The Best Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies — 🥜🧡🍪 Soft, chewy and they’ll be your new fave PB cookies! One bowl, no mixer, no butter, naturally gluten-free! Love it when something so easy tastes so amazing!
Table of Contents
No-Flour Peanut Butter Cookies
You can never have too many peanut butter cookie recipes, and these flourless cookies are some of the best!
One bowl, no mixer, and just four main ingredients: peanut butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla.
What sets this recipe apart from many other peanut butter cookie recipes is that there’s no flour and no butter, making them naturally gluten-free and dairy-free. Since there’s no butter and no flour what you’re left with is a cookie that’s full of bold, robust peanut butter flavor.
These simple peanut butter cookies have a lovely chewiness around the edges and are perfectly soft and tender in the middle. Don’t be tempted to overbake them, because they won’t taste nearly as good.
“Oh my!! These are the BEST peanut butter cookies ever!! I will literally need a whole jar of peanut butter just for these cookies! They are so delicious and easy to make! Thanks for this recipe!” — Brenda M.
Ingredients in Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
To make these peanut butter cookies with no flour, you’ll need:
- Egg – I haven’t tested substituting the egg in this recipe and don’t recommend it.
- Creamy peanut butter – to switch up the flavor of this recipe, use honey roasted peanut butter instead of regular. You want to use Jif, Skippy, or similar rather than natural or homemade peanut butter. Sometimes natural versions work fine but not always; classic peanut butter is more trustworthy
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Baking soda
- Salt
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
Never made flourless cookies before? They’re easy!
Here’s how these flourless, butterless peanut butter cookies are made:
- Whisk all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl until smooth. There’s not need for a stand mixer!
- Use a 2-inch cookie scoop to shape the dough into mounds, place the dough balls on a large plate, cover them with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge.
- Arrange the peanut butter cookie dough balls on a baking sheet liked with Silpat mats or greased with cooking spray, leaving space between each piece. Flatten the cookies slightly, and use a fork to make a criss-cross pattern if desired.
- Bake at 350F until the edges are set and the tops are barely set. Be careful not to overbake!
- Allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet, and enjoy!
“These are by far the best peanut butter cookies.” — Kelly
Recipe FAQs
No, a no-stir “traditional” peanut butter like Jif or Skippy is best in this flourless peanut butter cookie recipe. Homemade or natural peanut butters don’t always work in baked goods.
I personally prefer using creamy peanut butter in my baked goods, but I bet crunchy would work just fine here. If you try this out, leave me a comment letting me know what you thought!
If you wanted to take these PB cookies to the next level, feel free to add chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, or chopped nuts. You may add up to 1 cup of mix-ins.
I’ve only made this recipe as written, so I can’t speak to what sugar substitutes you could use. However, a few readers have reported success using Splenda, but having never tested it myself I don’t know if it will yield the same results.
Most likely, but just keep in mind that natural nut butters such as almond butter and cashew butter only sometimes work for me in baked goods. So use your best judgment, and definitely chill the dough still!
The nice thing about this recipe is that it doesn’t make too many cookies, just 11 or 12, which for me is a good thing. The more I have around, the more I’m tempted to devour! However, you can easily double or triple the recipe depending on how many people you need to feed.
Baked flourless, gluten free peanut butter cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Yes, both the flourless cookie dough and the baked cookies freeze extremely well. If baking frozen cookie dough, add a minute or two to the total bake time.
Yes! You can store unbaked cookie dough in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Then, just pull it out, and bake as normal whenever a craving strikes.
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The Best Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Large Mixing Bowl
- 1 Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup creamy classic-style peanut butter or honey-roasted peanut butter*
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- To a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients and stir to combine using a spoon. It takes some elbow grease and it’s okay for the dough to be slightly granular because the sugar absorbs into the dough over time as the dough chills.
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form two-tablespoon mounds, place mounds on a large plate, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet), flatten slightly using a fork to make a criss-cross pattern if desired.
- Bake for 8 minutes, or until edges are set and tops are barely set, even if slightly underbaked and glossy in the center. Cookies firm up as they cool; don’t overbake.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
Notes
- *You want to use Jif, Skippy, or similar rather than natural or homemade peanut butter. Sometimes natural versions work fine but not always; classic peanut butter is more trustworthy. I use honey-roasted.
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Peanut Butter Cookie Recipes:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies – Super soft, chewy, and no flour, no butter, and no white sugar used!
Big Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Crinkle Cookies – Super chewy, packed with PB flavor and just made for breaking apart at the crinkly seams!
Easy 4-Ingredient Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies — Soft, chewy, and made with an ingredient you’d never guess! It works and they’re perfect!
Reese’s Pieces Cookies – Peanut butter lovers’ will go nuts for these super soft cookies loaded with Reese’s Pieces and chocolate!
Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — 3 favorite cookies combined into 1 so you don’t have to choose! Easy, no-mixer recipe, and always a hit!
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Chip Cookies – Super soft, perfectly chewy, BROWNED BUTTER cookies that are LOADED with two kinds of chips!
Peanut Butter Blossoms— These peanut butter blossoms feature soft and chewy peanut butter cookies topped with a Hershey’s chocolate kiss. A classic Christmas cookie recipe!
Originally published June 5, 2015 and republished July 8, 2022 with updated text.
Flourless makes them healthy right?? That’s what I’ll tell myself, so I can eat more of them :)!
Totally!! This batch only makes 11-12 cookies and I eat the whole thing in 2 days :)
These look amazing!! Perfect texture and all. I wish I could sink my teeth into one now! You make the best peanut butter stuff.
Thank you! I’d like to think it’s because of all the practice I had in writing my first cookbook :)
This has to be the perfect peanut butter cookie recipe!! One bowl, no mixer, and doesn’t make an enormous amount (so I don’t eat them all haha!) Can’t wait to give them a try, pinned :)
Thanks for pinning and I hear you re the enormous amount situation :)
That middle!!!! Making just so I can experience that chewy peanut buttery deliciousness!
Oh my gosh you sound like me except with mac and cheese recipes! I have like 5 other ideas I want to put on there still but I’m afraid I’m being ridiculous!
LOL I have to say PB cookie variations are my THING! ha!
We love your peanut butter cookbook! Never too much pb!
Flour-less peanut butter recipes rock. They come in handy for gluten-free snacks. I have a similar recipe which is tasty, but this looks good to me because of the gooey-ness of the cookies.
Peanut butter is my favorite! After I read your post, I scrolled down looking at all the related recipes, and after a few minutes I realized how long the list was! No one’s at a loss of peanut butter cookies on this site!
You got that right :)
The texture of these cookies looks perfect!!
And thanks for pinning it! :)
Oh my gosh I LOVE flourless PB cookies! They’re seriously like magic with that ultra-chewy texture, yet being completely butter and flour-less!
P.S. you are the total peanut butter cookie QUEEN! Can’t even get over how many different varieties of pb cookies you have! I want them all. ;)
Yeah and this is just on my site (not my 100+ recipe PB-only cookbook!) and this isn’t even all the PB cookies I have on my site; just a smattering of some faves that came to mind :)
Averie I can see my brother inhaling these cooking in a matter of minutes!! Pinning!
Thanks for pinning!
Wow, these so yummy!
I actually have all the ingredients right now, so these need to be made today :D
Another incredible looking cookie! I think the hardest part of this recipe is waiting for the dough to chill–and not eating it before it gets to the oven. I haven’t baked in a while and could pull these off without a special trip to the store.
I hadn’t baked in awhile either (like more than 2-3 days…LOL b/c of all the savory dishes I was making) and I just had a craving for these and…voila!
You’re the one who taught me to shape the cookies and put them on cookie sheets before chilling, Averie! It’s so much easier that way. And as a proud owner of your book and someone who can’t stop eating PB cookies (with a gluten-free husband to boot), I’m excited at this riff on the flourless version! Brown sugar must make it SO much better.
Glad that little tip helped you and yes agreed, soooo much easier!
O my God, these look great and they are FODMAP friendly too. And how come I only find out now you have cookbook all about peanut butter? Checking it out straight away!
I don’t think a lot of people know so every time I make something with lots of PB, I always mention my book for newer readers or anyone who didn’t know!
Wow, these sound so easy, but look so yummy! My favorite kind of recipe ;) My younger sister is obsessed with peanut butter. She died when I showed her this haha.. (She’s forcing me to make them for her now :’) ) Do you think I can fold some peanuts into the dough too?
Probably would be fine.