These vegan peanut butter cookies have only 3 ingredients and are incredibly easy to make! They are gluten free, keto, have no egg, no refined sugar and use only common pantry ingredients.
What to expect from these cookies
These 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies are crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. If you bake them for a little longer, they are crispy throughout!
They are packed with peanut butter, but don't taste like you're just eating small circles of ground peanuts.
Many 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies are dry and crumbly, usually due to too much flour. However, these cookies use almond flour and have a better ratio of ingredients so you'll get cookies that are rich and 'buttery' and crispy rather than dry. These cookies are sturdy bu slightly more delicate than your typical chocolate chip cookie.
3 ingredients you'll need
Smooth natural peanut butter which has no additives and is made of only roasted peanuts and salt. I used a very runny store-bought peanut butter!
Almond flour for structure and moisture. Other flours such as oat flour and fine white rice flour will also work. However, I prefer the cookies with almond flour as they are more 'buttery' and less dry and crumbly.
Maple syrup as our refined sugar free sweetener. The maple syrup also helps all the ingredients stick together!
Normally eggs are used in 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies. However, with the addition of a binding ingredient (maple syrup) and structure (almond flour), no eggs are needed!
As always, all the ingredient amounts are at the bottom of this blog post.
How to make these peanut butter cookies
It's honestly really easy to make these cookies! Simply add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix until combined.
The cookie dough will initially have the consistency of a very thick paste but will quickly thicken up to have a soft cookie dough texture. The more moist your cookie dough, the less crumbly and dry your final cookies will be!
Using clean hands, roll the soft cookie dough into balls. The cookie dough may look too soft to handle, but it's actually fine! If you didn't eat any of the raw cookie dough straight from the bowl (no judgement), each ball should weigh 22g.
Place the cookie dough balls on a lined baking tray then gently flatten them with a fork. The dough may stick very slightly to the fork, but with a bit of patience (and just gravity), it's easy to press down the cookies!
The cookies don't spread much so you don't need to worry about spacing them far apart.
Baking the 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies
For cookies with crisp edges and a soft chewy centre, I'd recommend baking them for 10-12 minutes. For cookies which are crisp throughout, I'd recommend baking them for around 15 minutes.
The cookies are ready when they start to change in colour. They will be very soft when you take them out of the oven. However, they will continue baking whilst on the baking tray and will firm up a lot!
When the cookies have fully cooled down, they will become crispy and soft cookies! These vegan peanut butter cookies are so easy and addictive!
My other easy vegan cookie recipes
- Vegan Almond Flour Shortbread Cookies (3 ingredients)
- Chewy Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Fudge stuffed chocolate chip cookies (vegan)
- Vegan Mint Chocolate Cookies
3 Ingredient Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 125 g (½ cup) smooth natural peanut butter
- 75 g (¾ cup) blanched almond meal / almond flour, (note 1 for substitutes)
- 65 g (3 tablespoons) maple syrup
Instructions
- Note: Like all my recipes, this recipe has been tested using grams so I'd recommend weighing your ingredients rather than using cups!
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix until combined. The cookie dough should have the consistency of a very thick paste which can still be rolled into balls.
- Using clean and damp hands, divide the cookie dough into 12 balls (around 22g each). Place the balls on the lined baking tray.
- Use a fork to flatten each ball and mark each cookie with a criss cross pattern. Alternatively, you can just flatten each ball with your hand.
- Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are very slightly golden brown (note 2). Allow the cookies to completely cool on the baking tray. They will initially be very soft but will firm up a lot when they cool!
- For the best texture, enjoy the cookies on the day of baking either warm or at room temperature. Alternatively, store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days, in the fridge for 2 weeks or up to 2 months in the freezer.
Notes
- Alternatively, you can use 60g (⅔ cup) oat flour or 30g (3 tbsp) fine white rice flour to get a similar cookie dough consistency as the almond flour version. If you use these other flours, mix your cookie dough and let it sit for a few minutes to thicken up. I personally prefer the cookies with almond flour as they're less dry and crumbly. I haven't tested this recipe with any other type of flour.
- Cookies baked for 10-12 minutes will have crispy edges and a soft centre whereas cookies baked for 15 minutes will be more crispy throughout. However, all ovens run differently so I'd recommend keeping an eye on your cookies.
Please leave a comment below if you made this recipe, have any questions or thoughts! Your comment will help other readers and Rainbow Nourishments.
These are just perfect! I made these for myself being GF and Dairy free. And I totally loved the precise measurements. I doubled the recipe and used almond butter and they came out delicious!!
Definitely a recipe to make again! Bravo!
Soo glad you enjoyed these Sunit and I love that you used almond butter instead (I personally prefer it too). Thanks so much for your feedback x
I am allergic to peanuts. Can this recipe be made with Almond or Sunflower Seed butter?
Yes, I'd say so!
Hello,
Can i use regular peanut butter like crafts???
Hmm, I haven't tried but I wonder if it may be too oily!
Literally didn't have any of the ingredients, but followed the ratios with what I had. Also, used an air fryer because I was only baking for myself. For 3 Nutella cookies:
1. 25g oat flour - used nutribullet to turn oats into flour
2. 10g coconut flour
3. 20g raw honey - hold back vegan police!
4. 45g hazelnut butter/spread
5. Pinch of salt
10-12min in an air fryer - BAM!
And, of course, cacao!
Loove the sound of air fryer Nutella cookies!! I've got to try that combination myself (hazelnuts are my fav). Thanks for the notes about the ingredient amounts too! I always appreciate your comments! x