chai Molasses Cookies
- Chewy Triple Ginger Cookies
Peanut Butter Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Total Time: 26 minutes
- Yield: 16
- Category: cookies
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Quick to make with pantry ingredients, these easy one bowl vegan Peanut Butter Cookies are chewy, delicious and packed with peanut butter goodness.
Ingredients
- 2 oz (4 tablespoons) softened butter (or vegan butter)
- 3/4 cup all natural peanut butter, stirred
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour (or try pastry flour)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- In a large bowl, combine softened butter, peanut butter and sugar and mix until smooth and creamy.
- Mix in maple syrup and vanilla until fully incorporated.
- Add the flour, then sprinkle in salt and baking soda evenly over the flour.
- Mix it altogether. The dough will be a little stiff, but should easily stick together.
- Scoop out or roll into balls the size of a walnut. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, 3 inches apart.
- Press down with the tines of a fork, first one way and then the other to create a criss-cross pattern.
- Bake at 375 F for about 11 minutes, until the edges begin to crisp. This will yield a cookie that is chewy and soft in the center, and will seem soft when you pull them from the oven, but will firm up as they cool. ( If you prefer a crisper texture, flatten the cookie a little more and bake for about 14 minutes.)
Notes
Cool and store in an airtight container for up to one week, or freeze for later!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 164
- Sugar: 10.5 g
- Sodium: 128.4 mg
- Fat: 9.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 18.2 g
- Fiber: 0.8 g
- Protein: 3.5 g
- Cholesterol: 7.6 mg
I followed the directions for the p-nut butter cookies and they were not chewy at all–grainy instead. Any suggestions
Not sure what happened Stephanie, I would need to know more about your ingredients. Maybe the type of peanut butter?
This is my go-to cookie recipe, a family fav! Thanks Sylvia
Great to hear Denise!
Just a question . . . Could you substitute peanut butter with almond butter ? If so, how much almond butter do you suggest ?
Hi Cora, You should be able to substitute 1:1.
Very tasty!! Question: can you freeze this? Assuming if you do it has to warm to room temp before baking?
I am guessing here but I think the dough would be less likely to crumble if frozen in cookie ball shape. Place on pan frozen just for about 30 minutes or so before baking.
Yummy and moist cookies. I omitted the maple syrup (completely by accident oops) and they still turned out great. I added raisins and a little bit of flaxseed meal to help them hold together better. I also used brown sugar instead of white. They are very peanut butter forward and delicious!
Awesome Noelle, love how you adapted to make them work for you.
This is a cookie for the true PB fans out there. It was very nutty and melt in your mouth. I followed the recipe and made zero substitutions. It’s almost like a PB shortbread. I did bake a little longer than the prescribed time and used natural PB not the other stuff with added sugars. Delish!
Thanks Deana, glad you enjoyed!!
These cookies are wonderful! It’s a quick and easy recipe and in less than 30 minutes I had fresh, home baked cookies for my family! I followed the recipe as is and found no need to make any alterations. I didn’t have real maple syrup so just used a “lite” syrup since that’s what was in the pantry. The cookies were peanut buttery deliciousness! I’m new to your site and am always trying to steer my family towards healthier, more vegetarian based meals so I was really happy to see the beautiful photos and appealing recipes. I’m also making the Lentil Bolognese tonight and am looking forward to trying it. Thank you!
Thanks Pamela, so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Glad you are here!
I made these he ought was too dry to stick together so I added a few drops of water. M pnubutter was a little dry because I poured off some of initial oil. I also added crushed peanuts. My son loved them but my husband said “not peanuts enough” !haha! All devoured in a day though. I appreciate being able to trust your healthy recipes that taste good.
Thanks Sherridyn!
Hello! Love all your recipes! Is there a substitute for a GF flour for the recipe? We have a family member who has celiac. Thanks in advance!
Hi Carolyn, I would give it a try with a GF flour blend. Let us know how it goes!