Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies — These are hands down the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made. Know that I don’t say that lightly! They’re melt-in-your mouth soft and chewy, and extremely moist!
Table of Contents
BEST EVER Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’m not one to throw around labels like ‘The Best’ or ‘Best Of’ if I really don’t think something is. When people talk and every other thing is amazing, life-changing, or the best, I tend to not take them seriously.
But I can proudly say, these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies get my vote as “The Best” peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made.
They’re the easiest cookies you’ll ever make, with only six ingredients, and one of them is vanilla, which hardly counts. The recipe is naturally gluten-free because there’s no flour, and it’s one egg away from being vegan.
Instead of granulated sugar, this peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe uses all brown sugar. Why? Because it helps baked goods stay moist and soft, and it adds greater depth of flavor than granulated sugar!
The cookie dough itself is as robustly peanut butter flavored as you can get. There’s no butter and no flour to take away any of the intensity of flavor. Just pure peanut butter intensity.
The edges have a bit of chewiness to them, the interior is so soft and tender, the peanut flavor is distinctly present, and chunks and rivers of dark chocolate ooze everywhere.
It’s hard to believe there’s no butter, no flour, and no granulated sugar in them. They’re my definition of the perfect cookie.
Ingredients in Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Here’s what I used in these chocolate chip peanut butter cookies:
- Creamy peanut butter
- Light brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Baking soda
- Chocolate chips or chunks
A Note About the Amount of Vanilla Called For
I am a vanilla fiend and added it amply enough to matter — 1 tablespoon, to be exact. No more of this 1/2 teaspoon business!
However, if you’re one of those people who prefer less, go with less. I go with more.
How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Making soft and chewy peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips is so easy! Just make sure you plan ahead, because the cookie dough MUST be chilled before baking it.
Here’s an overview of the recipe steps:
- Add the peanut butter and light brown sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. (Spraying the measuring cup with cooking spray will help it plop out easier.)
- To the peanut butter and brown sugar, add an egg, vanilla extract, and baking soda. Mix all the ingredients until well-combined.
- Add the chocolate and beat momentarily to incorporate.
- As tempting as it is to bake the cookies right away because the dough is just so good, it must be chilled for at least 2 hours before being baked for thicker, puffier cookies.
- Using a medium-sized two-inch cookie scoop, form the dough mounds. This translates to almost 2 tablespoons of dough, or about 1.60-ounces by weight.
- Place the dough onto baking sheets about two inches apart, about 8 per tray. Prior to baking, flatten the mounds slightly. If your dough is very well-chilled, you can flatten them a bit more so they don’t stay mounded up in little puffballs while baking, just don’t over-flatten them.
- Bake at 350ºF oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
A Note About the Bake Time
I recommend baking the cookies at the lower end of the bake time range. The cookies in the photos were baked for 8 minutes exactly, with the trays rotated once at the 4-minute mark.
The chocolate chip peanut butter cookies will look underdone at 8 minutes, but firm up as they cool. Let them cool on the baking trays for 5 to 10 minutes before moving them.
If you like crispy and crunchy peanut butter cookies, this probably isn’t the recipe for you since these are all about soft, chewy, and melty. But if you prefer slightly more well-done cookies, bake them for 9-ish minutes, maybe 10.
I would not bake them longer than 10 minutes or they’ll set up too firm and crunchy as they cool, and you’ll miss out on the ooey, gooey, melt-in-your mouth qualities, which are make these the best chocolate chip peanut butter cookies!
Recipe FAQs
Of course! The honey roasted peanut butter makes for a slightly sweeter cookie than using regular peanut butter, and it’s a great contrast to the bittersweet dark chocolate. However, use what you have!
For my version, I used 1 cup Peanut Pan Creamy Honey Roasted Peanut Butter and I don’t advocate using natural or Homemade Peanut Butter.
As lovely as homemade peanut butter is for eating with a spoon, spreading on toast, or making pans of bars with, it lacks the structure that store-bought peanut butter has.
Because these cookies have no flour, which would lend structure, using peanut butter that’s oily, natural, and loose is going to result in cookies that are loose and may not bake up as thick.
You could try using natural peanut butter — and I’ve seen some people have success with it — but I get much better results with commercial. Good old-fashioned Jif, Skippy, or Peter Pan are my recommendations.
I don’t care for nuts in cookies, generally speaking, and creamy peanut butter is the only way for me, but if you like little pebbles in your cookies, go with crunchy.
Use whichever you have on hand to make these accidentally gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!
I like the darkness and slight bitterness of chopped chocolate, contrasted with the honey in the peanut butter, and with molasses that’s naturally found in brown sugar. Most semi-sweet chocolate chips are in the 50 to 55% range, and I relish the extra bump in dark chocolate intensity.
However, chocolate chips are definitely the easier and quicker option since you don’t have to chop them up before throwing into the dough. In short: use what you have!
You probably can, but I’ve never tried it myself so I can’t say for sure. But I imagine substituting chopped nuts for part of the chocolate chunks would be fine.
Yes, pre-baked peanut butter chocolate chip cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 4 months.
Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Storage Instructions
These flourless peanut butter chocolate cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can also freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months.
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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
These peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are hands down the best I've ever made. Know that I don't say that lightly! They’re melt-in-your mouth soft and chewy, and extremely moist!
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter (I prefer creamy honey roasted; plain or crunchy may be used; do not use natural or homemade peanut butter – see below) *
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 6 ounces semi-sweet, dark, or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips may be substituted)
Instructions
- To the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-combined and the sugar is fully incorporated and is mixture is no longer gritty or granular. Stop to scrape down the bowl as necessary.
- Add the baking soda and beat to incorporate.
Add the chocolate and beat to just incorporate; don’t overmix or the nice chocolate chunks will break down. - Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form two-tablespoon mounds. If chocolate is falling out of dough since there is an abundance, roll ball between palms to encourage it to stay in the dough.
- Place mounds on a large plate, flatten mounds slightly, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 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) and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges are set and tops are barely set, even if slightly underbaked in the center. Watch them very closely after 7 minutes and I recommend not baking longer than 10 minutes. Cookies firm up as they cool, and baking too long results in cookies that become too crisp and hard. The cookies in the photos were baked for 8 minutes, with trays rotated at the 4-minute mark, and have chewy edges with pillowy soft centers.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- *Although natural peanut butter or homemade peanut butter may work, I recommend using storebought peanut butter like Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan or similar so that cookies bake up thicker and spread less. Using natural or homemade peanut butter tends to result in thinner and flatter cookies that are prone to spreading.
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 4 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
16Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 213Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 12mgSodium: 166mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 3gSugar: 12gProtein: 5g
More Easy Peanut Butter Cookie Recipes:
Did you know that I wrote a Peanut Butter Cookbook? It contains 100+ recipes that feature peanut butter as the key ingredient!
Easy 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies — These 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies are made with a secret ingredient…and lots of peanut butter, of course! These are so easy and fast to make!
Big Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Crinkle Cookies — These soft peanut butter cookies are the peanut butter version of a molasses crinkle. They’re soft, supremely chewy, and have an old-fashioned peanut butter cookie flavor!
Peanut Butter Blossom Cookie Bars — Just like the classic cookies except made as cookie bars rather than individual cookies. Bars are faster, easier, there’s no dough to chill, they’re made in one bowl, and you don’t need a mixer!
Monster Cookies — My recipe for classic monster cookies that are chock full of creamy peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, and M&M’s makes both kids and adults reach for just one more cookie! Fast, EASY, soft, perfectly chewy, and they’ll become a family FAVORITE in no time!
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!!
Soft Peanut Butter Pudding Cookies — These chocolate-dipped peanut butter cookies are SOFT AND CHEWY on the inside thanks to the addition of pudding mix in the cookie dough! Dipping them in dark chocolate makes for the PERFECT flavor combo!!
These are great cookies! These are better than peanut butter cookies I used to make for years ago. Everyone loved them, a keeper for sure!
OH MY WORD….These look delicious!!! I’m going to have to make them. And I love your “Please don’t write to tell me” paragraph. :)
I am glad you loved these! And yes, people write to tell me everything (that I don’t need to hear!) which is why I write certain things. This is an older recipe at this point too. Sometimes I was “bolder” when my site was smaller years back.
I made these cookies on two separate occasions. Same ingredients both times. The first time I only had them in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. They were plump and perfect. The second time I left them in the fridge for about 2 hours. When I baked them, they came out so flat. I am not sure what I did wrong. The o ly thing I could thing of was that after I preheated, I didn’t put the cookies in right away the second time causing it too be too hott?? HELP . But I love this recipe
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad you love them!
Baking soda not being as fresh the second time around? That is one thing that tends to cause flat cookies. Being there’s no flour, you didn’t mis-measure that. So my guess is the baking soda.
These did not turn at all. The dough was crumbly even after I let it mix and I also refrigerated over night. They baked and didn’t flatten. Very disappointed. I don’t know what I did wrong
Since this is really just sugar, an egg, and PB, I really don’t know what you did wrong. Normally this dough is pretty moist and almost oily since there is no flour to dry it out.
I’m looking to make the peanut butter chocolate chunk cookie, not flour??
Correct, no flour.
I got a good laugh at your request about sending you messages about what brown sugar truly is! I can only imagine the comments you receive….like you,as a food blogger don’t know these things! In my experience DIY brown sugar taste different. I personally don’t care for it!I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Oh I know….and this recipe is from 2013. Since that time, the amount of comments, suggestions, remarks (rude), oddball requests…it’s through the roof on all channels of social media, my site, etc on all posts and all recipes but I at least get a good laugh (usually) from them!
Hope you love the cookies! And yes DIY brown sugar is not really my thing either.
These did not turn out like yours or the pictures. Pretty disappointed as i followed this recipe to a T. They still taste really good just wanted a softer cookie
Sorry that they didn’t work out for you. It’s a 5 ingredient recipe so not sure what you did that caused them not to turn out correctly. They tend to be immensely soft for me since there is no flour and it’s basically egg, oil (PB) and sugar. Thanks for trying the recipe.
There isn’t oil in the directions. Mine didn’t turn either and in reading her response I see she says oil
Oily, not oil. From the natural oils in peanut butter. There is no oil called for in the recipe.
I’ve been making these cookies for a few years now. I like adding 1 tsp cinnamon and ½ cup of dried cranberries. They’re amazing and a big hit. Everyone one loves when I make them. I’ve made them cayenne pepper to them and that was very good also.
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad they are a big hit with everyone!
Nice and easy! Lacking a little structure as compared to a regular cookie but pretty darn good for a quick fix!
Glad they were nice and easy for you!
Hey, thanks so much for this recipe. I just made the cookies and going to bake half and freeze half. Just wondering, if you’re baking from frozen, how long would you add to the cooking time? Thanks so much!
A minute or two.
Is there an alternative way to mix them if you don’t have a stand mixer? Is it necessary?
Hand mixer or by hand is just fine for this recipe.
Are you able to just refrigerate the dough in a log shape and then form them just before baking?
For me, it’s easier to form into mounds, THEN chill. Because working with either a big log or if the dough is still in the bowl, and then it’s hard, it’s difficult to chisel out and it’s more dry and prone to cracking.
I really like this recipe with few ingredients and real simple to make. The cookies are delicious and make for great snacks during this crisis!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad they make for great snacks and are simple for you to make!
I followed the recipe and after mixing in the baking soda they turned into a oily mess ..is this normal?
It’s not normal BUT it can happen. The issue is that there’s no flour in them and if your PB is on the oily side or anything that is a ‘natural’ variety of PB this can be happening. Sorry about your trouble but if you would add 1/2 cup flour, it would dry it all up, and you’d be good to go.
I used Kraft smooth peanut butter. Not a natural one. Anyways I still baked them and they tasted yummy and we’re a nice soft consistency so I would make them again. Definitely no need to say sorry. Thanks for your recipe!!
Ok thanks for letting me know and glad they still tasted yummy!
My go to recipe for peanut butter cookies. Better than any other I’ve eaten! Hoping to win a holiday baking contest at work tomorrow with them. Plus our gluten free judges can enjoy and dairy free if you get the right chocolate chips!
Thanks for the 5 star review and great to hear this is your go to recipe for PB cookies!
Hi Averie, do you have a “normal” recipe for these exact cookies? I would love to try, but i still want the flour and all that. Lol T.I.A
Just Google Averie Cooks peanut butter cookies and all of them will pop up and you can see what looks good to you. I have probably 25 different recipes for peanut butter cookies.
Although these are missing the flower, they are really really good and some of my favorites.
We made your recipe. Exactly as specified, I can see why you recommend peanut butter such as Jiff, thinner for sure. Great tasting though. We used Reese’s brand. It has the lowest carb count that wasn’t Natural organic. Secondly we tried the recipe substituting Swerve Brown Sugar and Bake Believe Semisweet Chocolate chips. This made it lower carb. Also the dough is thicker making much chunkier cookie. It was an excellent Keto friendly, low carb cookie. Next I want to try it with Natural Organic peanut butter to lower the carb count. I’m thinking it will almost exactly replicate your original recipe for the low carb conscious. Thanks for the great recipe.
Thanks for the five star review and sharing what you’ve tried to make these low carb.
Blue Skies, Thank you for the conversions!
I can’t seem to get the recipe for the flourless peanut butter cookies using the peanut butter with honey.
Can you email this recipe ?
Thank you so much.
Linda
I don’t believe I have such a recipe.
You can Google ‘Averie Cooks Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies Honey’ and see if any of the photos that pop up look familiar but all my flourless cookies use sugar since honey would make the dough utterly too moist, especially without then using flour to sop it up.
So you think the brown sugar can be substituted for golden monkfruit sweetener?
I really don’t know, I haven’t experimented.
If you want this recipe to be vegan or you don’t eat eggs for whatever reason then just swap out the egg for about two table spoons of Aquafaba which is juice strained from a can of chic peas or garbanzo bean juice which is close to the sane texture as an egg and much healthier for you then eggs and cruelty free option. I’ve made these cookies both wars time rest them the Aquafaba actually made them taste even better and you can lick the spoon before baking them sense there’s no chance of getting salmonella poisoning or sick from eating a raw egg!
These are absolutely the best cookies ever! My husband loves them, and we have to keep a batch of dough frozen for quick pb cookie fixes. They are my go to for a quick cookie/dessert to take somewhere or give as Christmas cookies. We usually don’t use as much chocolate – 1/2 c to 3/4 c.
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad they’re the best cookies ever for you guys!
I just made these and they truly are amazingly amazingly good!
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad they were amazingly good!
Oh my goodness… I made these exactly to the T….. And they are perfect and amazing. My girls said they are better than the gourmet cookies we get. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️… Thank you so much Averie, they are a HUGE hit in my house 🏡😁😁😁❤️❤️
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad that your girls said they’re better than the gourmet cookies you get! Glad they are such a big hit!!!
I just wanted to let you know that your recipe is fantastic! I live in Berlin Germany and I was a little concerned about the peanut butter because it’s not exactly the same as in the states. I made these cookies for a neighbor’s birthday party who is celiac. Anyway I made the cookie dough and was a bit concerned because it seem quite oily not to mention that I’m so stupid and didn’t read ahead that one should chill the dough for two hours at least. Well I had a half an hour in the freezer and let me tell you the cookies came out fantastically! Crispy chewy crunchy goodness and everybody was amazed that there was no flour used! Now all my German neighbors have to have the recipe so I am converting it to metric for them. I hope you don’t mind. :-)Thank you again so much!
Thanks for the 5 star review and I’m glad the recipe came out great for you! Yes this is a super oily dough (since it’s all fat and nothing to soak it up, no gluten/flour). Glad that your peanut butter worked just fine, too! And that’s so nice of you to convert to metric for your friends/neighbors!
I just made these cookies for the 3rd time and I have to say they are The Best! It’s 1am right now and the 2nd batch just came out of the oven. I have already eaten one from the first batch “just to check how it turned out”. Hubby was sleeping with our son, woke up, ate one himself, moaned with pleasure and went back to bed. I didn’t have brown sugar so used white, and also only had 4 oz of choc chips, but they still turned out divine. I only wish there were fewer calories in these things, so I could make them more often…
Hahah! I wish all the good stuff didn’t have calories either! Glad you love these and that they’re a hit with your family as well!
Very good cookie. Easy to make. My husband loved them.
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad your husband loved them!
This recipe minus the chocolate chunks makes a great peanut blossom cookie! I was skeptical but I think this is better than my previous peanut butter cookie recipe. To make peanut blossoms, do everything the same minus the chocolate chips. Cook your peanut dough balls and when you remove them, press a dark chocolate hershey’s kiss into the center and let cool.Thank you for creating this!
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad you think it’s better than your previous PB cookie recipe!
Hi Averie! We were looking for a decadent cookie to bring to a holiday cookie exchange. We like chocolate and peanut butter combos that are simple to make & tasty… and, this worked for us. True, these cookies can be a bit soft and gooey to handle, but they hold together just fine for a nice chew.
The key, as you mentioned, is proper chilling and cookie size. We chilled overnight and chose a smaller (one tablespoon) portion of dough, so the finished cookie was easier to handle. We found store-bought, honey roasted peanut butter, as you recommended and loads of intense chocolate goodness from combining semi-sweet and bitter-sweet bars. As a note, we thought the gooey chocolate upstaged the peanut butter flavor some… it’s all good!
We experimented with size and cooking time and will definitely try even smaller dough portions next time. We used a hand mixer with equal success, too. And, we agree, keep the cooking times precise and very short, to avoid the dough from spreading the cookie too much. We even tried speeding up the final recipe by freezing the dough (for about 15mins. after mixing) and baking right away… what a mess that was, lol. The overnight refrigeration was the ticket–keeping the dough always chilled until use. Oh, and the somewhat soft, oily batter, like others might have experienced, was nothing to worry about with us. Thanks!
We posted a few pics on Pinterest, if anyone is interested: https://pin.it/gn52klelh6spql
Glad that you enjoyed the cookies!
These look so good! Could they be made into brownies as well?
You mean bake them in a pan rather than as cookies? Yes would probably work just fine.
Do you think that cold natural nut butter might work in the PB blender mini muffins or these cookies? I see that you say in many recipes that store bought is better so that’s why I ask. I don’t think that I would use my homemade peanut cashew nut butter because it is, even refrigerated, thinner than store bought. I do have a store bought chunky natural almond butter in the fridge that has a much more traditional kind of set to it, if that makes sense. Anyway, if you have a moment (or if anyone else has a suggestion), I would appreciate it. Thanks!
Natural nut butter is, well, natural. It does not have any stabilizers in it and so for baking, the results may not be ideal but you don’t know until you try.
These sound like they’re amazing! I was wondering around how many calories would it be for one cookie?
There is an orange nutrition information button at the bottom of the recipe. Note that if you make your cookies smaller and yield more for the batch, the calorie content goes down.
Okay, thankyou!! :D
Should I try these with a hand mixer?
sure
Oh averie. I made these yesterday. And well, twice actually, and I’m not sure what went wrong. When I went to mix the sugar and peanut butter , egg a d vanilla together, it NEVER came together. I even left it to mix for minutes. I used it anyway and formed into balls, it was so greasy. It didn’t cook like a cookie. I let them cool completely on the sheet and they did stay together. They tasted good, but more like a peanut butter ball then a cookie. Second batch? Same thing!! Ahhhhh!!! Any suggestions why?
Sorry that you did not have success. It’s hard to troubleshoot when I wasn’t there. I really honestly don’t know since I have never had that happen and no one else has ever mentioned it to me. Thanks for trying the recipe.
Made those and they were the most amazing treat ever. My husband couldn’t believe they were gluten free and said they tasted like the real deal.
I shared the recipe with my sisters and my friends.
Thank you!
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it was a bit hit with everyone!
My husband and I are on a low carb diet. I revised the recipe a little bit to make it low carb. I used the same amounts of everything but I used Splenda Brown Sugar blend, Skippy natural no-stir peanut butter, and sugar free dark chocolate chips. These are AMAZING. By far the best low carb cookie I have ever had/made. We can’t get over how good they are. Thanks for the great recipe!
Glad to hear that the Splend brown sugar and natural Skippy worked well and that these are the best low carb cookie ever for you!
Do you have a reciepe for peanut butter blossom cookies ? Looking for a lower calorie cookie with just a little Hershey kiss on top.
https://www.averiecooks.com/peanut-butter-blossoms/
These are amazing! We’ve been trying out different cookie recipes and my daughter said these are the best cookies she’s ever tasted. Thank you!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad they came out great for you! And the best that your daughter has ever tasted!
Hi! Averie!
I am impressed with how the muffin’s turned out! Amazing fluffy and browned ! I made regular sized and them for 10 min.! I thought they would be raw but I checked one before removing them from the oven and they were softly cooked!!
Sugar isn’t needed! Thank God my grandkids will have a healthy snack! Now onto more of your recipes! Your a chef for us out there who can gladly make a recipe with results!!
Mickey!!
Glad they turned out great! I assume you’re referring to these muffins? https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/10/flourless-peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-mini-blender-muffins.html Because your comment is actually on the post for PB Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
Hello! This page has been edited so now I can’t see the recipe! Can you list out the ingredients again or point to where they are? Thank you! These are my fiance’s favorite cookies!!!
Fixed!
very very dangerous cookies!! THEY’RE ADDICTING! It’s hard to believe that these are flourless considering how moist and put together they come out!! Absolutely incredible. Will definitely be making these again in the future! Thanks!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Glad you love these little danger babies :)
Can you freeze the dough and save some to cook later?
yes
Well, I tried! I made these cookies twice. The first time I used a hand mixer (now I know why every one has a KitchenAid). The second time I used my brand new KitchenAid – ;) – with the paddle mixer. The batter was so greasy and granular. Not fluffy or creamed at all. I’m not a baker but I can read directions. Can some one please tell me what I’m doing wrong?? Thanks!
The batter is on the greasy side with this cookie because there is no flour in it. The granular part will calm down when baked as the sugar crystals will dissolve.
Oh my! These look delicious! I can’t wait to try them. I was wondering if you think it would work to add chopped peanut butter cups (Reeses), as opposed to the chocolate? Thanks for any suggestions!
These cookies were Delish!!!! At the time I only had dark brown sugar so the cookies came out very dark… Next time, I will use light brown sugar .. Thanks for a great recipe!
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it came out great for you!
Oh yummy. These are just delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon
This is my third time making these cookies since my husband was begging me to make these cookies. I eat gluten free due to celiac disease, and my husband eats gluten and he was shocked the first time around that these had no flour in them and they are gluten free. He gave some to his parents who were also shocked. I haven’t really learned to bake again since going gluten free, but these are the only ones and I love them. Thank you so much! Best cookies I have ever made.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it’s a huge hit with you, your husband, and his parents! Amazing that they’e GF and they taste so good, right!
So I just made these again after I just made them a couple of weeks ago. This time I kind of did it backwards and I liked it better. I mixed all the “dry” ingredients first. The brown sugar, baking soda and the cinnamon I like to add. Mixed that all up. Then added the eggs and vanilla. Then the chocolate. Then I added the peanut butter. No oil separation at all. I always have issues with that. I also followed someone else’s suggestion and made the balls first and then chilled them. Really happy with the outcome.
Glad that ‘backwards’ made things easier and that you’re really happy with the outcome!
Bringing a meal to a family that needs g/f, this recipe came up & I’m so excited to try it b/c your cookie recipes never disappoint! 4 little kiddos whose mommy has to go to Mayo Clinic, they deserve peanut butter chocolate goodness. Thank YOU!
I’ve made these cookies probably about 10 times. They are amazing. I usually over mix and the oil does separate and they are messy but they are the most delicious thing ever. I also like to go outside of the box and sometimes add some cinammon or cayenne or both. So yummy. When I take them to work people go crazy.
Glad they’re always a hit and that you love the recipe!
These cookies are so flipping delicious. They didn’t come out looking like this for me, rather they are very dark. They are chocolately as all get out, so I would reduce the chocolate chips by a fraction….but they taste like the “homemade Trader Joes peanut butter chocolate chips cookies” but better! So moist, chewym plump (be sure to refrigerate first) and I did have to cook them for 10 minutes solid. Thank you Averie!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad you’re loving the cookies!
I have made these cookies twice in about ten days and they are delicious. However, despite using the exact same ingredients both times, the cookies turned out completely different! I used JIF peanut butter and C&H light brown sugar. The first time, the cookies were flaky and pillowy in texture. The second time, the cookies were oily and didn’t hold together as well. I froze them to ensure that they wouldn’t separate during baking, but it seemed like the sugar caramelized during the baking processed. They still tasted good, but I preferred the first batch. I think that I will try and mix them by hand next time (probably tomorrow! LOL) to ensure that the peanut butter doesn’t separate. Thank you for posting this!
Baking is such a funny thing. Sometimes when you think you did something exactly the same, results will vary (sometimes dramatically) from time to time. Sometimes humidity can really play a role in how greasy/dry things turn out. Or just from batch to batch of peanut butter there’s more oil, or more moisture in one batch of sugar than the next, etc. Keep playing around with things!
I made these yesterday for a little get together and they were absolutely amazing! Everyone went crazy over them (and were amazed there was no flour or regular butter!) They are incredibly soft and fluffy and so easy to make. Thanks for the great recipe! You are my go-to when I know I want to make a fab cookie :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it came out great for you! Thanks awesome I am your to-to for fab cookie recipes!
I just stumbled upon this recipe and decided to make the cookies! Mine turned out a little different from the picture (I didnt chill for two hours, I was way too impatient! – maybe that has something to do with it:P), but man oh man were they good! I used Kroger generic brand crunchy peanut butter and the chunks of peanuts added a great texture! Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it came out great for you!
I was disappointed with this recipe in that the cookies are oily and the texture unpleasant because of it. Although i never regret making a batch of cookies that contain chocolate, i won’t be making this one again, because the texture and oiliness just isn’t for me
Thanks for trying the recipe and because there’s no flour, there is no where for the natural oils found in PB to go or be absorbed by anything. Brands of PB vary in their oiliness, as does every person’s sensitivity to it.
does using a convection oven change the way you bake these peanut butter cookies?
Usually in convection ovens you bake for a shorter duration but being that I don’t have one, I can’t speak to baking length.
Just made these. Beautiful!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad they came out great for you!
since the author of this recipe had such a passion for this cookie, I knew it had to be as good as she stated, so I baked them for my husband (very frank and honest critic) and my granddaughter whose mother is also quite forthright in her opinion. Everyone found the cookies to be delicious! I, too, found the cookies to be quite tasty and loved the chocolate chunks. I used Bakers chocolate and Peter Pan creamy peanut butter. They look exactly like the picture. Yes, there was a little oil from the peanut butter, but I used the cookie scoop and I like to always wear gloves when touching food that I prepare. I had no mess, and I allowed the cookies to remain on sheet until cool. I always use parchment paper when I make cookies, and they turned out great. Not one cookie fell apart when cool.
I love a person who has a passion for what s/he writes. I probably would not have made this recipe were it not for the author. She made me a believer! Thanks for sharing this recipe! They were so pretty, I took a picture of them before they were all consumed.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that my passion won you over!
I’ve updated this recipe and made it even easier (and I think a little better!) in this post! https://www.averiecooks.com/the-best-flourless-peanut-butter-cookies/
Just wanted to say these cookies are so good! The only peanut butter I ever have is the natural and it worked great. I also didn’t read the instrucions fully until after the cookies were in the oven baking–oops! So I didnt flatten my cookies or chill them first, but they came out perfect when baked for 8 minutes. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
Thanks for your response…I’m glad you said to try hand mixing because that was my next idea! I made this last batch for a group of people and everybody loved them so the only issue was the oily mess in preparation. Hopefully hand mixing will do the trick but either way these are delicious cookies! Have you ever tried with stevia instead of brown sugar? They certainly wouldn’t taste as good (IMO) but I’m wondering if they would be good enough for the non-sugar health benefits.
Glad that the only issue is that mixing them is messy/oily! Me too :) You get a nice hand moisturizing session and your hands smell like PB for about 8 hours no matter how many times you wash them :)
Glad everyone loves them!!
Haven’t tried baking with stevia much at all…honestly, I use it in my coffee or tea but that’s about it because just a tiny bit too much and you ruin the whole thing, at least that’s what I’m prone to doing!
I made these for the 3rd time. And it’s a 3rd fail as far as the dough goes…but they still taste pretty amazing. So it’s not a total fail…the taste is a win, but my problem is terribly oily dough like many others and it’s horrible to work with the oily dough. I would love to know why and how some do not get oily dough (and I mean OILY)!! I’ve used 3 different kinds of PB and none were natural or low fat. The first time I used the honey roasted one. After reading comments I decided I may have over mixed with a hand mixer so today I first beat just the PB and brown sugar and stopped when it was well combined…maybe 1:30-2 minutes. Then I added the egg and vanilla. That’s when it went south. It started to get a crumbly texture and then the oil sprouted. From then on it was just an oily crumbly mess. In the past I kept mixing thinking it would come together, but after mixing for over 6 minutes it looked exactly the same so this time I didn’t keep mixing but I added coconut flour (only a few tablespoons because I didn’t want to go crazy and I really want these to be flour less) but that did nothing to help. It seems like it’s a mystery and no telling why it happens for some and not others, but are there any clues from what I wrote about the preparation that would explain the vast amount of oil I’m getting from the dough? I can’t imagine it’s the PB when I’ve gotten 3 different kinds and I’ve tried mixing a lot and a little so what??? help…
Thanks for trying to perfect this so many times…sounds like you’ve tried everything and the only thing left that I would say is just keep this super simple, don’t over-think it, so to speak. So add your PB, sugar, egg, etc and just mix it all up with a spoon! I have seen very similar recipes on foodnetwork, food dot com, allrecipes, etc and I have seen people have really good luck with just keeping things SUPER basic. No electric mixers, no long drawnout beating times, etc. Just mix it by hand with a spoon, chill the dough (although many of those said recipes don’t even call for dough chilling) and then bake them off. Thanks for trying and if you DO try again, LMK if that works.
My PB of choice for baking is either 1. a generic storebrand I get at Ralph’s/Kroger that’s honey-roasted (similar to Jif but 1/3rd the price) OR 2. Jif good old fashioned basis or their honey roasted (but not the ‘naturals’)..but I think this has less to do with the type of PB than mixing of the dough. As you said, not sure why some people have great luck and others don’t.
And just so you know, when I make these, my dough IS oily and sometimes more so than others….and sometimes I have to ‘hard-pack’ it into little mounds and just squeeze it together but eventually it all works out. Sorry just don’t know what else to say that could help!
I made these cookies today. I made them a bit smaller, 20 instead of 16, and baked them for 9 minutes. They were just right, chewy and soft but not underbaked. I have a nephew that loves peanut butter and chocolate, so the next time I go over his house, I will bring these cookies. Also, today I made your triple peanut butter cookie pie for the 5th time! This pie is completely for me – I am not sharing. Thanks for all your great recipes, Averie – they are always a success!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! You have a lucky nephew it sounds like that will get to sample these one day!
And you’ve officially made that PB Cookie Pie more times than I have…five! Wow, love it! Between these cookies and the pie, you have been baking up a storm!!
These cookies are DELICIOUS. Not sure what’s up with the previous critical posters…some people complain about everything. What makes these extra awesome is that they are flour and oil/butter free. Will definitely be making these many more times! My kids loved them!!
some people complain about everything. <--- You got that right :) It still amazes me after 6+ years of blogging! So glad you and your kids enjoyed these and that you can appreciate that they're flour/oil/butter-free!
I came upon this recipe after realizing I wanted cookies and was out of butter. The only peanut butter I had was Jif Natural Creamy…of course! I did not read all of the reviews but saw that someone else was successful with it, so I gave it a shot. The dough texture was very odd and nothing like a cookie dough, but I threw in the chocolate chips anyways. They were completely coated in oil and not sticking to the dough. I had two choices- panic and throw it away or trudge on. You can imagine what someone who really wants cookies would do! So, I used a cookie scoop the best I could and squeezed the contents tightly in my hand, making sure all of the chocolate chips stayed attached. My hands were dripping with oil but I continued to do this and got about 21 cookies. Paper towels helped soak up excess oil on the tops and bottoms. I put one in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking it while the rest chilled for two hours in the fridge. After 8 minutes in the oven, I had a delicious chocolatey peanut buttery chewy gooey cookie! They will never be as good as classic chocolate chip cookies (in my opinion) and were a bit messy to make, but I would definitely encourage others to try this out.
tl/dr: YUM!
Glad it all worked out and you enjoyed the cookies!
My dough turned out exactly the same lol!! The oil was dripping everywhere and the choc chips were not sticking!! I couldn’t bear to throw away all that dough so I used a cookie scoop to scoop out balls the best I could, then soaked up as much of the oil as I could using paper towels. The dough is now chilling in the fridge, it’s for my daughter’s bday party tomorrow as I have a friend who’s gluten intolerant. I’m heartened to hear your cookie baked up okay, can’t wait to see how it turns out when I bake it tonight. Did you use a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer? I’m wondering if that makes a difference. My hand mixer only has the whisker attachment and trying to get the dough to the non-grainy stage meant I beat the heck out of the dough. I’m thinking that’s what caused the oil from the PB to separate?
Overbeating is likely what happened and beating with a whisk is likely what was the culprit as it doesn’t act the same as beaters.
Next time I would recommend getting a hand mixer with beaters (they’re $20 at Target give or take and will get the job done) OR simply mixing by hand until everything is incorporated.
I tried making these cookies twice, since you said they were the greatest. Both times, they came out much different from your pictures and were very average. This is not the greatest peanut butter chocolate chip cookie that you say it is. Very disappointed!
I love them and lots of other people do too, but everyone has different tastes and preferences and best of luck in your search finding your perfect cookie.
Can you use Cookie butter instead of peanut butter?
I’ve made these…try this recipe! https://www.averiecooks.com/softbatch-cookie-butter-brown-sugar-cookies/
I had a bunch of Natural Peanut Butter to be used up before September and was looking for recipes. Came across this but saw everyone comment about the crumbly texture if it were Natural. I added coconut oil to the batter and it helped and was super yumm!
Glad natural PB and a dash of coconut oil worked great for you!
I’m so happy! These peanut butter cookies worked out great for me! I was worried because so many people were having various issues and I have a tendency to mess up even fail proof recipes….but these cookies are amazing!!! I mean, the dough was a little oily but nothing I couldn’t work with (I used creamy Skippy) and the cookies are yummy so I guess it all worked out in the end. I’m SOOO glad I found your blog! I’m off to college tomorrow but come winter break, I want to try as many as your recipes as possible! Thank you for your amazing recipes!
Thanks for trying them, glad they came out great, glad you’re looking forward to trying more recipes and good luck at school!!
Have you ever tried using a different type of butter other than peanut butter? Like Almond, Walnut, Cashew, or Sunflower? Just wondering if the results are good or not as I’m supposed to stay away from Peanuts.
Thanks!!
I haven’t personally. I know that other people have done cookies using other nut/seed butters but the issue is that those tend to be either homemade or organic, and thus, they’re very runny. Nothing like the consistency of say Jif or Skippy. So you can try and see what happens but I don’t know if the cookies will spread. You may have to add flour at which point they’re not GF but that may not be a consideration for you. Good luck!
What would happen if I completely let out the sugar? Is there something I could sub it with to keep the texture in tact? I love them the way they are, but am doing a month long “dessert-free” challenge and need a dessert for a work function…oh, the cruelty!
You could possibly try using one of those Splenda-like or stevia-based ‘baking blends’ that have the bulk and texture of white sugar but aren’t. These use brown sugar though. And I’m not sure what will happen when you bake them since I’ve never used those blends. LMK how it goes.
I have a stand mixer, but no paddle attachment, can I still make these cookies? Can I just use the regular beaters?
I’ve never tried mixing this dough without a paddle attachment but you could try. If all else fails, just stir by hand.
Thanks so much for this recipe….was looking for something new to try for a bake sale. It is definitely for peanut butter lovers!!! I used skippy creamy peanut butter and didn’t have any problem with an oily dough at all…. in fact my dough was so solid I thought I’d try to bake one without chilling the dough first and it still turned out puffy and chewy and had no problems of spreading too much… I’ve now put the rest of my dough in the fridge to bake for later..
In fact my dough was so not oily/not spreading I actually wondered if I did anything wrong…or maybe coz skippy’s peanut butter has no real peanuts in it? haha…
I am so happy to hear you made these with great success! I swear by Skippy and Jif (and storebrand/generic el cheapo) peanut butter for baking. Glad you loved these as much as I do!
Just made these! Yum!! Thanks for sharing! This is my go-to PB chocolate cookie recipe now!
Thanks for trying these and glad they’re your new go-to PB cookie recipe! That’s wonderful!
First off, these look delicious and I am definitely going to make them at some point! But I think there is “white sugar” in them from the peanut butter. The Peter Pan Creamy Honey Roast Peanut Spread nutrition facts show 8g of sugar in 2 TBL and the recipe calls for 1 cup which is 16 TBL which equals 64g of sugar.. yikes! It’s a shame that natural/homemade PB doesn’t bake as well!
I really don’t worry too much about it to be honest…I run a lot. I don’t mind eating PB which has sugar!
Hi there,
Thanks so much for the super easy, super yummy recipe! I have now made these twice and they are just perfect (though i am fairly certain i have consumed my body weight in PB!) the 2nd time around, i added 1/2 cup of dessicated coconut; it makes them a little less peanutty tasting but adds to the ‘cookie-like’ consistency that normal flour would give :)
These are wonderful!
I did use natural butter (cus I like to break the rules!.. And I didn’t have Jif, etc)
I just added a little coconut oil to get the consistency of processed PB.
Great :)
Glad the natural PB worked for you and they’re turned out wonderfully!
I made these peanut butter cookies today. They are sooo good. Very chocolately! I used a stand mixer and just watched the batter closely. When I noticed some oil starting to separate, I made sure that everything was incorporated and not gritty and quit while I was ahead. I really think that refrigerating the dough balls helps to bring everything together before you bake them. Totally yummy and will make them again! Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks for the awesome feedback and taking the time to write out what you did – I’m sure it will be helpful to others. So glad you loved these! And yes, refrigerating the dough is totally key with this recipe!
peanut butter chocolate chip cookies came out amazing!! thanks for the great recipe and pictures!
I just made these for a big family dinner, including my sister who is on a GF diet. I ran into the same issues that some others have commented on – oil separated from the other ingredients after only maybe 1-2 minutes of creaming. I followed the recipe to a T EXCEPT that my sister didn’t have a stand mixer, so I used her hand mixer. Maybe that is why I had issues. Anyway, I completed the recipe, after pouring off some oil and discarding some chocolate chips that didn’t mix in. I did have to bake them for longer than recommended, but they ended up turning out great, and everyone loved them!
Glad they worked out great for you in the end!
Bummer! Should have read the comments before making these. I too used a hand mixer and the oil separated out and I ended up with super greasy batter (I probably had it on speed 4 for around 3 minutes. Wish I knew of a way to save the batter. I think you may want to add a note that if using a hand mixer, you only need to beat for a minute or two.
This has always been included in the recipe section, ” Don’t shortcut the creaming step; however if you over-cream the ingredients, the oil could separate out from the peanut butter, rendering the batter to be very oily. Use common sense and make sure the ingredients are well-creamed, without needlessly over-doing it.”
Not sure if there’s really anything else I could say. Sorry you over-did it!
I’ve made your toffee version before, so I thought I knew what I was doing. I missed the sentence that says to not overbeat and wasn’t paying attention to how oily the dough was getting – answer: very oily. I formed them into balls and they are chilling until tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll taste okay – even if they aren’t as amazing as the toffee ones I pulled from the freezer and baked on Friday. THanks for the great recipes, as always – this screw up it totally on me!
These are PERFECT!!!
Thanks!
These are absolutely wonderful! I did use natural almond butter. As the oil started separating in the mixer, I drained it, then patted the dough with a paper towel. I used a combination of 80% dark chocolate and bittersweet. They baked nicely and taste so yummy! My husband was skeptical about how they would turn out when he watched me prepare them, but once he tried one he said it was his favorite cookie ever! Thank you so much for sharing!
That’s awesome they’re your hubs’ fave cookie ever! Great job on patting the oil dry from the natural AB. It’s so much runnier than PB, and it’s well, natural so it will separate, but sounds like you totally handled it. Great job & thanks for the detailed report b/c others will see this! :)
Baking these now. I had to re-read the recipe bc you never mentioned adding in the baking soda. I added after I mixed for a minute. Crossing my fingers!!
You know what, it was included, but it was at the very end of step 1, after a very long paragraph. So I edited the post and gave it it’s own line, it’s now step 2, so that it’s easier to see. Enjoy the cookies!
I made these the other night for a dinner party with a gluten-intolerant friend in attendance and we all loved them (gluten-intolerant or not)! Polished off the batch. Thanks for the fantastic recipe, Averie.
Glad to hear they were a hit and worked out well for your GF friend! Thanks for sharing your story!
Hi Averie,
I tried to make these tonight and I ran into a few problems I was wondering if you could help me with? My cookies wouldn’t creme together, even after like 10 minutes. They were just a dry crumbly mess. They never formed into a dough. Then i pressed them together into cookie shaped balls which were oily but for the most looked like normal cookies. then i put them in the fridge for the 2 hours then cooked them, and they stayed in the little balls i had formed, they didn’t even start to melt into what a good cookie would look like. To taste they are really grainy and crumbly. I know the problems are related to it not creaming together but I don’t know what I did wrong? Its only like 3 ingredients…
If your dough wasn’t coming together and was dry, maybe you should have tried adding a little more PB, to make it more moist. Baking dry dough will only cause it to get even more dry. I think next time make sure your dough comes together and maybe try a different brand of PB. I have great luck with Jif, Skippy, or generic super market PB.
Averie these look amazing. I’ve baked cookies before without butter or flour and they thinned out, but as you said the key is to refrigerate. OMGGGGGGG… this looks good for you too… ! Thanks for sharing.
These are delicious! Also, I don’t have a mixer so I mixed by hand, letting the sugar sit in the liquid about ten minutes before beating and then stirring until the dough started getting sticky/oily. At that point, I froze the dough a bit, then brought it out to roll into balls, stuck in the fridge for nearly 24 hours and then baked them for seven minutes. I made 20 rather than the recommended 16. My peanut butter may have made a difference – I used one with stabilizers on purpose as I thought that would help give the cookies some form. MMMMM…! I was worried about the peanut butter being overwhelming and it isn’t at all, with all the chocolate and brown sugar, tastes more like “regular” choco chunk cookies than “peanut butter cookies”. For someone avoiding gluten, these are a treat! Thank you, Averie!
Stabilizers, i.e. Skippy, Jif, the traditional grocery store pb, not ‘natural’, is the way to go for these cookies. So glad you love them, love the flavor, the choco/brown sugar and that you were able to do it all by hand. This comment will help others without a mixer so thank you for sharing!
I tried making these, but the first attempt was a no-go. I didn’t even cream the ingredients as long as the suggested time, I did 5 min, max, and the batter separated and grew very oily. Still, I refrigerated it, but alas, they did not turn out. They were greasy, flat messes. I could have over beat the batter, it could have been the flax mixture instead of egg, or it could have even been the store brand peanut butter.
Refusing to give up, I made another half batch. This time, I used dark brown sugar, Skippy peanut butter (that I had been hesitant to use the first time because it was kind of old), still used flax, beat the batter for not even a minute, and threw in the baking soda after the chocolate (because I forgot to add it). I didn’t even chill the batter very long, maybe half a hour or less. THESE cookies turned out much like the ones in your pictures. They didn’t spread out or run together and weren’t greasy at all.
I kind of wish you had posted pics of the batter throughout the steps, so the viewers could have known what to look for. I think enough people have had similar issues with the batter that pictures would be helpful.
Glad you got them to work and way to try things until you got them to be where you wanted them to be! I try to do step shots for many recipes and in another recipe I have for flourless PB cookies (linked in the post), they’re included.
Hello there! Just made these, they’re chilling in the refrigerator right now. I have one question — i dont know if the batter is supposed to ball up when i add the egg, but thats what happens to me. I creamed the peanut butter and sugar for 7-8 mins and it was all nice and fluffy, but the minute I added the egg, it becomes chunky/crumbly and balls up almost like a dough. Is this supposed to happen? Thanks!
Balls up like a dough <--- well it's cookie dough after all, right? So I think you're on the right track. Really hard to 'diagnose' this from afar :)
I just want to come back and leave another comment and tell you that I`ve probably made these about 20 times and people constantly ask for them and cannot resist. Even if they do not typically like peanut butter these are like krytonite! So delicious! nom nom!
I’m so glad to hear that you’ve made them at least 20 times and everyone always wants the recipe and that they can’t resist! That’s so awesome to hear and thanks for sharing that! (and for sharing cookies with your friends & fam!) :)
Just made these and hubby scarfed them down so I’d say they were a success! I used Santa Cruz Organic creamy PB. I got nervous when my batter started to get crumbly not creamy after mixing and I know you recommend Jif but I just refuse to eat that stuff! I ended up adding about 3 TBSP grass fed unsalted butter and the batter became creamy again! I baked right away and they held a nice round shape with a gooey center! Sooo good! I’m going to try sucanat in place of brown sugar next time as a little experiment (and since I read the coconut sugar didn’t yield the best results!).
thanks for trying these and glad that you loved them with the modifications/ingredients you used!
These work out just fine when I use homemade PB. I refuse to use the stuff with all the oils and sugars in it(eeww). I have found that it works even better when you go to a store that has that handy little machine. It is magic! You put your tub under the spout, and yummy peanut butter comes out. From my experience, this pb works much better for baking then the stuff you blend at home.
I made these today for tailgating, and the turned out awesome.
Glad to hear you have great luck with natural PB and that you made them for tailgating and they turned out great! Lucky friends you have!
I love peanut butter!! And chocolate! And well vanilla too. These look like something I could handle. Thank you for sharing your beautiful recipes!
Thanks for the kind words, Jess!
I used Shop Rite organic natural PB and it worked fine
Great! Glad to hear it worked for you!
Hi, I saw this recipe and just had to try them. However, they did not work out for me and I’m not sure why as I followed the recipe.
The ‘dough’ I ended up with was really heavy and sticky almost like treacle. I carried on as I’ve never baked anything with just PB and no flour. Anyway they came out the oven flat and a hard kind of chewy (hard to explain)!
The only thing that I did different was I used reduced fat PB…could that really make such a difference?
Yes reduced fat PB does make THAT MUCH of a difference which is why you can never substitute it in baking recipes unless the author specifically says it will work; most times it will not, and in this recipe where everything is riding on the PB, that’s what went wrong. There was not enough fat present to keep them chewy.
Hello,
These have a great flavour, HOWEVER, like the poster above me, they did not turn out as pictured. My batter was very “sticky” and “gooey” like caramel. I could not form them into balls of dough, as the texture was not dough-like at all. When the cookies were backed, they were extremely flat — they were also chewy like caramel squares. I am not sure what went wrong. The peanut butter I used is called “compliments balance peanut butter” — the brown sugar was dark brown rather than light brown (I’m not sure if this had an effect). Do you have any insight as to why my cookies turned out an odd texture and not like they are supposed to? Again, the flavour is real nice, but I wish they were more like an actual cookie.
“compliments balance peanut butter” sounds like a lite or not full-fat peanut butter. Use something like Jif, Skippy or just a generic storebrand peanut butter, but it has to be full fat. If you use reduced fat or ‘imitation’ peanut butters that are diet spreads, the cookies won’t turn out. They make everything sticky and gooey. Dark brown sugar has more moisture in it than light brown, which could have also added to the sticky and gooey situation.
Worst PB cookie recipe I’ve ever tried
I am not sure how peanut butter, sugar and chocolate is the worst recipe – sorry you didn’t like them. I happen to love all those things!
I tried these again today (since like the person above I couldn’t stand failing with a recipe that you claim is “so easy!”) and just like the first time, the more I beat, the greasier they became! I used jiff and creamed for 10 minutes. I am not even going to bother adding the other ingredients since I don’t want to waste them. So disappointed! Oh well, I have other recipes that work.
On a lighter note, I made your pumpkin spice cookies and they were to die for! Turned out really well and I love how soft they are. :)
I am sorry they didn’t work for you. Honestly I don’t know why 90% of people love-love-love these cookies and they have no issues and then 10% run into snags. I never have ever had a problem and I’ve made them probably…75 times? Or more? At least 1x/month for 5 years.
I think you OVER-creamed your PB. It’s so hard to tell what people’s mixing bowls, ingredients, etc. look like b/c I am not there so can’t say, but 10 mins sounds too long and like the oil/PB were separating. I would still finish the recipe (don’t add the chocolate) – all you’re out is 1 egg and 1 c sugar and some baking soda – form balls, and CHILL the dough for 24 hours. Then bake.
Glad to hear you loved the pumpkin spice cookies! Yes, super soft and I love them as well.
P.S. I just went in and edited the post and provided a “Troubleshooting Tips” section that may be helpful to you. It’s right underneath the ‘recipe card’ portion of the post.
Hi! I made these yesterday but they didn’t work for me…I’m thinking I didn’t cream the PB and brown sugar well enough? I don’t have an electric stand or hand mixer, so my friends and I took turns creaming the crap outta it (or so we thought :() for 13 minutes? The texture looked like creamed butter and sugar–is that right? or is it supposed to be batter-looking smooth? I refridgerated them overnight and then baked them in the morning for 8 minutes and they flattened :( This happened when I made the nutella cookies too..should I maybe just use an electric mixer next time? Oh, and I used dark brown sugar for the batch; I made two batches, the first one with my school’s PB+light brown sugar and the second one with (low fat?) PB+dark brown sugar..the school one came out okay, but it tasted gritty. Any tips? Thank you so much! Your blog is my favorite food blog ever!!
Gritty tasting – there’s no telling what’s in the lowfat PB (probably something that adds fiber, i.e. grit) and there’s a creaming issue, too, I suspect.
Same with these first cookies. It sounds like you enjoy baking but your lack of a mixer is really handicapping you. I suggest going to buy one – even Target or similar has very inexpensive hand mixers which is better than what you have now – nothing. So yes use an electric mixer and make sure your baking soda is fresh. And when you put the balls on the tray, they should look like domed golf balls, very domed with height.
These look incredible. I tried to make them this afternoon with no luck (the dough turned pebbly, never smooth, even after about 10 min in the stand mixer). When I tried a batch anyway (I hate to waste ingredients!), they didn’t puff at all and leaked oil everywhere :(. Wish I knew what went wrong, but I’ll just have to try again and hope for better results! Can’t wait to actually try one :)
It sounds like the dough never really came together. I am not sure why it didn’t combine. You’re just combining PB with sugar and an egg. Not hard, right! I would suggest either mixing by hand, with a mixer or doing WHATEVER it is you need to do to get the dough to combine; maybe switch brands of PB. I have used Jif, Skippy, and about 10 different generic storebrands, Target, Ralph’s, Albertson’s, etc. and never have an issue. Baking doesn’t always go off without a hitch the first time but hundreds of people make these with success so I know your time will come too!
I made them again, because I couldn’t go to bed with a failure on my hands, and they came together this time. I think that the first time around, I actually overmixed, and the oil began to separate out. I bake a lot, too, so I switched up the instructions just a little bit (creamed the PB and sugar first, before adding the egg and vanilla), to be more like other cookies recipes I’ve used. Not sure if that was what did it, or if the stars just aligned this time, but they were very good. Thanks for a great recipe!
Well I am so glad to hear you didn’t go to bed with a fail (that’s like going to bed mad!) Ha!
Creaming the PB + sugar, THEN adding the egg and vanilla, glad that seemed to do the trick. More like traditional baking. I have honestly made these cookies hundreds of times and never noticed any difference doing it your way and have another recipe similar to this where I indicate to do it like that; but have since just combined all the steps into one, and it has always worked for me. But I will make mention of this for the rare few who write in with issues.
Also the fact that you could have possibly overbeat the PB and the oil was coming out & separating – another interesting observation. 99% of people don’t cream properly or beat it sufficiently but it sounds like you went the other direction and that was compounding the problems.
Glad everything all worked out – and thanks for the field report because this is helpful for me to hear. This is my most popular recipe by pageviews, viewed many thousands of times daily, and so I know your info will help others!
Ever since I tried these cookies, I can’t stop making them! They’re amazing. I make dough balls and leave them in the freezer so I can make these cookies as needed. Thanks so much for the great recipe!
I am so glad you love them and have a freezer stash going. That’s exactly what I do with all my cookie recipes. I freeze the balls so I can grab-and-bake at will :)
I found these on Pinterest, and can’t get over how amazing they look! How long did you chill your dough? I know the recipe says 2+ hours, but I’m curious how long you kept them chilled for the cookies in the photos. Thanks! Can’t wait to try them out!
Personally I chill for at least overnight and sometimes for 3-5 days. I will make a batch of dough and bake 3 to 6 cookies at once and keep the remaining dough balls in the fridge (or freezer if it’s going to be longer than a week). I want warm, fresh cookies so just bake when I know we’ll eat that day. No harm in having dough on hand in the fridge chilling :)
Hi! I just found your blog and everything looks amazing. I understand you are a peanut butter aficionado but what can someone with all nut allergies use instead? Leaving out PB would greatly alter the recipe, so what substitutes do you recommend? Thanks very much.
It’s impossible to make Peanut Butter Cookies without using peanut butter.
That said, if you can have Sunflower Seed Butter, you could swap it it for the PB in many recipes and have success – however, the recipes were not tested or written for it and it is thinner than PB so will not always be a perfect swap and you’d need to tinker around with it. The same can be said for Cookie Butter/Biscoff spread. You could swap it for PB in many recipes and it IS thick like Pb but it’s got a completely different flavor profile. Check back tomorrow. I have a recipe for cookie butter cookies going up.
Hi Averie! I just made these and they came out really good! The dough was quite greasy and oily and I thought I did something wrong, but at the end they came out great! The only problem is that they have a little bit of a bitter aftertaste. I’ve had this problem before and I thought it was related to the baking soda that was too old. So I bought a new package but I still have the same problem. Should I reduce the amount next time? Or try bake them for longer? I really don’t know what it could be! Maybe it’s just me, as my husband couldn’t really notice :)
I don’t think baking them longer will change the taste of the baking soda; it will just burn your cookies! If you can taste it but your husband can’t, seems that you may just have a super sensitive palate. I am the same way with baking powder. I can almost always taste it. You could try another brand. And in this recipe, you could possibly use about half the amount (now that is not true in all recipe but in this one I think you’d be safe).
Glad you liked them overall!
Thanks for the suggestions! I will try to reduce a bit the baking soda next time and if it doesn’t work, well I will just live with the fact that I have super sensitive palate (that makes me feel quite special! lol) :) Hope you have a good day, or actually I think where you are is night now, so have a good night sleep! :)
Monica–I had the same baking soda aftertaste. Hubby didn’t notice. Are they supposed to be a little crumbly? Hubby made them so maybe he forgot something…
I’ve made the cookies with ZERO baking soda before and while they do flatten, it’s possible to halve it or omit it if you’re extremely sensitive to it. Just make sure to use very chilled dough because that’s the only thing that will help the cookies not turn flat. And no, they’re not supposed to be crumbly. Based on what you said, you could probably have added slightly more PB, and/or baked less time.
I made these with a few substitutions: a flax egg, dairy free chocolate chips and Wow Butter (soy) so that everyone in my family could have them. They are delicious and still turned out great even with the substitutions. My husband, who is generally not fond of allergy-friendly baked goods, ate 3 before he even asked if they were adjusted for our family’s allergies! :)
Glad to hear that using Wow Butter worked for you and that your hubs shoveled in 3 before he even asked! Now that’s success! Love it :)
I’ve been trying a bunch of these flourless, butterless cookie recipes lately and I love the peanut buttery goodness in this one! My little tweaks were: I did half of the brown sugar then the other half applesauce-to cut down on the sugar content, then I added about 1 tsp. of cornstarch to try and maintain fluffiness from the added moisture. A cold glass of milk (or milk substitute) is a requirement for these bad boys! But they are tasty!! :)
That’s an interesting tweak with the applesauce and cornstarch! I have another recipe for PB cookies using cornstarch – actually a few – The Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Cookies & the Reese’s Pieces PB Cookies but they both use flour and normal amts of sugar. https://www.averiecooks.com/category/dessert/cookies
Glad you had success with these!
I made these tonight with the kids I nanny! It is a super easy recipe, and the turnout was wonderful! I used all of your suggestions! The only thing was that the batter was very oily (excess oil from peanut butter was everywhere after rolling/scooping it onto pan) even after chilling. I was worried that I did it wrong, but they turned out amazing, so I’m relieved :) Thanks for a wonderful, healthier recipe that is definitely a new staple!
So glad that you enjoyed them and the kids that you nanny for, too! Glad that it all worked out and that they’ll be a new staple for you!
I had the EXACT same issue as Melissa. Gooey, greasy, dough that fell apart. Might I suggest, Averie, that you change your recipe to note the 5-8 minute mixing/creaming time you referenced to Melissa. You’ll note that your recipe instructs to cream everything for about three minutes.
95%+ of the comments are positive and of the 350+ comments, there are only a handful of people who have ever had issues with these. I will update the recipe to suggest a longer creaming time per your request.
Thanks! They’re going in the oven in a few hours!
Is it necessary to use a standing mixer for the cookie recipe? I don’t have one and was just curious if the consistency of the cookies will altered? Hoping I can make these :)
P.s. I have a “regular” hand held beater, can I use that instead?
Use what you have. Just cream the ingredients incredibly well, take your time before moving on or folding in flour and chips.
In the middle of baking these right now and I’ve already sampled them. So decadent, thanks Averie!
So glad to hear you tried them and are enjoying the samples :)
These are ooey gooey perfection! I have now made them 3 times and each time they turned out just like your photos, soft, gooey, peanut buttery and loaded with melted chocolate. I will NEVER make regular chocolate chip cookies again. Thank you! I love so many of your recipes and love to bake so I visit often
I am so glad to hear that you love these and that they’ve turned out each and every time like mine in the photos. Love hearing that! And if you try other recipes of mine, LMK how things go for you!
So I made these cookies, and they are delicious! I’m having one problem though…no matter how long I let the dough rest or how chilled it is, the cookies still run and get flat! I live in Utah, is there maybe an adjustment I have to make? Or some secret trick for stubborn cookies?
Glad you love them and about the flattening – not sure what to say since altitude baking is tricky and I know very little about it. You could add 1-2 tbsp of flour – that would probably do the trick or increase baking soda to about 1.5 tsp
Good ideas, thank you!
Oh just to update, I did what you suggested and those tips worked perfectly and the next batch came out great. So if you’re at a high altitude, just add in those extras and it’s good to go! Thanks!
Oh that’s great to hear it all worked out for you and the tips worked – excellent!
Hi!
My sister-in-law made these cookies over the summer and they were absolutely delicious! I decided to make these cookies yesterday and (thought) I followed the directions thoroughly. You can see where this story is going, right? ….
I never bake OR buy anything but natural peanut butter, but I used all the ingredients you listed. The batter seemed very wet/greasy but I thought refrigerating the mix for hours would change that. No avail. I baked them anyways…after using my body weight to shape dough balls and forget the chocolate chips- they all fell off to the bottom of the bowl. I thought only plants came to my house to die. What do you think I did wrong and/or have you or others had this issue? I’m really only asking because I have Celiac and was looking forward to a gluten free cookie! Help!
I honestly have no idea where you went wrong. It’s the easiest recipe – you cream together PB with brown sugar, an egg, vanilla until it’s VERY SMOOTH. At least 5-8 mins. Add choc. Form into balls, refrigerate them, and bake when they’ve been chilled. I form the balls before I refrigerate the dough b/c it’s easier that way.
Honestly, this is my 3rd most popular post of all time, and 99% of the comments and emails I get are positive ones, ‘best cookies I’ve ever had’ emails. Sorry you didn’t have luck. If you google flourless PB cookies, and read recipes on allrecipes.com or similar sites, there are tons and tons of variations on this theme; some use all brown sugar, some use half white/half brown, some use natural PB, some don’t; but the overall method is always the same. 1 c PB, 1 c sugar, 1 egg. Some people call them 1:1:1 cookies.
I am thinking your issue was under-creaming the batter…or maybe try your natural PB and see if that’s better. I don’t have luck with it, but you may!
i had the same problem tonight, I’ve made these cookies twice before and they came out perfect. i made the dough last night and made the cookies tonight. i feel like after just 1 min of mixing it was starting to separate and really a lot of oil came out, like enough to pour out of the bowl. cookies are yummy but very soft even after 10 min of cooking. i did use a different brand of PB but nothing fancy. not sure what happened. will defiantly make these again though, most amazing cookies ever.
fyi-try adding a little cayenne powder to the mix, adds a nice heat the the back of your throat
Well if you’ve made them perfectly before but today they weren’t as ideal as they once were, and you switched brands of PB, then that’s probably the culprit. I would go back and retrace your steps and do exactly what you did before and I’m sure you’ll be fine! Glad you love the recipe!
I made these the other night, and the same thing happened to me. The dough became super greasy and the chocolate chips fell out. However, I decided to refrigerate it anyway, and I pushed it into a large cookie shape, thinking it might work as a bar instead of a cookie. I piled the chocolate chips that fell out of the dough on top, and baked it. It turned out amazing! It may not have been the right consistency of the original recipe, but I cut it into squares that were chewy and soft. Today I’m trying it again to see if it turns out the same!
I had the same problem the first time I made these cookies, but I finally figured out that because I was using a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer they only need to be beat on 5 for about 1 to 2 minutes. the first time I beat them for the 5 to 8 minutes and the oil from the sugar and the peanut butter separated and I had very oily cookies they were still okay but all of the oil separated. Now whenever I make them I only beat them for one to two minutes until the sugar dissolves in the peanut butter and they are perfect every time.
Great and glad to hear you found a system that works for you!
consider that you are using peanut butter… the longer you work it and the warmer the peanut butter gets, the more oil is going to separate and release, especially if you use natural peanut butter. Peanuts are naturally oily. I mixed it with my hands coz I don’t have a stand mixer and it was too stiff for a whisk or spoon. It was a lot of fun! Where is the fun if your baking doesn’t get a little messy. Because of the oil of course the chocolate chips are not going to stick, I just smooshed them into the dough after I made the balls. It all turned out perfectly, the oil doesn’t really make a difference. If you’re worried about the oil stick the peanut butter in the fridge as soon as you buy it and let it cool down completely before using. It’s going to be a lot harder to work with as it’s going to be cold, but when you work with it, and only mix it til *just* combined, it shouldn’t release as much oil.
I am wondering if anyone has tried using coconut sugar. I have cut sugars from my diet to treat a leaky gut and candida, but will use coconut sugar and pure maple syrup on occasion. Think I might try this with coconut sugar.
I think you’d be fine. Just CREAM the heck out of it – make sure it’s as silky smooth as you can get it before adding the chocolate! Keep me posted!
Hello Amy!
I have made this recipe with both brown sugar and coconut sugar. They turn out completely different when you use coconut sugar. They were much darker of course and had a bit of a caramelized taste. They did not puff out like when you use sugar. It kind of looked like a kashi cookie. They were not bad, but they turn out much better with all sugar or a sugar/coconut sugar blend.
I made the dough for the first time last night. Of course I could barely stand waiting 2 hours to cook it! After 2 hours in the fridge though it was pretty oily and looked crumbly. I squeezed oil out when forming dough balls. But only made two because I had to have some and put the rest of the dough back in the fridge. The cookies, oh my were they wonderful!! Never knew a cookie without flour or butter could taste so good! Woke up this morning to make more and the dough is a lot less oily, still more then other cookie doughs but come on its peanut butter! It was also less crumbly and easier to work with. These cookies receive a gold star from me. One of my best Pinterest pins ever!
I am so glad you love the recipe and yes, the dough is oiler in the beginning, but as the days pass, less so after chilling. I made a batch of dough, form into balls, chill the balls for up to 5 days, and as needed, bake 4 or 6 at a time. So easy and no issues with oiliness. Glad you’re so happy with these! Thanks for LMK!
Tried these tonight for a get together with some friends! I didn’t have the two hours to chill so I popped them in the freezer for 15 min already scooped. Then I just tossed a batch in leaving the rest in freezer- worked amazing! My dough was dark and crumbly but cooked up perfect! Love, love, love these cookies!
Thanks for trying the recipe and the info about what you did on a short timeframe – great thinking! So glad they worked out well and you love love love them! Awesome!
Okay. I need you to understand the miracle that just happened between me and your blog, specifically this entry.
So. I am currently looking for good homemade peanut butter recipes for my friend’s birthday present (he’s a sucker for that kind of stuff), and I ended up at your blog. While at your blog, I couldn’t help but notice the sidebar of favorite recipes, and all of the torturously delicious looking pictures lined up next to each other in a neat grid. I groaned. I couldn’t help it. Everything looked so good, I’m hungry, and, to be totally honest, a little bit hungover, so my body is doubly in love with carby things.
But here’s the kicker: I just found out I’m allergic to gluten a couple of months ago. Before this, I’ve always been an avid baker, and it’s been kind of tough for me. So I called my boyfriend over and was like, “Ughhh. How did I end up on this blog?” And he came over, and when he saw me click on the most delicious looking picture, he said, “Satpreet, don’t torture yourself!” But I wanted to. I have a penchant for self-inflicted gluten torture (when he eats bread, sometimes I hold his plate up to my nose and just sniff it for a little while), so I clicked.
And I ended up on this page. And after scanning through a few pictures, I saw that magic, promising word: flourless.
“FLOURLESS???!” I said this, in case the caps lock didn’t throw you off, very loudly, alarming my boyfriend, who had at this point craned his neck over my shoulder to get a better look at these heavenly looking cookies.
Still in disbelief, I scrolled to the recipe, and by golly, these cookies are gluten free. And you just made my day.
I just wanted you to know that. I could just kiss you! JUST KISS YOU!
What a great comment and story! Thanks for finding my blog and glad you were able to find some cookies that are GF! And they are truly my fave PB cookies I have on my site – and I probably have 25 other versions of PB cookies, but those are my faves! Enjoy!
I found this on Pinterest and they were awesome! Thanks for sharing the recipe. And don’t let the haters get you down! They’re just jealous! :) ill be following your blog now!
Thanks for finding me on Pinterest and for trying these AND for getting back to me about the results. Glad you loved them and thanks for being a new follower! That’s wonderful & thanks for your support :)
Since I relooked at this recipe after seeing it in your cookbook giveaway post, I wanted to ask you a question. I made flourless pb cookies using granulated in stead or brown sugar. They were outstanding right out of the oven. Then I froze some because that’s what I do with all the baked goods I love. But about a week later when I pulled them out they looked really frosty and were crazy hard, even after being warmed. Have you found this to be the case? Would the brown sugar change this?
Staying hard after coming back up to room temp – normally that’s not my experience with any cookies that I freeze. I freeze a ton of them too like you do; we can’t get through that many all at once so I freeze extras and normally I just set a few out to thaw on their own (I don’t warm them in an oven or micro which can cause them to get hard) and I don’t have any issues. I think brown sugar in general makes things stay softer than granulated but I don’t think it would have a drastic effect here. Maybe it has to do with the type of PB used, too….
Made these today for a soccer team gathering, a couple girls on the team have a gluten allergy and I wanted something everyone could enjoy. I made a triple batch which made about 42 regular sized cookies. They baked for about ten minutes and came out great! Perfectly soft, chewy, and so very chocolatey! I loved them and so did everyone else! With the help of about 12 girls, the entire tub of cookies (about 36) had vanished far before the 2 hour event had ended. These are definitely a keeper, and so great because it uses so few ingredients.
Love love love stories like this! A triple batch gone in under 2 hours! Now THAT’s the sign of cookie success! Thank you so much for this story and so glad the cookies are soft, chewy, chocolaty and everything you want in a cookie :)
OMG. That could be my only comment. I am so glad I made a double batch cease I have already eaten four.
My dough was vey oily, and ws pretty dark. I baked them for 8 minutes, and they were no where near as pretty as yours. But OMG, they are chewy and moist nd peanut buttery delicious. And easy.
Thank you, thank you.
So glad you’re a fan! And made a double batch, right off the bat. That ‘a girl :) Oily and dark – yes, that’s pretty normal. And I’m sure they were pretty enough. It’s the taste that matters. Thanks for LMK you tried them & are super happy!
Hi there! So I’m always looking for recipes that are non traditional and don’t use flour or butter etc. Yours look amazing! Tried them tonight and had an uh oh moment of only a half cup of peanut butter left. I could halve the recipe or fudge through it with something else. I usually make it up as I go along. :) so I had nutella… read all of the comments about the dough being too oily or gritty and you’re warning about natural peanut butter. I used a half cup of nutella instead of all peanut butter. Cut down on the chocolate but everything else is the same. Just baked one to see how it went and ahhhh they are AMAZING! I was skeptical since the dough was like an oily tootsie roll but they are great. Cant wait to make them with all pb
:) thanks!
I have a recipe for what you made! https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/04/nutella-peanut-butter-chocolate-chunk-cookies.html
Very good call on improvising at the last second though and I know Nutella + PB is a fab combo and I bet your cookies were wonderful.
“skeptical since the dough was like an oily tootsie roll” — LOL because when I made the cookies I just linked, I had that very same dough. I know it well :)
If you try the orig version with just PB, lmk how that goes, too. So glad these worked for you!
I have these chilling in the fridge right now. Looking forward to baking them tomorrow. I’ve tried this recipe (ish) before without baking soda and wasn’t impressed. But, your picture looked so tempting I had to try it.
Can’t wait to bake them tomorrow!
I am so pleased to say that I just made these on a whim- about 10 minutes after I saw them on Pinterest- and they were AMAZING. What an awesome recipe. It makes me wonder why we even use flour in our cookies when the consistency and texture of these is just the same. Thanks for a great recipe.
I love that you saw them on Pinterest and BAM – made them! Sometimes I do that and every now and then it’s so worth it! Glad to hear this recipe was one of them! The only other PB cookie recipe that can compete with these that uses flour is in my cookbook called Old-Fashioned PB Cookies. But other than those, I am with you – flour isn’t even necessary!
Oh wow…YUM. I made these yesterday and it was so hard to keep my hands off of them. Now it’s morning, and I really want one for breakfast. lol
I disobeyed you and used natural peanut butter (Jif) because that was all I had and I was desperate. Also added maybe 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of flour. Perfect! I’ll definitely be making these again and again (especially since I’m the only one in my family who likes peanut butter >:D). Thanks!
So glad you tried them and that the natural PB worked for you (good call to add 1.5 – 2 tbsp flour to firm it up) and cookies for breakfast sounds perfect actually! :)
I just made these cookies and they do taste really great! I just had trouble with forming them, about half of the batch split in half or crumbled in the oven. But split in half or complete, these cookies were very delicious!
If you make them again and your dough is slightly crumbly, just add another tbsp or two of PB and blend that in to moisten up the dough and you’ll be all set. Glad you enjoyed them though! Thanks for telling me!
I made these last night because I had a huge craving for cookies- I was really impressed how easily these came together, and they were SO GOOD! I did use a “natural” chunky peanut butter because that’s what I had on hand, and though they were a little on the oily side, they turned out great! I’m sure they would set up a little better if I had actually followed your directions. :) Thanks for a great recipe!
Thanks for LMK that you tried them and they were a huge success for you, even with a natural PB. Sometimes people have luck; not always. But glad for you they were a hit. Woot! :)
I am cooking these as I write! I can’t wait to see how they turn out!
Made these the other day with my best friend– a great recipe! :) They were a hit. I’ll definitely be making these again soon.
Thanks for the recipe! I absolutely love these and I plan on making them again soon! :)
So glad they were a hit for you! Thanks for coming back and LMK!
Okay I need help! My dough is very crumbly, is this normal? I used normal Jiffy pb and new brown sugar (no chance of it crumbling or dried out), and because it was a little oily and warm outside, I added one and a half Tbs of flour (I think you suggested this in a previous comment for when it is warm outside and the dough is oily). All I have is a new hand mixer so I mixed for maybe 3ish mins. From the beginning it’s been crumbly, and after baking they fell apart! any suggestions?
I guess I could also add, the dough looks oily and is dark like your pictures, so maybe “crumbly” isn’t the right adjective, regardless they’re falling apart. They smell so good though! They may have to be used as an ice cream mix-in!
It’s hard for me to help you long distance because I have no idea where you went wrong because I wasn’t there. But a hand mixer for 3 mins does not sound long enough since they’re not as powerful as stand mixers. You want that PB, sugar, and egg to be totally smooth and combined. And I think you undermixed and that was the issue.
Also, I probably wouldn’t have added the flour given that you said they were already crumbly.
When you formed them into mounds, did you use a cookie scoop and really tightly compact the dough mounds? Using just a regular spoon and dropping the dough on trays probably didnt do you any favors, either.
It really is a timeless recipe that’s been around forever in many variations. Here are nearly 700 positive comments http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-peanut-butter-cookies-ever/
And here are nearly 2000 http://allrecipes.com/recipe/flourless-peanut-butter-cookies/
Most people have success with the recipe and I would say read over some comments and see if you glean any info and take my advice and cream better, use a scoop, don’t add flour, and use well-chilled dough that’s solid before baking. LMK what you try!
Jen, you posted earlier that you have a “slight intolerance to eggs”, did you maybe sub in something else? That would definitely change things.
All of you leaving comments about the brown sugar…..get over yourself! If you don’t like what she has written by all means leave the page and create your own blog. I think they’re great….brown sugar and all!
I wish I could give you a big hug right now. Thank you for saying that. It’s exactly what I’ve been thinking for months :)
OMG!OMG!OMG! I have just baked these cookies using crunchy peanut butter and added white choc to the dark choc chunks and I have to say THANK YOU SOO MUCH!!! These are the BEST choc chip cookies recipe I have ever made (and trust me ive used quite a few different recipes…im not exactly an expert i tell ya!)
I baked them for the first time today for tea while my fiance and I met our flower decorator for the wedding and the guy loved them so much he actually took some home with him!haha!
The recipe was soooo easy to follow and i kept them refrigerated for a day and they were perfect,gooey and chewy!! 8 mins was the exact time i used as well except mine is a fan assisted oven so i lowered the temp to 160C instead of the 177C (converted from Fahrenheit)
This is definitely going to be a new weekend tradition n would be great even for parties id say.
Again Id like to thank you sooo much for the recipe! I will definitely try your other recipes soon!! Take care and enjoy ur summer! :-)
Hi Lisa and thanks for the glowing review!! So glad you liked them and that the flower decorator was so (randomly) in love with them, that you sent him home with a goodie bag of cookies! He should give you a discount for that :)
Thanks for LMK you made these and so happy to hear great field reports like yours! Keep me posted if you try other recipes!
I just tried to make these…the oil from the pb separated…I put it all in the fridge hoping it will come back together. What did I do wrong??
Since I wasn’t in your kitchen with you, I have no idea what you did wrong. If you used conventional PB like Jif, Skippy, or Peter Pan, that’s very unusual.
If you used any form of ‘natural’, light, diet, or homemade PB – then, that’s known to happen and that’s why I tell people not to use those types.
If you provide more information, I may be able to troubleshoot more.
Dear God. These are so good they are ridiculous! I just made them and they are almost gone. The peanut butter and brown sugar (or more accurately white sugar in disguise for all the people who pointed that out because they have nothing better to do in life) is a fantastic combo. I added salt because I like my pb cookies a little salty. Gosh these are good. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks, Kiki! I love your comment and so glad these cookies were a big hit and almost gone! Re the white/brown sugar situation, thanks for seeing the humor in that and for what you wrote! It got to the point that between here, various pins on Pinterest, my Fbook page, my Twitter, my email, I literally had someone pointing this out to me, daily. Or more than daily. I wish I had that kind of time on my hands…gosh, must be so liberating to have all that free time :)
But seriously so glad you tried the cookies and thanks for the awesome field report. I love it!
Just made a double batch of these one for the neighbors and one to share. YUM! Hubby esp is in LOVE!
I have a slight intolerance to egg. Is there anything i could substitute with it for this recipe?
Because there are so few ingredients, really just peanut butter, sugar, and an egg, I don’t know how it would turn out without. You could try a flax egg but I haven’t tested it to know if it works. If you try, LMK!
Thanks for the great recipe! The peanut better recipe is brilliant. Thanks.
In my most recent attempt at these, I accidentally used almond butter in here – tasted “just like” regular chocolate chip cookies. Who knew?
Made these tonight and they were AMAZING!!! I used Peanut Butter Companies Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter bc Im a chocolate fiend and I could have eaten all of them- my 4 year old just told me that he had 4 of them- not good but I understand :) Thanks so much for the recipe!
So glad that you love them…me too! And I’m with your 4 year old. I can inhale 4 in no time! I bet they’re extra good with that PB you used!
I make my own version of these all the time! Now I’m going to incorporate your helpful tips! Thanks!
Averie, I made these cookies last weekend and they were a hit with my friends! I’ll be posting about it on my website tomorrow. :)
http://tinaschic.com
Thank you for a great recipe!
I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes!
I am so glad they were a hit with your and your friends! Thanks for LMK that you made them!
These are amazing!! I made the dough last weekend and left them in the fridge. I was initially worried because the dough seemed crumbly and I was nervous about the cookies falling apart. Leaving the dough in the fridge for almost a week made it solid and I had to almost dig the dough out and it was very wet sand like. I took out portions and mushed them in my hands to create a nice round portion then flattened. They baked up perfect, not crumbly at all, and they are pretty much the most delicious cookies ever!! Almost ate half the batch last night. They’re not making it through the weekend. Thank you for posting this!!!
Thanks for trying the cookies and so glad you enjoy them! Working with flourless dough can be tricky – for some it’s sandy, for others it’s oily. I find chilling solves just about everything and glad you were able to scoop it out, shape it, and are enjoying the most delicious cookies ever! Thanks for telling me!
I made these a couple days ago and wish I had read through the comments first! I used regular creamy Jif and after adding the chocolate the dough went from nice and fluffy to dark and greasy. (I used Ghirardelli large-size 60% chips instead of chopped chocolate). I chilled for 5 hours and when I shaped them oil was oozing out of the dough and the dough did not want to adhere together. I baked 10 minutes. They did not spread and did not look done. Ended up topping a warmish cookie with vanilla ice cream and served in a bowl with a spoon. Loved the taste but wish it held together better and looked like yours do. Seems like several commenters who had oily dough used Jif – wonder if that is the problem?
I use Jif and I don’t have issue and this recipe has been around for ages…I am not unique in this one. If you google ‘flourless peanut butter cookies’ there will literally be tens of thousands of hits for it. I happen to use all brown sugar in these rather than my older 2011 version which uses a mix of granulated and brown sugars. There are tons of people who make it with success and write saying so but every now and then someone’s dough is very greasy. Could be climate? It’s very dry here in San Diego. If you add 1/4 cup of flour next time, that would certainly take care of any issues. Thanks for trying the recipe.
I just had to comment. I stumbled upon this recipe because the guy I am dating has an affinity for all things chocolate-peanut butter, and I wanted to bake him something extra tasty. The first thing to catch my eye was the mouthwatering photos. I was nearly sold. Then to see that they were flourless…Extra sold. I couldn’t wait to try this recipe.
I had my doubts about how these cookies would come out, considering I’d not tried to bake cookies without flour before. But I just want EVERYONE to know, this recipe is just as Averie explains! Moist, irresistible, absolutely delicious. I will most definitely be making these as a go-to, easy baked good. I urge/hope all of you do the same!
Can’t say it enough – SO GOOD.
I am so glad you love them so much and are signing the praises! Thanks for coming back to LMK you made them and it helps others know that yes, they work out, and very well at that :) Glad you and your guy are enjoying them!
Oops, never-mind! I only saw your text/commentary and didn’t see the actual recipe until now!
I feel silly for asking this, but how much brown sugar? I couldn’t seem to find your amount. I saw the 3/4 cup white & 1/4 brown for the past recipe…so did you use 1 cup brown this time? Thanks!! They look SO good, I can’t wait to make them!
Yum! These are sinful. I’ve already made them twice. Thanks for the recipe!
Woo-hoo! Thanks for making them twice and coming back to LMK!
Brown sugar is simply white sugar and molasses so it’s a bit erroneous to make the claim of no white sugar. Have u tried this recipe with agave?
No I have not.
These are simple and delicious! I did have to use 2 eggs instead of 1 to achieve the right consistency however. I love chewy cookies and chewy cookies with peanut butter and chocolate? The BEST!
So glad you tried them and glad you made a gametime call to add in another egg to achieve the right consistency and that you’re so happy with them! Thanks for the field report (and on the coconut oil white choc cookies that you made too!)
Averie — I love the flavor of these cookies but mine came out awfully crumbly. I followed your directions exactly (I think) and only baked them for eight minutes. The dough seemed crumbly from the get-go (and I refrigerated it as directed and everything). Do you have any idea why they would have come out this way?
Yes it sounds like there wasn’t enough moisture in your dough…adding up to another 1/4 cup of PB (1 to 4 tbsp), give or take, would clear this right up!
From brand to brand of PB, different sugar types, climate/humidity, etc. can all effect the consistency of dough. Just add a touch more PB next time and you’ll be good to go! (other options would include another egg yolk, or a splash of milk but a drop more of PB is probably the easiest)
These cookies look awesome!!! I’m trying to find a great cookie recipe for a baby shower. They are going to be the favors put In cd sleeves. I was wondering if these would do good as jumbo cookies and would they hold up in the cd sleeves or are they to soft??
Thanks
Any time you bake cookies as a jumbo cookie, you run the risk of the edges burning or getting too crispy before the centers really cook through. I personally would just make them an average size but up to you.
These are cute too for a baby shower
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/03/soft-and-chewy-mms-cookies.html
Those look great, but I must say that brown sugar is white sugar with molasses. Sucanat would be a natural sugar, but brown sugar is highly processed. I’m sure they still taste great, though:)
I made these cookies this weekend and they are FANTASTIC! I only have a hand mixer so I beat the dough for about 5 minutes. It didn’t quite come together but after chilling for 3 hours I was able to form dough balls with my hands and they took on the darker color mentioned by some other commenters so I was excited. After trying them I’m even more excited! They are the best cookies I’ve made or had in a long time. This was my first time baking gluten free and you made it so easy! I also made your peach mango pineapple white sangria and boy is that good too!!! I already want to make another batch :) keep the good stuff coming!
Thanks for coming back to tell me you enjoyed the cookies (and tried your hand at GF-baking) Glad you were able to get the dough to come together using your hands (and yes with a hand mixer, you need to really beat the dough well, at least 5 mins+) and glad it all worked out. And that sangria, mmm, good stuff too :)
I made these cookies today, and they are amazing. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for coming back to tell me, Candace! Glad you love them!
Hoping mine will turn out. The nature oils in the peanut butter separated on me. I used a combination of Jif and Simply Jif.
Has anyone else encountered this problem?
Simply Jif is a natural-style peanut butter that separates and that’s why I caution against using it. I think you’ll be fine, but make sure the dough is VERY well-chilled before you bake them or they will turn flat.
Hi Averie! Just wanted ask a quick question….does the dough get kind of oily?? I was just scooping these out and noticed a lot of oil in the container I had the dough chilling in. And I sort of was able to wring a bit of oil out when I formed them…lol! Followed the recipe as is, used regular Jiff. Popping them in the oven with fingers crossed I didn’t mess up somewhere! The dough was quite tasty, so I am sure they will taste delish! ;)
Yes it can separate a bit and be on the oily side and I’ve noticed some jars of PB are more prone to that (even if using Jif) – as well as temperature in the house effecting things, but you’ll be fine! LMK how they turn out!
That could be it! Having a heat wave in the desert SW! They did spread a bit, so they aren’t as pretty as yours, but they taste amazing! Hubs is standing here giving me a thumbs up and shaking his head yes with a mouth full of cookie :). Thanks for the quick reply and great recipe!
Oh whenever I bake in temps that are over about 80F outside, no matter how ‘climate controlled’ my indoors is, you cannot fool mother nature, or fool cookie science :) They do spread more, the dough is more oily, and in general, baking in hot weather adds another dimension to consider. If you are ever in a jam and don’t care about adding it, adding 1 to 2 tbsp of flour for this particular recipe will cure your problem immediately :) That, or REALLY, chilling the dough. Like 48 hrs. Scoop into balls right after you make it, put on a plate or in a tupperware, and refigerate for 2 days. Take the balls out and bake and they wont spread nearly as much. Glad they got 2 thumbs up from hubs! :)
Well if you’re aware what brown sugar is, it’s a big disingenuous to claim they have no white sugar, like brown sugar is a healthier alternative…
Picky – great name by the way!
I like brown sugar. It’s not white; it’s brown. I’m not suggesting it’s healthier. Although I do prefer the flavor.
If you have a blog, I’d love to take a peek at your recipes and come by and drop in a few comments!
I was just looking through comments and found this funny. I’m glad you always defend yourself Averie!
OK, I just had to click over here from your home page. I have seen these all over gwaker and I just have to make them. I just need to get rid of all of these sea salt and caramel brownies first. I have such a craving for peanut butter and chocolate right now that I just took a spoonful of peanut butter and topped it with some Nutella. It worked, but I’m positive that these cookies would be 10x better!
xoxo, Jackie
Your brownies always look amazing. I want to try that Roberts/recipe of yours and also another brownie recipe Ive had my eye on. I do love my own go-to recipe though. Not sure if I should cheat on it..haha! As for these cookies, they are easy, fabulous, and the best PB cookies I’ve ever had. They’re not even in my book…I didn’t create them until just a couple mos ago (although there’s a version of them in my book, based on my older 2011 recipe this recipe is derived from) But you will LOVE them. It’s a VERY small batch recipe, making 1 dozen. Honestly, your kids will eat them in a day! I never, ever make big batches of stuff!
FYI most brown sugar is highly refined white sugar with molasses so you may want to clarify if you are using raw sugar which is typically brown but since you used light brown sugar it is most likely processed white sugar with molasses added. The difference between light and dark brown sugar we are accustomed to just differs in the amount of Molasses used.
Possibly the BEST combination of peanut butter and chocolate in a cookie that we’ve had! This cookie was so simple and yet…so good!! We were happy that no flour was included. I think it made the cookie more moist and delicious. Sometimes cookies just have too much flour. I cleaned out my pantry and ended up using 3 different kinds of peanut butter to finish off the jars (creamy and crunchy) and then mixed a combination of dark chocolate squares (chopped) with semi sweet chocolate chips. The dough was a little hard to squish together but they held together nicely when baked! Thank you for this recipe! I can’t wait to share them with friends! :)
Thanks for the awesome comment, Chastity! Loved that you cleaned out 3 jars of PB (love it when recipes help w/ pantry cleanout!) and that you used a combo of various chocolates. Perfect! Flour can be so drying; you’re right. Thanks for telling me that they were such a hit for you!
I hate to be the one (or the 10th!) to say it, but brown sugar is simply white sugar+molasses. However, I still think it’s a great sounding flourless cookie.
Yes you’re probably the tenth++
Except that brown sugar is made from white sugar and is no healthier than white sugar… So they do contain white sugar.
I am not sure, and i’m trying to be careful here, I just see people who spend time giving us recipes and beautiful photographs so we can make them at home, and they do it for free, so when people complain it is just frustrating. It can be very disheartening to spend all of this time and be met with negativity :(
It is a *very* valid point that brown sugar contains white sugar. However, there is no claim whatsoever that the cookies are “healthy”. Or health food. They’re dessert! They are thing to have in moderation. And one mention of the brown/white sugar deal was adequate!
Thank you for sharing your recipes, I really appreciate it so much!! Looking forward to trying… well… all of these! :D Peanut butter is The Yum!!
Hi Amy
Thanks for your comment and for understanding that I’m just sharing recipes and if folks don’t like them, they don’t have to read my blog or make my recipes. It’s so easy to click off a website if you’re not interested in the content. Before I leave comments to others, I always remember what my grandmother would say, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all :) But when people are online, they tend to say things they probably wouldn’t say in person. And yes, these are cookies. Not health food. And I happen to love these cookies. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Saying these cookies have “no white sugar” is deceptive. Brown sugar IS white sugar. It just has molasses added to it.
I see someone already pointed that out. I skimmed first, but missed it.
I’ve now made these 3 times and they’ve come out perfectly each time! They are my husband’s favorite (and he is a cookie fiend!). We were grocery shopping this past weekend and split up to get our list done faster. When we met back up, he had chocolate chunks and peanut butter in hand, specifically requesting these cookies! Ha!
I am so glad to hear these are such a big hit with you (and your husband)…and I get a total kick out of the story that he had choc chunks and PB in his hand at the grocery store as a hint. How cute :) Thanks for the field report and glad you love them!
I honestly think I gained 10 lbs from just looking at these! You’re photos are SO AMAZING! How I didn’t see this recipe until today is beyond me. Can’t wait for your cookbook!
Curious if in your experimentation you ever tried using honey instead of sugar? I can’t have processed sugar, so I’d have to do natural pb and honey. I’m assuming it would affect texture but wondered if you’d tried…
Honey = liquid
And combined with already runny PB and no flour…it’s unfortunately not going to pan out well. I think they will spread quite tremendously…but…please try and LMK
I *just* posted this recipe which you will have more success with with using the honey b/c the cocoa powder will absorb some of it
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/02/thick-and-soft-chocolate-peanut-butter-cookies.html
Please LMK what you try!
Hi! I am so looking forward to tasting these cookies. My dough is in the fridg now. One concern i have is how oily the dough is. I did use the Peter Pan Honey Roasted PB you recommended (not the natural kind.) I mixed in my stand mixer and it just became dark and oily, not creamy at all. Is this how your dough looks? It is chilling now, so i’m gonna see what happens! Im sure it will be a yummy mess even if we have to eat it with a spoon! :)
la
My dough is in the middle of light and fluffy and dark/oily. There is no flour so it will be oily to an extent, but when beating the PB, egg, and sugar, it should have fluffed up some. It will take a GOOD 5 MINUTES of vigorous creaming in a stand mixer (possibly longer with a hand mixer) to get it there. If your dough did not do that; I don’t how these will bake up. Because you’ve already added chocolate, it’s too late to go back and remix but in the future, it should be lighter than what you describe.
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/07/flourless-peanut-butter-cookies.html
That posts shows what my dough look like with hand-mixing, and using some white/some brown sugar. By using an electric mixer, my dough is much softer, fluffier, and smoother, not as gritty. And is more combined looking, less sticky. Albeit yes, oily; but not sloppy falling apart oily or anything. LMK how it goes for you!
So über excited to make these since I saw it on Pinterest.. Made them but the dough was super oily.. Is that Normal? Plus they spread super flat.. Used everything you said down to the t… Any suggestions?
Oily dough is normal (there is no flour to bind them). They spread flat possibly because…the baking soda was not fresh or you need to use slightly more given your climate, the dough was not properly chilled, or they should be baked in a domed/mounded-up ball, similar to the balls midway down in this post. Good luck!
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/02/soft-batch-dark-brown-sugar-coconut-oil-cookies.html
Great recipe! I’ve tried this twice and both times I failed at creating the same beautiful cookies in your photos. The first time I used natural peanut butter (obviously my mistake) and the batter was so crumbly that it was difficult to form into balls. When they baked, they kept its shape and didn’t flatten at all. Then I got regular creamy Jiffy and the batter was extremely oily. When it baked, they flattened out really thin. Both times I kept the batter in the frig overnight. What did I do wrong? Both versions tasted the same but I can’t get the texture right! I’d love to see your step by step pictures to see what the batter should look like. Thank you!
1st time – we know the problem, natural PB
2nd time “Then I got regular creamy Jiffy and the batter was extremely oily. When it baked, they flattened out really thin.” – That sounds to me like the baking soda isn’t working properly, or the sugar is very moist, and when it’s heated, sugar liquifies and spreads and some types are more prone to this than others (I use C & H brand light brown sugar, or in other recipes same brand but their Dark brown). When you put the cookie dough on the baking tray, they should be not as high as golf balls, but fairly domed.
See this post midway down for what the cookie mounds should look like going into the oven – same idea. Good luck!
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/02/soft-batch-dark-brown-sugar-coconut-oil-cookies.html
Hi I was wondering if you knew the fat, carbs,protein, and fiber per cookie or for the batch. I’m on WW and need to know the point value. Thanks!
No but use one of those online calculators and DIY!
I’m on WW too and I did the recipe as is (except I had to plug in SunButter b/c we have a peanut allergy in our house but the caloric info is basically the same for it and peanut butter) and they were 8pts+ a piece using 12 servings.
I made these for Valentine’s Day last night and they were a HUGE hit! Thank you for posting this! Three people have already asked me how to make them. So good!
That’s awesome! Thanks for LMK they were such a hit with you and at least 3 more!
These are fantastic! I will be able to make them for all of my friends and family and they’ll never believe that they are gluten-free. Thanks!
Glad you like them and your friends, too!
Seriously…these are the BEST COOKIES EVER!!! I’ve now made them twice, and it’s truly amazing that I haven’t just kept stuffing them into my face until they are gone. I use PB&Co Dark Chocolate dreams and 82% cocoa…wow…just…wow. Thank you for sharing! :-)
Cara thanks for coming back to LMK they’ve been the best cookies ever! What high praise and that you’ve already made them twice and are loving them! Yay! Thanks for coming back to LMK!
This recipe looks incredible, but I only have a hand held mixer. Would this still work for the recipe or throw off the dough?
Use it and just take your time and really mix things well – enjoy!
Hello! I tried to make these today! I used my hand mixer and mixed it for about 10-15 minutes and it remained grainy. I finally just decided to put in the baking soda, mix, and then add the chocolate chunks. I tested the dough to see if it would come together well, and it did, so I’m hopeful that they will still be delicious even though the dough never creamed up! I will let you know! Maybe this will be a good excuse to convince my husband i need to get a stand-mixer. :)
Did you read the part in my post about adding a bit more peanut butter if you were having a hard time getting the dough to combine? That could help next time. Everyone’s PB is different.
Not sure if your dough wasn’t combining OR…if it’s a mixer situation on your end and your machine isn’t able to get past the grainy and into the smooth territory?
Regardless, if you mixed for 15 mins and chilled the dough before baking, you should be fine. LMK how they turn out! And if you can convince your husband for a new mixer :)
Yikes! This homemade butter sounds like it will be evil around me. Good stuff :)
Thank you so much for the amazing recipe! Half of the cookies were gone in the first hour :)
Thanks for coming back to tell me they were a huge hit! I appreciate it and glad you tried them! :)
Can you you almond butter or seed butters like sunflower seeds in place of peanut butter?
You can use anything you want and see if it will work! I don’t know. My guess is that the cookies will spread quite dramatically with either, but you never know til you try!
Is it normal for the dough to be super oily before putting it in the fridge? A bunch of chocolate chips wouldn’t combine because of it. I’m hoping it is easier to work with after it gets a little colder. Could I have messed up something?
Oily but not obscenely oily…but yes, there is no flour to bind it so it’s oilier than other doughs. And choc chips DO fall out b/c there are so many :) but as the dough cools it becomes much easier to work with…you’re going to be fine. LMK how you like them!
mmm have to try it gr8 reviews
I made these as “clean” as possible with natural PB (just peanuts), organic sucanat sugar and Enjoy Life chocolate chips. They were FABULOUS!! I agree the natural PB makes them a a little more crumbly but if you smash em together well before cooking and leave them alone till cooled, they’ll hold up fine! Definitely a keeper!!
Thanks for the feedback, Tricia, and for LMK you used natural PB and sucanat and that they turned out for you! Natural PB can make them anything from crumbly to greasy depending on the brand, or it can work out; you just never know but glad you had success and thanks for writing in!
Omg! I cannot get over how DIVINE your pb chocolate chunk cookies look!! Its 8am in London and i’m about to run to the store to buy some peanut butter so I can whip these up before college!! Haha!! If they are a success, would you mind if I re-posted the recipe on my blog and maybe with the pictures? (I’d credit it all to you!) My camera is no where near as good as this and I haven’t a clue how they will turn out! Thanks for the brilliant ideas, you’re amazing! Love Tee
Thanks for the compliments and I replied to you on direct email :)
OH MY GOSH. oh my goodness.
I made these tonight.
When you said you’d found the perfect peanut butter & chocolate cookie, you were NOT messing around.
These cookies absolutely knocked my socks off, and everyone else’s too! Nothing but rave reviews. And the batch size was perfect.
One important note: I used JIF natural creamy peanut butter, and I would not do so again. The taste was unaffected (as I said, PHENOMENAL), but because it’s a natural PB, the oil began separating from the batter. I had to squeeze/pat some of it off the dough balls before putting them in the oven.
Avery. Thank you so much! These are without doubt some of the best cookies I have ever made, and I will without doubt be making them again.
Thank you Nicole for the glowing report! So glad you loved them and that everyone agreed. I never say ‘best of’ or words like that on my blog unless I mean it; and with these, I mean it!
And in the post when I wrote explicitly: Don’t use natural peanut butter. And use something like old-fashsioned Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan…I meant that too :) Nothing that says ‘natural’. The old-school processed peanut butter is what you want because the oil won’t leak out like the natural ones, but sounds like you handled things quite well and all was fine.
Thanks for the field report!
Averie – you kill me with your cookies! I must make these!! ( and thanks for linking up!)
So I’m trying to make these now and I can’t seem to make my dough get creamy. I’ve been blending it for a while but it’s still granulated. I added the baking soda before I creamed the rest by mistake- do you think that could be the problem?
Yes more than likely it is. You could bake them anyway and see what happens but like with all cookie-baking, cream butter, sugar, eggs first – then add everything else.
I love peanut butter, in fact I just made a peanut butter cake today with tons of peanut butter frosting. Your cookies sound amazing Averie! They look like the best cookies!
Wow! These look ah-mazing! I saw Dorothy mention these Crazy for Crust and I couldn’t wait to check these out. Definitely making these soon!
Thanks, Jennifer! They’re a fast fast favorite around here!
Making these now…I will report back!
please do!
I made these and everybody loved them–great texture! I followed the recipe exactly and chilled the dough for about 3 hours. Baking time was exactly at 8 min for me–they came out perfectly. This one’s definitely a keeper!!
Thanks for coming back with the field report, Paula! I appreciate it and love hearing how long people chill for/bake for and all the little nuances that go into cooking making. So glad this one is a keeper! For me too! :)
oh my goodnesss Averie these look ridiculously crazy deliciously good….no flour…no eggs…i am so intrigued…can’t wait to try these…and you crack me up with detesting crunchy peanut butter. as a kid i loved loved cruncy peanut butter…no in my “old” age creamy is the only way to go.
I actually don’t mind crunchy PB for just like…eating off the spoon :) And I like nuts on their own. And in the very rare recipe, crunchy can work. Like if we’re talking a super crunchy nobake cereal bar or something. But if it’s in a soft, smooth cookie, smooth please :)
Sorry my brain was melting down with pleasure, any other cookie.
This recipe is insanely good! This is my cookie nirvana, I will never eat any another cookie than these ones.
So glad that you made them and that you’re in cookie nirvana! I love them that much, too! :)
Thanks for explaining the whole chip vs. chocolate chunk thing. Now I fully understand why I’m obsessed with chunks instead of chips in cookies. Those gross stabilizers… :)
Amazing cookies by the way. Love that there’s no flour!
Stabilizers cause the chips to be resistant to melting too in the micro for anything that calls for them. That’s why heating in bursts and finessing them is necessary. Or else they scorch before they really melt, due to the stabilizers. Some brands are worse than others, or more melt-resistant! They do have their purpose, but so often, I really prefer chunks/bars.
These are amazing!!! I’m in love! I blogged about this recipe and linked it to your site here. I made these just as they are, and then I’ve also made an egg-free version for my neighbor. Her daughter can’t have eggs, and these are too good to live without. So if anyone needs an egg free version, visit http://www.thatfamilywiththecats.blogspot.com for that. But boy, oh boy! These are scrumptious as they are!
I am so glad that you made them and you’re so happy! and that your friends/family are happy too! And look at you, making an egg free version and giving it to your neighbor’s daughter…that is so sweet! Thanks so much for coming back and LMK you made these and are so pleased. YAY!
Maybe this has been commented on, but isn’t brown sugar basically the same as white sugar nowadays. I hear it is white sugar with molasses added back in. I still love these cookies. Usually make the white sugar version. I want to try this version. But still a lot of sugar. When I have reduced the sugar in the past it changes the texture of the cookie too much.
Right, brown sugar is granulated sugar with molasses. Dark brown sugar is the same, with more molasses. I’m sure commercially made sugar has all kinds of things added to it but if you’re in a jam at home 1 c of granulated + 1 tbsp molasses gives you brown sugar, and 3 tbsp of molasses gives you dark brown. I’m sure you can google for everything else you’d want to know about it.
I am sorta new to baking and I was wondering if it might be possible to use apple sauce instead of the egg. I have a friend that is on a special diet and I am always trying to find yummy things to make so she can eat some sweet treats at potlucks too. Thanks!
In some recipes, it’s possible. But not in this one. The egg is the only binder. There is no flour. Applesauce would create slop. You can google vegan PB cookies; there won’t be eggs in them. But there will be flour. Whereas mine has no butter, no white sugar, and no flour.
I had my doubts when I saw the dough but as I stand here eating this chewy, chocolatey, crispy-edged cookie, all doubts are erased. Yum! Pinned!
So glad you’re enjoying them and thanks for the pin! I know, it’s always like…no way this is going to work every time I see the dough. But it does! Glad you’re a believer now :)
Thank you for the quick response! I will mull it over. Perhaps, try both. Thanks.
Please keep me posted – Im curious now if you do a side by side trial!
Hey Averie. I’m going to make these today or tomorrow and I will try it both with the light brown and dark brown sugar and let you know how the dark brown sugar ones turn out. You know how I love my dark brown sugar! I will be the Guinea pig and let the kids be the testers! I cant wait for these :)
For these, I honestly think light brown sugar is going to be the best call. If you love dark brown sugar and want that flavor, make these! http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/02/soft-batch-dark-brown-sugar-coconut-oil-cookies.html
But for the PB cookies I like light brown. But of course, do what you love! LMK!
Hello. I have Dark Brown Sugar already opened… can I use that, instead of the Light Brown Sugar? Should I use less? Thanks. ~ Justin
It has a higher molasses content than light brown, and I do recommend light brown and haven’t tested it with dark. That said, I wouldn’t use less because you need the volume/bulk, but just know your cookies will take more molasses-ey make with it and will be darker. Not a bad thing but know what you’re getting into it. If you try them, please write back and LMK how it goes!
These look ridiculously amazing!!!
These. Look. Incredible. Pinned. There’s nothing more to say :-)
Thanks for the Pin. And the super sweet sentiment :)
Holy moly these look so gooey and warm and melty and absolutely to die for. Actually drooling over this.
eatwelltraveloftenblog.blogspot.com
They are exactly what you just described! And thanks for all your comments!
All the food holidays crack me up. At least everyday is a holiday! These cookies look dangerously yummy! I recently made flourless pb cookies with homemade pb but they didn’t look nearly this good. I’ll have to revisit them with regular pb.
Yeah you can’t use homemade PB in cookies like this without flour with good results. It can be done; I’ve seen some pics of success, but I don’t have success and don’t want to waste my precious homemade PB and keep trying. This is a situation where some Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan, etc is perfect!
You should try again Avery, I’ve been making really delicious pb cookies with:
1 cup natural peanut butter
1 egg
1 cup sugar (white or brown)
1 tsp vanilla
Chocolate chips (optional)
Bake at 375 for about ten minutes
I find you really need to mix well and make sure they cool. They are SO yummy, and slightly healthier than those with conventional PB. Maybe try a different natural pb?
We love your blog. Can you send us some of the delectable peanut butter and chocolate cookies? They look awesome!
1210 barton springs
austin,tx 78704
I wish I could do mail order! Thanks for making me smile :)
Made these cookies last night!!! They were so good and I LOVED not having flour all over my kitchen. :)
Thanks for coming back to LMK! And I am soooo glad they’re a hit. And no flour to clean up. More time to eat cookies :)
Averie, I’m swooning over these incredible photos. “Rivers of dark chocolate” indeed – seeing all that melted, gooey chocolate is driving my tastebuds crazy! You are a true artist with your photos and a true poet with your words. “If you like pebbles in your cookies” cracked me up, what a ringing endorsement of chunky peanut butter ;) I really can’t believe these don’t have butter or flour. I’m making these for sure!
I came across these on tumblr and made them today. OH MY GOODNESS. You have created a beautiful thing! They turned out beautifully and I second your point about watching them so they don’t cook for too long. When I first took them out I was worried that they weren’t cooked enough but they firmed up right away. Thank you x
So glad that you made them and tried them already! And glad you took them out when I suggested because they do firm up. Thanks for coming back to LMK you made them!
Why do your cookies always look like the best cookies every invented? Sigh, so tempting. Always so tempting!
These actually are one of the Best’s! I will admit that some cookies are good, but don’t change my life. These kind of did :)
Ummm… whoa. These look amazing.
No, your photography post was amazing. And I have been coveting your mini lofthouse sprinkle sandwich cookies for like….6 months. I really just need to make them and stop thinking about making them!
Ooooh I love me some peanut butter too!!!
And I love a soft gooey melty chewy cookie! Yum yum yum! These look FAB. Must make!!!!
Wow! I could gaze upon these dreamy photos for…well until I can get my hands on some of cookies! Love the p.b. & chocolate combo too. :D
I saw these and promptly fell on the floor, now I’m back up and staring at the screen…please send help!
I love your comments, Gerry. They always make me smile :)
I have a similar recipe and adore how easy they are! I can’t wait to try your recipe with chocolate chips!
I’ve made similar cookies to these – but with these tweaks they sound amazing! And they sound like they need a re-visit!!
Wow. Really?! I thought you might have made an error when you described them as flourless! Amazing! I think there is almost nothing better than the smell of peanut butter cookies with chocolate baking in the oven. It literally penetrates the whole house and these cookies look incredibly decadent, moist and calorically dense!! As Seraphim says: “Should there be any other kind?” :-)
I love the way Seraphim thinks and I know, no flour. Crazy but true!
Averie, this morning I was driving and saw Mr.Peanut (I think they have a plant here or something related to it) and thought of you. No wander, it’s peanut day, and National! Well, dear friend, knowing about your love with all peanut butter and beyond, I wish you all peanut butter happiness in the world! :)
That’s too funny you saw Mr Peanut and thought of me. Love it :) And thanks for the holiday wishes…haha!
I love flourless peanut butter cookies! I’ve never made them with brown sugar before – I’ll have to try that.
I am a believer, Dorothy! You’ll love them this way!
LOVE this post, Averie! OMG my mouth is droolinggggg. Amazing, darling!
Tomorrow just got significantly more exciting now that I know it is national peanut butter day! Those cookies look like a must-bake!
These look so deliciously decadent!!
I need to start making donations to my S.D. friends…but wait, you’re trying to be Mr. Juicing and healthy smoothies :)
HA!! Well I think I would take a break from my smoothies for one of these :)
My life would be empty without peanut butter! And these things look DEADLY. Like, I’d eat the entire batch in a day (hours). I just posted a pb & chocolate recipe too – PB Cookie Dough Brownies, also deadly ;)
http://pursuitofsweetness.blogspot.com/2013/01/peanut-butter-cookie-dough-brownies.html
Golly geeeeee! I want all things peanut butter in my belly at all times!!! These speak to me! Thank you!!!
Oh Averie, these cookies look deadly! I am a huge fan of the short ingredient list and absence of flour. And those chocolate chunks?! Hand me a napkin for my drool! (Please and thank you)
Oh my goodness, those huge chocolate chunks melting out are killing me over here! I have some peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies that are among my favorites, but these look like they could give them a run for their money!
It’s funny that even my old PB cookies with pics that I don’t like, are still pretty popular with readers. I hope they make these instead now :)
Wow, those look so incredibly moist and rich and stuffed to the brim with chocolate, just perfect!
You’ve done it again, Averie! These are cookie perfection! :)
Could I make these without peanut butter? ;)
Today is National Chocolate Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, FYI.
These look absolutely amazing Averie! Pinning for making in the vey near future :-)
thanks for the pin!
These look amazing! I believe if you make ridiculously delicious baked goods, then you better describe them such as, but that’s just my philosophy. Descriptions are sometimes what have led to readers making a recipe! I love that these are your favorite and I can’t wait to make them with my Godkids!
I know my posts are wordy…but…I would rather be wordy and talk about the food (i.e. not my dog, kid, fight with my mailman, whatever that seems common on food blogs). I prefer to talk about the food :) and really describe it b/c I too make things based on descriptions! Your photos also always speak to me b/c you show what the food REALLY looks like; not a Taste of Home glossy perfectly staged scene of it. There’s a way to still do beautiful bite-shots and you pull that off and I try to do the same!
Tomorrow is national peanut butter day?! GAH! How did I not know this?! I lurrrve pb. MMMMM
Oh my goodness – I’m just about to have lunch but I’d gladly eat these cookies instead of the lunch I packed! Do you deliver?
Only if we can trade for some of your muffins. I am not a muffin-maker. Too fussy! :)
my jaw literally dropped when this page loaded.
must. make. these.
“my jaw literally dropped when this page loaded.” <-- Oh good. I did my job then :)
These cookies look great and I love that they are gluten free!
Oh man, I need to make these for my sister asap. She had to go gluten-free and has been complaining about the lack of good desserts. And she loves peanut butter as much as I do : ) I have a feeling she’d eat a lot of these!
These are GF person’s dream cookie (or any person’s I hope!) :)
Those cookies look so stinkin’ good I kind of want to kick my monitor.
You’re fast becoming the Queen of the chocolate chip (chunk) in my book. These sound like they are pretty much the ultimate cookie, I’ll put my diet on hold to try them.
Usually by the 3rd week or so in January, resolutions wane a bit :)
do you think these could be made vegan?
You could try using a flax egg for the 1 egg and that’s the only change you’d have to make. I am not sure if it will work or not – if you try, LMK!
I made these with a flax egg and they turned out amazing. I think the flax adds a great nutty flavor too. Plus, you get to eat the dough!
So glad they worked out amazing for you, even with a flax egg! I have to say that with or without the flax egg, I am guilty as charged of sampling the dough :)
My gosh, they look amazing!! And oh so gooey! YUMMO!
No flour?! Gurrrrrl, that’s incredible!
Your 21st bday :) chocolate creation was pretty incredible!
I LOVE peanut butter and these look ooey gooey delicious!
And they’re GF for you!!!
Ooh I noticed! You rock.
I am a sucker for cookies – especially chocolatey, melty, looking cookies like that!
I eat peanut butter every morning on toast. Even though it’s high calorie, it has a ton of antioxidants, and I hear it’s one of the top cancer fighting food. I love that! These are like Cookies with A Cause :)
I’d rather do more cardio than ever, ever give up my PB. I have it on way more than toast. Talk to me at midnight, with my spoon in hand :)
If there’s one thing I’m absolutely sure of in life, it’s that I couldn’t live without peanut butter. there’s no way. And these cookies really do look like the best of the best!!
Wow Averie….those really do look like the best. My husband is a peanut butter and chocolate chip freak…so I’m pretty sure these are going on the menu sometime soon. Can’t wait! Pinning. :)
Thanks for the Pin!
I could dive into the screen! YUM
These look SO yummy! I love following a similar formula for flourless cookies!
So I made these cookies that were VERY similar with 1/2 almond butter and 1/2 cookie butter (which then doesn’t make them flourless, but you at least aren’t adding any…) and you would LOVE them! http://www.treatswithatwist.com/2013/01/cookie-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies.html
But I’m gonna have to break out the chocolate chunks and give these a try!
Love the half and half, with one of the halves being cookie butter. My fave!
I trust you on this one! These really do look like the BEST chocolate peanut butter cookies ever! I want to sink my teeth into one right now!!
Averie, I believe you when you say these are the best PB cookies! And I definitely appreciate your intensive thoughts on the whole process. I make flour-less peanut butter cookies too and like topping them with a square of dark chocolate and sea salt, but incorporating actual chocolate chunks is an even better idea. Thanks for sharing, I’m putting this on my to-bake list asap!
Thanks, Bianca, and yes, I love them with the big chunks included. And they are my fave version! LMK if you end up trying them like this!
WOW, Averie, these look incredible! I seriously want to jump through my computer screen right now.
I had no idea January 24 was Peanut Butter Day! It’s also going to be my dad’s 60th birthday tomorrow – this seems like the perfect treat to make him to celebrate!!!
Oh what a great day for a bday. I think something PB should be on the menu! Happy Bday to him!
PB is basically a food group for me. I like unsalted, chunky. Straight out of the jar! When I make my own I add cinnamon.
It’s a food group for me too – right outta the jar :)
My peanut-butter loving husband and daughter would both devour these cookies! I need to make this recipe for them soon. Maybe I’ll get a free back massage as a reward. =)
YES! Hold that over them, that you slaved away on these (even though they’re super easy) :)
these look so good!
totally bookmarking this & will be making them ASAP!
now im craving cookies! thanks! :)
LMK if you try them!
Today is January 23!! National Rhubarb Pie Day. Tomorrow is Peanut Butter day.
I think you have positively nailed the perfect flourless PB cookie…and with chocolate…pure bliss!!! I totally agree with you about not using homemade or natural PB–I tried it a long time ago and all the cookies spread into 1 giant odd shaped rectangle. They tasted good but were too flimsy. I have to give these a try this weekend!
Keep me posted on how they go! And yes, I have seen some people use natural but it doesn’t work for me either in baked goods like this and some good old fashioned storebought is the way to go :)
One of my all-time favorite peanut butter cookie recipes has no flour in it, either! I was skeptical about omitting the flour at first, but OH MY GOSH–it rocks. It totally makes the cookies tender and soft and doesn’t get in the way of all the pure peanut buttery taste jam packed inside. Brilliant! These cookies are SO unbelievably soft and melty, Averie! I’m swooning over all that chocolate-peanut buttery goodness.
A combo of baking until just set, all that chocolate, the PB and no flour – yes they’re so soft and full of chocolate-peanut buttery goodness :) Glad you’re a fan too of the flourless cookies. I am skeptical every time that they’re going to work…but they always do!
I am dying over how awesome these are without flour! Love all that gooey melting chocolate! They look amazing!!!
Yum, I know what I’ll be making this weekend! I love your other 3-ingredient peanut butter cookie, so I know I will love these!!!
These take that recipe to a new level. LMK how they go for you!
WoW. Love these. So simple…I have all the ingredients at home! That’s it, I’m making tonight :)
LMK how they go for you!
You totally had me at peanut butter. And sometimes I prefer a thinner cookie like this as well. As always, thanks for taking the time to share the recipes and gorgeous photos!
And these as cookies go, really aren’t that thin. I mean they’re not as thick as a chewy oatmeal raisin but they’re really pretty thick. I actually had to flatten some of them as they came out of the oven. They stayed SO thick for me. Gotta love that uber dry winter air!
Another awesome recipe! The combination of peanut butter and chocolate is beyond tempting.
Christine
Who doesn’t absolutely love PB and chocolate together? These cookies look like perfection…. and I’m stunned over being flourless!!
I know, crazy, right! Gotta love working with chilled dough!
Wow Averie! I can’t believe there is no flour, white sugar, or butter in them at all. That’s incredible. It truly brings out the peanut butter and allows it to shine – I can literally see how rich and dense the peanut butter flavor is! Using exclusively brown sugar seems to work like a charm! I need to try it some day. :) And all that chocolate. So much melty chocolate! “These cookies would have been perfectly fabulous without adding chocolate, but chocolate and peanut butter is quite possibly the best food pairing on the planet” – ha!! ain’t that the truth! I bet they would be fabulous with white chocolate too. Gorgeous and decadent pictures too!
“no flour, white sugar, or butter” <-- I should have written that on my description to FG, but I already submitted. Sometimes I miss the obvious :) I wrote they're the best PB cookie Ive ever had, though! Every time I make these cookies or a version thereof, I am always shocked by the results. In a good way!
These look like a chocolate explosion! I had no idea it was PB day! I must must celebrate
I’ve said it before and I think it’s worth repeating: Peanut butter + chocolate = best combo ever!
And I am not saying it lightly either ;) Something containing PB and choc. must be really bad for me not to love it and these cookies seem to jump out of the screen into my mouth!!
It really is the best combo, agreed!
I can’t get over the amazing texture of these – I was shocked to read on and discover that they don’t contain flour. This is some seriously magical baking! Can’t wait to try these out AND refrigerate my dough before baking (I totally never knew about how that affects the thick vs. thin cookie issue).
You ALWAYS should refrigerate your dough for thicker cookies…no way for something to bake up puffy and thick if it starts out soft and limp. And yes, no flour. Pretty amazing, right! Every time I make this recipe or a version of it minus the flour, I’m amazed all over again.
Yowza! Maybe I’ll make these in honor of the day, or cookie dough dip:
http://scrumptiousgruel.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/addicted-to-love/
Although believe it or not there is no peanut butter in my kitchen so I’d have to hit the store…
No.way. I have like 20 jars, not even kidding. All different brands and types :)