Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

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If you’re looking for THE peanut butter cookie, I’ve got you covered! These flourless peanut butter cookies are naturally gluten-free, but you’d never guess so. The cookies are the perfect balance of sweet and peanut butter in a thin, chewy, little cookie.

Cookies piled up on a blue and white platter.

Why Flourless You Ask?

Yeah, that’s a good question actually. I’m not gluten-free, so it wasn’t really about that for me, although it’s a nice bonus for my GF friends; I was thinking more about simplicity.

How can I make peanut butter cookies easier. Less ingredients = easier. I guess that’s the bottom line here. These cookies have only a handful of ingredients and only 4 simple steps. And that’s only part of the reason they’re so great!

Two tacos sitting on a white plate with chopped avocado and cilantro on top.

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    Step-by-step Photos

    Step-by-step photos of how to make flourless peanut butter cookies.

    Here’s What You’ll Need for the Cookies

    • Smooth peanut butter (not natural peanut butter)
    • Crunchy peanut butter
    • Dark brown sugar
    • Sugar
    • Egg
    • Baking soda
    • Sea salt
    • Vanilla extract
    Step-by-step photos of how to make flourless peanut butter cookies.

    Making These Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

    1. Cream the peanut butters, dark brown sugar, sugar, baking soda, and sea salt together until pretty evenly mixed. The dough will be thick and grainy, that’s okay.
    2. Stir in the egg and vanilla extract and incorporate them well. You can’t really over-mix these cookies, which is really good news (especially if you’re a chronic over-mixer like me).
    3. Scoop the dough onto lined baking sheets and generously sprinkle the tops of the cookies with sugar.
    4. Bake, cool, and eat!
    Cookies laying on a wire rack. The top cookie has a bite out of it.

    What Makes These the Best Peanut Butter Cookies

    • The most obvious reason, they’re super simple to make and only require a few ingredients and about half an hour.
    • They’re thin and chewy and have the most perfect crackled, crispy tops and edges.
    • They’re naturally gluten-free (high-five to my gluten-free friends!).
    • They’re lower in carbs than most cookies (high-five to my low-carb friends!).
    • They pair perfectly with coffee in the morning (maybe not everyone eats cookies for breakfast?).
    • They’re loaded with peanut butter, but thankfully, they’re not sticky-icky hurt-your-belly kind of sweet. Win!

    Not a cookie person? Try these Peanut Butter Cupcakes instead, they’re delicious!

    Cookies stacked up on a wire rack with a small bowl of sugar.

    Questions About This Recipe

    The crunchy peanut butter adds crunch and texture to the cookies, since they are lacking in density from not having flour. You can substitute all smooth peanut butter if necessary, but the cookies won’t be as good in my opinion.

    These cookies will puff up as they bake. You’ll see the tops crack open, bubble a little, and start to brown. Pull them out when they are just barely brown on top and let them sit for minute, the tops will fall flat in 1-2 minutes.

    I really want the answer to this question to be yes, but sadly no you cannot. The consistency is so much different than traditional peanut butter, the cookies won’t hold their shape. I tried, several times. I did bake this recipe with Jif Natural peanut butter and it worked well.

    Freezing the actual cookies will have a better result than freezing the dough. The baked (and cooled) cookies will hold in the freezer for months. Unfortunately, the dough doesn’t thaw as well as some flour based doughs do.

    Because they don’t have any flour, these cookies are fragile. They’ll do best in a very airtight container and you should eat them within the first day or two or freeze them and pull out a couple at a time when you want to eat them. They thaw out in 10 minutes or so.

    A plateful of peanut butter cookies.

    There You Have It, I 10/10 Recommend

    Flourless, gluten-free, low-carb, whatever you want to call them. These peanut butter cookies are so easy and so full of peanut butter flavor, they will quickly become your favorite recipe. Now, get you some and let me know what you think – leave your comments or questions below.

    View the Google web story for this recipe.

    A plateful of peanut butter cookies.

    Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

    By: Kristine Underwood
    Perfectly thin and chewy flourless peanut butter cookies. This recipe has four simple steps and the cookies are sweet and peanut buttery.
    5 from 13 votes
    Prep Time 10 minutes
    Cook Time 10 minutes
    Total Time 20 minutes
    Course Sweets & Dessert
    Cuisine American
    Servings 18 cookies
    Calories 106 kcal

    Ingredients

    • 1/2 cup peanut butter, smooth
    • 1/4 cup peanut butter, crunchy
    • 1/4 cup sugar
    • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
    • 1 egg
    • 2 tsp vanilla extract
    • 1/4 tsp sea salt
    • 1/2 tsp baking soda

    Instructions

    • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
    • In a medium bowl, cream peanut butter, sugar, dark brown sugar, baking soda, and sea salt until smooth.
      1/2 cup peanut butter, smooth, 1/4 cup peanut butter, crunchy, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda
    • Stir in egg and vanilla and mix well.
      1 egg, 2 tsp vanilla extract
    • Using a 1.5 TBS cookie scoop, scoop dough and place on a lined baking sheet 2 inches apart.
    • Generously sprinkle the tops of the cookies with sugar.
    • Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
    • Let cookies cool for 1-2 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies will be very delicate until fully cool.
    • Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months.

    Notes

    Make sure to read the cookie baking tips to get answers to common questions about baking cookies.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1 cookieCalories: 106kcalCarbohydrates: 10gProtein: 3.4gFat: 6.4gSaturated Fat: 1.4gSodium: 131mgFiber: 1gSugar: 8.8g

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    Recipe Rating




    26 Comments

    1. Patricia Davis says:

      Hi Granddaughter, that cookie recipe is great for those of us who have to cut carbs. I’m going to share it with my curves friends.5 stars

      1. Hi gram! Exactly! I ‘almost’ didn’t feel guilty when I ate 4 of them, hahaha! They’re really yummy, I hope you all enjoy them! XOXO

    2. Amber Vanderwal says:

      Yum! I’m going to try making these. I LOVE PB!5 stars

      1. Hi Amber! Me too, me too! All. The. Peanut. Butter. LOL! I hope you like them as much as we do! 🙂

    3. OH HECK YEAH!!! I have a party to go to this weekend and the host has a gluten allergy! These cookies will be a hit. That is if I don’t eat all the batter and cookies first #Ihaveaproblem. HA!5 stars

      1. LOL, Christina! #bestcommenttoday …and I’m right there with you! I made these cookies two days ago (and ate most of them myself – speaking of problems) and made MORE today. They really are that good, gluten-free or not! We LOVE them! I hope you do too!

    4. These cookies will be great for my gluten free friends! And for my non gluten free friends, because how can you go wrong with peanut butter cookies? The only issue is saving them for my friends. 🙂5 stars

      1. Haha, Annemarie I know what you mean! They are so good, they are never around for too long!

    5. Peanut butter cookies are some of my absolute favorite! Especially the super easy kind like these. I can smell them now baking in the oven…5 stars

    6. Totally with you about the end of August being an odd time to develop recipes, before you know it mid September will be here and more Autumnal recipes will be all the rage but right now here in Hungary it is still very warm too… Just call me Mr confused :S

      These look wonderful, I love peanut butter.5 stars

      1. I’m glad I’m not the only one Brian! I’m ready for fall and all of the fall food, but it’s not fall yet! LOL! Thank you so much!

    7. I love peanut butter desserts so much so these cookies are right up my alley! 🙂 I’ve never tried making cookies with both smooth and crunchy peanut butter; I need to try that!5 stars

      1. Thank you so much Marie! The crunchy peanut butter just gives a little extra texture and well, crunch to the cookies! These really are some of my favorite peanut butter cookies ever! Hope you enjoy them! 🙂

    8. You definitely have your peanut butter bases covered, lady! These sound scrumptious and the texture looks incredible! I love that you used both creamy AND crunchy peanut butter to get just the right texture!5 stars

      1. Oh Amy, thank you so much! I’m all about a good peanut butter cookie; heck, I’m all about a good cookie period! Thank you so much for your sweet comment! 🙂

      1. Thank you so much Patty, I hope you like them! They’re one of my favorites too!

    9. These look amazing! I need to make these for my next bookclub! They would love them 🙂5 stars

      1. Yes Kaitie! These would be perfect for bookclub! Thank you so much!

    10. Peanut butter cookies are my fav since I don’t like chocolate! And no flour….sign me up!5 stars

      1. Oh I’m with you Brandi, I’d take peanut butter over chocolate ANY day! Thank you so much! 😉

    11. I made this recipe yesterday and could not believe how good they were. No flour, no butter? And yet they turned out to be the perfectly crisp, melt in your mouth cookie us gluten deprived crave. Better than Tate’s Gluten Free Cookies if they only made peanut butter cookies. Next time I’ll add chocolate chips. So good. Thank you.5 stars

      1. Hey Barbara! I’m so glad you loved them too! I absolutely agree with you, I couldn’t believe it either – they really are the most perfect peanut butter cookie and with only a few ingredients! I appreciate you stopping by to leave a comment! Happy baking!