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 Peanut Butter Cookies without Flour
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.
Do you have a recipe for the flourless PB cookies?I have a large family and they love that recipe but I don’t know how many times I could quadruple it…..lol .Definitely the best PB cookie I have ever had.
Yes the recipe is listed in the recipe card section of this post for these cookies. I am glad your family loves them. You can easily double, triple or quadruple this recipe based on how many cookies you need to yield.
Serving size 1? Hahaha! Only if the cookie is the size of a dinner plate! I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve never eaten just 1 cookie.
great
great
These are by far the best peanut butter cookies.
These are by far the best peanut butter cookies.
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad they’re the best ever for you!
great
Definitely a keeper! The cookies came out beautiful and tested delicious!
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!
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!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad they’re the BEST peanut butter cookies ever for you!
This recipe is so good. It is better than traditional peanut butter cookies. I found it and my husband baked them at Thanksgiving for our grandson who is sensitive to gluten. The poor child only got one because the grownups loved them so much. We will definitely be making them again!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad you like these better than traditional PB cookies and you will make them again!
Just made this recipe tonight, SO delicious and easy; one bowl, no mixer, and to make these even quicker (I’m impatient) rather than chilling the dough in the fridge for 3 hours I simply popped them in the freezer for about 20 minutes while I preheated the oven and they turned out perfectly!
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad they turned out so delicious and that the freezer trick worked great for you!
We couldn’t decide between using chunky PB or smooth, so we made both, side by side. The family is evenly divided as to which is better, but we all agree this recipe is fabulous! The chunky ended up a little more chewy, slightly flatter, and slightly sweeter because the batter (which carried the chunks) had a higher egg and sugar to PB ratio. The smooth PB cookies were higher and richer somehow. We all like the somewhat salty character– it sets off the sweet PB flavor nicely. Not even one cookie from two batches saw the sunrise. BTW, we used Skippy. Since I hate washing PB-dirty cups, I did the math and worked out that 1 cup of PB = 256 grams. Easy peasy.
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad you did a side by side taste test, and loved both versions!
What if I don’t have baking soda. Is it okay to make without it?
I would say wait until you have it so they work out.
EXACTLY the recipe I was hoping it would be, it gave me precisely the cookies I had in my cravings(which after many different recipes, remained frustratingly elusive)… The use of brown sugar (I use dark btw) and small bit of baking soda are the difference that make these cookies *IMMACULATE*! …. Follow the advice to avoid overbaking and you’ll be rewarded with REALLLLLLY PEANUT BUTTERY, moist, soft, sooooooo-close-to-but-not-quite”chewy”, tender, creamy, melt on your tongue cookies that will find you eating three every time you go out to the kitchen and nobody’s looking.. (Then chasing them with ice cold milk off the jug right in front of the open fridge, because..well.. nobody’s looking, remember?)
Thanks for the five star review and glad you are in love with these cookies and that they’re EXACTLY the recipe you were hoping it would be!
Thank you for this recipe it was great. I love trying new things and I bake for the family that’s what a Nana does. They loved this and thought I worked hard at getting it done. He he I won’t tell.
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad everyone loved these!