You're going to love these soft and chewy almond flour peanut butter cookies! They're simple, sweet, and mega flavorful! They come together in a few minutes and don't require any chilling, so you can enjoy this gluten-free cookie whenever the craving strikes.
Need another gluten-free cookie recipe? Try gluten-free almond biscotti, gluten-free chocolate crinkle cookies, or oat flour chocolate chip cookies.
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Peanut butter lovers are going to drool over this almond flour peanut butter cookie recipe! A batch of these healthy cookies takes 20 minutes start to finish. You're left with intense peanut butter flavor and the best chewy texture.
If you're making multiple gluten-free cookies in a day, try these flourless peanut butter cookies, no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies, or coconut flour chocolate chip cookies next.
Ingredient Notes
Here are the simple ingredients for these gluten-free peanut butter cookies. Skip down to the recipe card for the exact measurements.
- Creamy natural peanut butter: grab a peanut butter where the only ingredients are peanuts and salt. You want a no-stir peanut butter, where you don't have all the oil sitting on top at first.
- Refined coconut oil: this type of coconut oil has a very mild coconut flavor that you'll barely even notice.
- Coconut sugar: You could also use maple syrup (it's a great coconut sugar substitute), though it may change the cookie texture slightly.
- Egg: an egg brings the dough together and adds structure to the cookies.
- Vanilla extract: use quality, pure vanilla extract.
- Baking soda: baking soda reacts with the acid in the sugar to help the cookies rise.
- Blanched almond flour: Blanched means they've removed the almond skins prior to grinding into a flour. As opposed to almond meal, which is ground almonds with the skin on.
- Sea salt: to balance out the sweetness!
- Chocolate chips: these are optional for drizzling. We like to use an allergy friendly semi-sweet chocolate chip or a dark chocolate. Lily's and Hu Kitchen are great brands.
How to Make Almond Flour Peanut Butter Cookies
Here are the basic steps, with images, for these these almond flour peanut butter cookies. Skip down to the recipe card below for the full printable recipe.
Wet ingredients: In a large mixing bowl with your electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the almond butter, coconut oil, and coconut sugar together on high. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until no yellow streaks remain.
Dry ingredients: Stir in the almond flour, baking soda, and sal until incorporated.
Scoop cookie dough: Use a medium cookie scoop or heaping tablespoon to drop the cookie dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
Alternate option: Press the back of a fork into the top of each cookie in a crisscross pattern.
Bake: Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden brown around the edges. Be careful not to over bake. Let them cool on the baking sheet for ten minutes to set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Substitutions and Modifications
- Paleo: swap the peanut butter for a creamy, no-drop almond or cashew butter.
- Keto: use ¼ cup powdered erythritol or a powdered monk fruit erythritol
- Vegan: swap the egg for a flax egg or 3 tablespoons of Just Egg.
- Coconut oil: if you don't like coconut or you're allergic, try using melted butter or vegan butter.
- Coconut sugar: you may not care about the refined sugar, so if not, go ahead and use light brown sugar.
FAQs
The peanut butter should be natural and creamy, but not the kind with the layer of oil on top that you have to stir before using. Make sure it's a no-stir creamy peanut butter.
Almond meal is made from unblanched (unpeeled) almonds so the texture is more course and the color is darker. While almond flour uses peeled almonds to create a finer, lighter flour.
You can't swap almond flour as a 1:1 ratio with all-purpose flour. Almond flour has a very different structure. It's a high-fat flour and therefore has more moisture. I recommend using a recipe that calls for it specifically.
Cookies made with almond flour are often more moist than traditional cookies. If you try to pick them up while they're too warm they will fall apart. Make sure they're cooled completely before eating or packaging.
Expert Tips
- Use a cookie scoop: this helps get all of the cookies the same size so they bake evenly.
- Drizzle them with chocolate and even add some sea salt on top!
- Use parchment paper or a silpat mat to help keep them from sticking.
- Double check you have the right kind of peanut butter (see below!).
Storage and Freezer Instructions
- Room temperature: close them in an airtight container and leave at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- Refrigerator: store them for up to 5 days in the fridge in an airtight container.
- Freezer: store the baked cookies in an air tight container for up to 3 months. You can also freezer the cookie dough balls for 3 months prior to baking. Bake them straight from frozen, just add a few extra minutes to the bake time.
More gluten free cookie recipes
- Flourless almond butter cookies
- Gluten free almond biscotti
- Hot cocoa cookies
- Gluten free cutout sugar cookies
- Double chocolate peppermint cookies (paleo)
Almond Flour Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup natural creamy no-stir peanut butter
- 6 tablespoons refined coconut oil melted and slightly cooled
- ¾ cup coconut sugar or brown sugar see notes for keto
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups blanched almond flour packed
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup chocolate chips melted for drizzling optional
Recommended Equipment
- Stand mixer or large bowl with electric mixer
- Large cookie sheet and parchment paper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
- In a large bowl with your hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the almond butter , coconut oil and coconut sugar together on high speed until smooth creamy, 2-3 minutes. It may look lumpy at first but keep beating because it will come together.
- Add the egg, vanilla, and mix until combined, 1-2 minutes then add the almond flour, baking soda and salt and mix until full incorporated, 1-2 minutes.
- Use a large cookie scoop or heaping tablespoon to drop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes, being careful not to over bake.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheet for ten minutes to set. Transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Taylor says
I followed the recipe but am not sure what happened. They’re extremely crumbly, and dry! Taste good though haha
Sophie says
Made these with my daughters. Only substitute I did was half peanut butter and half sunbutter instead of all peanut butter (only because I used what I had on hand), cookies fall apart easily unless they are totally, completely cool. She warns you of that though. I thought they were delicious and being gluten and dairy free and low sugar, I almost never eat treats like this so it was super fun to get to *treat* myself.