These vegan peanut butter cookies are soft, chewy, perfectly sweet, and easy to make. They're ready in just 30 minutes and require only 9 ingredients.
This version is healthier than the original one, as it's dairy-free and also egg-free. In addition, they work as the perfect snack to offer when you have guests at home and I promise you everyone will love them!
December is the month of cookie baking, and also making cookies at Christmas is one of my favorite traditions, but I make these cookies all year long as they're melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
These cookies along with my vegan chocolate chip cookies, vegan sugar cookies, and vegan gingerbread cookies are perfect for filling a cookie box with and gifting to a loved one, or just to enjoy by yourself!
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🌟 You’ll love this recipe because it is
- Ready in just 30 minutes.
- Made with only 9 everyday ingredients.
- Easy to make and doesn't require any special equipment.
- Perfect for Christmas, gift-giving, welcoming new neighbors, bringing to the office, or pretty much any situation!
- So good! The cookies are crunchy on the outside, but soft on the inside.
🧾 Ingredients
- Flax egg: make your own just using ground flaxseed and water. I guess you could also use any egg replacer, but I haven't tried it myself.
- Vegan butter: homemade or store-bought.
- Peanut butter: smooth or crunchy, both will work. I always use smooth, though.
- Granulated sugar.
- Vanilla extract: homemade or store-bought. You could omit it if you can't find it, but it will make your cookies taste even better.
- All-purpose flour.
- Baking powder.
- Baking soda.
- Salt: I used ionized salt, but any salt will do. If your peanut butter is salted, you may want to omit this ingredient.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
🔪 Instructions
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350ºF or 180ºC and prepare the flax egg by mixing the ground flaxseed with the water, and let the mixture rest at room temperature for at least 5 minutes.
Step 2: Add the vegan butter, peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla extract to a large bowl and beat until light and fluffy using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
Step 3: Add the vanilla and flax egg and beat on low speed until just incorporated.
Step 4: Combine the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl (baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flour).
Step 5: Incorporate the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until combined. If the dough is tough to stir, using your hands to mix it together will be easier.
Step 6: I used a cookie scoop to make the cookies, but feel free to use a regular spoon or even your hands. Fill the scoop with dough and just press and release onto a lined baking sheet.
Step 7: Roll the dough into balls, then roll the balls in sugar and place them evenly onto the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart (about 5 cm).
Step 8: Using the back of a fork, flatten in a crisscross pattern.
Step 9: Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are very lightly golden brown (I baked my cookies for 12 minutes). They will be soft when they come out of the oven but will firm up as they cool.
Step 10: Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
📋 Substitutions & variations
- Use vegan butter for the best results, but if you can't find it, just use more peanut butter instead, or even coconut oil.
- Peanut butter can be replaced with almond butter, cashew butter, or any nut butter.
- If you can't eat nuts, you could try to use any seed butter, or even coconut butter instead.
- Other types of sugar will work just fine, like brown, coconut, or cane sugar. Make sure the sugar you’re using is vegan, though.
- I’ve only made this recipe using all-purpose flour, but I think it could work if you use another type. However, you may need to add more or less.
- There are so many add-ins you can incorporate into your cookies like chocolate chips, raisins, dried cranberries, coconut flakes, etc.
- Use a gluten-free flour blend if you're gluten-free.
🍽 Equipment
To make this recipe you'll need:
- Measuring tablespoons and measuring cups (or a scale) to weigh your ingredients.
- A small bowl and a teaspoon to make the flax egg.
- I used my stand mixer, but you can also use a large bowl and a hand mixer, or a wooden spoon.
- A medium bowl where you're going to combine the dry ingredients. You could add them directly into the wet ingredient mixture, but it's better to combine them in a separate bowl.
- A cookie scoop to make your cookies, although you could also use your hands.
- A small bowl to place the sugar where you're going to roll your cookies. This is optional, as you don't have to roll your cookies if you don't want to.
- A fork to flatten your cookies in a crisscross pattern. This is also optional, but it will make your cookies look better.
- A lined baking sheet.
- A cooling rack to cool your cookies. This is optional as well, you could transfer them to a dish, but use a cooling rack if you want.
❄️ Storage
- At room temperature: store them in an airtight container at room temperature for about 1 week.
- Refrigerator: store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
- Freezer: store them in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Tip: make sure the cookies are completely cool before storing them.
💭 Expert tips
- Do not over-mix the dough, otherwise, it will be prone to spreading.
- Rolling the dough into the sugar is optional, but I personally believe the cookies taste better this way.
- Avoid dipping the fork in flour when making the crisscross pattern, dip the fork in sugar between pressing the cookie to keep them from sticking if necessary.
- Bake for 10 minutes for softer cookies, 12 minutes for crunchier cookies, and 14-15 minutes for really crunchy cookies.
- Be careful so that they don’t burn as the baking time may vary depending on the oven you're using.
- This recipe can easily be cut in half, or doubled, or even tripled.
- Let the cookies cool before eating as they'll be very soft and puffy when you take them out of the oven.
❓Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can! Place the cookies onto a lined baking sheet before baking and freeze. Then transfer to a freezer-safe bag or container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Bake them directly from the freezer (no thawing needed) for 2-4 minutes longer than the recipe time.
Many recipes require chilling the dough in the refrigerator so the cookies don’t spread out too much in the oven.
I prefer to omit this step to save some time and also because I think the cookies are so delicious this way.
But please feel free to refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes if you want, especially if your house is very warm.
As peanut butter is a pretty dense ingredient, adding the crisscross pattern to your cookies allows them to bake evenly.
That way they'll have a crispy exterior around the edges and a chewy interior where the marks are formed. And they also look prettier!
Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes, so the cookies don’t spread out too much in the oven.
However, I prefer to save some time and omit the chilling as I think my cookies are perfect this way.
You may over-bake the cookies, that's why it's really important to remove them from the oven when the edges are just lightly golden.
🍪 More vegan cookie recipes
Did you like this recipe? Please leave a rating and comment below!
📖 Recipe
Easy Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 flax egg, 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons water
- ½ cup vegan butter, softened
- ½ cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 and ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt, only if you use unsalted peanut butter
For rolling (optional):
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF or 180ºC.
- Prepare the flax egg by mixing the ground flaxseed with the water, and let the mixture rest at room temperature for at least 5 minutes.
- Add the vegan butter, peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla extract to a large bowl and beat until light and fluffy using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Add the vanilla and flax egg and beat on low speed until just incorporated.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt).
- Incorporate the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until combined. If the dough is tough to stir, using your hands to mix it together will be easier.
- I used a cookie scoop to make my cookies, but feel free to use a regular spoon or even your hands.
- Fill the scoop with dough and just press and release onto a lined baking sheet.
- Roll the dough into balls, then roll the balls in sugar and place them evenly onto the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart (about 5 cm).
- Using the back of a fork, flatten in a crisscross pattern.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cookies are very lightly golden brown (I baked my cookies for 12 minutes). They will be soft when they come out of the oven but will firm up as they cool.
- Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Use vegan butter for the best results, but if you can't find it, just use more peanut butter instead, or even coconut oil.
- Peanut butter can be replaced with almond butter, cashew butter, or any nut butter.
- If you can't eat nuts, you could try to use any seed butter, or even coconut butter instead.
- Other types of sugar will work just fine, like brown, coconut, or cane sugar. Make sure the sugar you’re using is vegan, though.
- I’ve only made this recipe using all-purpose flour, but I think it could work if you use another type. However, you may need to add more or less.
- Use a gluten-free flour blend if you're gluten-free.
- At room temperature: store them in an airtight container at room temperature for about 1 week.
- Refrigerator: tore them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
- Freezer: store them in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Tip: make sure the cookies are completely cool before storing them.
bblfoods says
wowwww!!!!!!!!!!! it looks great.......gonna to try it in the weekend
Iosune Robles says
Hope you liked it!
bblfoods says
wowwww!!!!!!!!!!! it looks great
Iosune Robles says
Thank you so much!
Jeanna says
Hi! Was wondering when I add the flax egg in this recipe?
Iosune Robles says
Hi Jeanna! We've forgotten to add the flax egg in the recipe instructions, sorry! Feel free to add it in the 2nd step 🙂