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Sometimes you just need a cookie. And when that craving hits, these vegan peanut butter cookies totally deliver. They’re soft, chewy, and taste indulgent, but they’re made with feel-good ingredients you’ll find in all of my vegan desserts.
Instead of processed sugar overload, I use coconut sugar and maple syrup for natural sweetness. Oat milk keeps things dairy-free and smooth, and there’s no butter, no eggs, and no weird additives. Plus, peanut butter adds protein and healthy fats, so these cookies satisfy without the crash. This is a cookie you can feel better about sharing with your kids—or sneaking after bedtime.
Table of Contents
Vegan Peanut Butter Cookie Ingredients
The ingredients for these delightful treats are pretty straight forward, with a few fun twists. I’m using coconut sugar instead of brown sugar, maple syrup instead of granulated sugar and oat flour instead of regular flour. Read why below:
- Creamy peanut butter: I use natural peanut butter for this recipe and mine turn out great every time. Just make sure that dough is thoroughly mixed before forming it into balls. Natural peanut butter often separates in the jar, so give it a good mix even before measuring out the necessary amount to ensure you get all those needed oils.
- Coconut sugar: This darker sugar acts similarly to brown sugar and brings depth to this recipe.
- Unsweetened oat milk: Non-dairy milk is always a winner– and oat milk helps the cookies fluff up a bit.
- Maple syrup: This is my natural sweetener of choice in all baked goods.
- All-purpose flour: You can use bleached or unbleached. If you’re gluten free, use oat flour of a GF flour.
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Ingredient Swaps
- If peanuts are an issue, you can easily turn these into sun butter, cashew, tahini or almond butter cookies by using the seed or nut butter of your choice. Just adjust the oil amounts to ensure they don’t dry out too much while baking.
- If you are a peanut butter + chocolate lover like my husband then feel free to mix in up to a cup of vegan chocolate chips. You won’t be able to flatten the dough balls with a fork, yet they should still turn out great.
- Swap out oat milk for whatever dairy-free milk you have on hand.
How to Make Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
This peanut butter cookie recipe is pretty quick to make and takes an oven, parchment-lined baking sheet, two mixing bowls and a fork.
1: Set the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Peanut butter cookies are more oily than other varieties, yet can still stick to a pan if there is no paper down.
In a large mixing bowl, mix peanut butter, coconut sugar, oat milk, maple syrup and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Feel free to use a standing mixer or a hand mixer to get the creamiest results.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon until well combined.
Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and stir until combined. I like using a spatula to combine, so that I don’t over mix. It should be crumbly.
Drizzle the oat milk over the cookie dough then use a spatula or your hands to combine. The dough will be a bit sticky. If it doesn’t hold together add more oat milk, a teaspoon at a time, until the dough comes together.
Shape the dough into 1″ round balls then set them on the prepped baking sheet. You can use a cookie scoop if you want, yet I find I get a better ball shape just using my hands. Use a fork to create the classic crisscross pattern on the top of the cookie dough balls to flatten it.
Bake for 8 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the center is just set. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
When testing this recipe, I tried both chilling the dough in the fridge/freezer as well as just baking right away. I didn’t notice a difference in how the cookies turned out, so I didn’t include that extra step in my recipe.
Pro Cookie Tip
You know those classic criss-cross fork marks on peanut butter cookies? They’re not just for looks (though they do make them instantly recognizable). Pressing the dough with a fork before baking actually helps the cookies bake more evenly and keeps them from puffing up too much. It’s a simple step that makes a big difference!
More Vegan Desserts
If you’ve tried this vegan peanut butter cookies recipe then don’t forget to let me know what you think in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
Chewy Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Jen HansardIngredients
- 1 cup peanut butter creamy
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- ¼ cup oat milk unsweetened
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp sea salt, unrefined
- ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon ground
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350 °F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl, mix the peanut butter, coconut sugar, oat milk, maple syrup and vanilla until smooth and creamy, using an electric mixer if you have one.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until combined; the dough will look crumbly at first, then turn slightly sticky. If it doesn’t hold together, add a little more oat milk, a bit at a time, until it does.
- Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Press each ball with a fork in a crisscross pattern to flatten slightly.
- Bake until golden brown at the edges and set in the center, about 8 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Notes
- Texture Tip: Use a creamy, no-stir peanut butter. Natural peanut butter that separates can make the dough oily.
- Nut-Free: Sunflower seed butter works in place of the peanut butter, as do almond or cashew butter if nuts are fine. Sunflower butter can turn the centers slightly green as it reacts with the baking soda; it’s harmless.
- Gluten-Free: Oat flour or a gluten-free flour blend works in place of all-purpose flour. To make oat flour, blend certified gluten-free rolled oats until finely ground.
- Storing: Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Nutrition
FAQs
I find it’s easier to overcook peanut butter cookies since they are already brown in color. So if you want to keep them from getting crumbly, try slightly undercooking them then leaving them on the tray to cool (after removing from the oven) until they are safe to touch. Another reason for crumbly cookies is a lack of moisture. Make sure the dough is a bit oily when you scoop it onto the baking tray.
Yes, vegans can enjoy all the peanut butter they want. As always, read your labels in case some company is trying to sneak weird ingredients into your peanut butter, yet there shouldn’t be any animal products needed.
Some cookies bake more evenly if you help to flatten them a bit before putting in the oven. Peanut butter cookies fall into this category, so while the lines may be iconic, applying that fork pressure pre-baking also helps you get an evenly baked result!
Swap all purpose flour with gluten-free baking flour at a 1:1 ratio if making these peanut butter cookies gluten-free. You can also use gluten-free rolled oats (and blend into a fine powder) and use that as your flour.
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great taste; my cycling group loved them. Definite had to use more of the milk (I used my own blend of nut milk) to add moisture to the dough. Easy to make.
Awesome. Thanks for making and sharing them, Jean. (Fellow cycler here) Keep rawking and riding!
Will the cookie recipe work with cow milk, i understand it wont be vegan, if so, what percentage of fat?
Yes, you could, but the results won’t be identical. Cows milk is richer and higher in protein which can affect texture and cooking times. If you do use cow’s milk, I would use a skim to minimize the difference in outcomes.
I made these several times using almond butter sometimes and peanut butter sometimes. I thought they were delicious.
Cookie season is fast approaching us. It would be fun to bring these to an event so people could see how tasty plant based desserts can be. Thanks for your feedback, Wilma.
The peanut butter flavor was there as was the crispy edges and soft center. But the baking soda! Too much. Not really edible at 1 tsp of baking soda. Maybe I’ll try 1/4.
Thanks for the feedback, E.