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Make Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies!
This Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookie recipe tastes like a traditional PB cookie, you won’t even notice that it doesn’t have flour!
I use oat flour instead of all-purpose flour, which is not only a great GF alternative but also adds a nice boost of fiber. Then, to make these vegan, I swapped the egg for unsweetened applesauce. Yes, peanut butter cookies with applesauce – I promise you won’t notice it at all!
Happy Cooking!
– Yumna
Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies Ingredients
- Peanut butter: Go with your favorite smooth peanut butter for the best texture and flavor! If you’re using natural peanut butter, give it a very good stir to make sure you get the right amount of natural oils along with the peanut butter. It’s also really easy to make your own peanut butter!
- Cane sugar & brown sugar: I like the flavor that comes from combining these sugars. You can play around with the measurements to use more or less of each.
- Applesauce: I recommend going with the unsweetened kind since we’re already adding sugar to the cookie dough.
- Oat flour: This is basically rolled oats or old-fashioned oats blitzed in a blender until it looks like flour. It’s very easy and works in a 1:1 ratio.
- Vanilla extract: Look for pure vanilla extract that has the fewest ingredients and skip imitation vanilla, which contains artificial flavorings and additives.
- Salt: I always add a bit of salt to my baked goods.
- Baking soda: If you’re out of baking soda, you can use triple the amount of baking powder.
Popular Additions
- Go crunchy: Use chunky peanut butter or add chopped, toasted peanuts to your cookie dough.
- Give it a chocolate twist: Stir in ½ cup of chocolate chips or chunks to make chocolate chip peanut butter cookies.
- Spice it up: Add warm spices like cinnamon, clove, or nutmeg to give these peanut butter cookies a seasonal and cozy twist. Less is more sometimes, so start small with ¼ teaspoon.
- Add dried fruits or coconut: For extra chewiness, include ½ cup of dried fruits like raisins, cranberries or cherries and coconut flakes.
How to Make Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
- Blend the peanut butter with the cane sugar, brown sugar, applesauce and vanilla extract using a hand mixer until well-mixed.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix the peanut butter mixture with the dry ingredients to form a dough.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough and roll it into balls. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and flatten using a fork or flat surface (like a cup).
- Bake until they turn golden. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from the tray. Sprinkle with sea salt, if desired.
Recipe Tips
- Make your own oat flour by grinding the oats in a blender. There’s no need to buy oat flour, as it’s cheaper and very convenient to make it at home if you have a blender.
- Work with a hand mixer to combine the wet ingredients. While it’s not necessary, it really helps to ensure that it is well incorporated. You can mix it by hand, but it will take longer.
- Use a small cookie scoop to form the cookie dough balls. It’s much quicker and easier than rolling them by hand. It’s also a great way to ensure that the cookies are all the same size and shape. You can also use an ice cream scooper if you’d like!
- It’s best to avoid using natural peanut butter for these cookies. While I’m always a fan of unsweetened natural peanut butter, it’s not the best for this recipe since it can cause the cookies to spread more and have a crispier texture. If you do use natural peanut butter, you may want to add a little more salt to the dough.
Recipe Help & FAQs
Once cooled, peanut butter cookies should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. If you want to enjoy them warm as if freshly baked, just pop a cookie in the microwave for a few seconds until it’s just heated through. If you want them to last a bit longer, you can store them in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Yes, you certainly can! Once the cookies are completely cooled, put them in a freezer-safe bag or container. They can be frozen for up to 3 months. To enjoy, simply thaw them at room temperature or heat them gently in the microwave.
These easy gluten-free peanut butter cookies only take around 8 minutes to bake, so be sure to keep your eye on them. The cookies should be cooked until they are firm and the edges are light brown in color. The peanut butter makes the cookies brown in color, so you may need to quickly take them out of the oven to check the edges.
To make these peanut butter cookies grain-free, I substituted all-purpose flour with oat flour. I haven’t made these cookies another alternative flour, but I would guess that you can use almond flour in the place of oat flour if that’s what you have.
More Peanut Butter Recipes:
- 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
- Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Bread
- Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
- Peanut Butter Cups
- Peanut Butter Dip
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars
If you try this Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies recipe or any other recipe on Feel Good Foodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below! It helps others who are thinking of making the recipe. I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots, share it on Instagram so we can repost on Stories!
This Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookie recipe was originally published on October 14, 2016. I’m re-sharing it today with updated photos.
Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup cane sugar
- 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup oat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Sea salt for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Blend peanut butter with cane sugar, brown sugar, applesauce and vanilla extract with a hand mixer until well-mixed.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking soda and salt.
- Mix the peanut butter mixture with the dry ingredients to form a dough.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough and roll it into balls. Place on the parchment-lined baking sheet and flatten using a fork or flat surface (like a cup).
- Bake for 8 minutes, or until they turn golden. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from the tray. Sprinkle with sea salt, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
Hi! If I wanted to use eggs instead of applesauce for this recipe, how many would I use?
I would use one egg in place of the 1/4 cup of applesauce.
What type of brown sugar did you use and what size cookie scoop. Also in the video, the brown sugar didn’t look like one tablespoon.
I used light brown sugar and it should be about 1 tablespoon. It’s possible two was used in the video, but I filmed it a while ago. The cookie scoop is a 1.5 tablespoon one.
The GF PB cookie recipe is absolutely amazing! Made them yesterday… they were DELICIOUS! Thank you for sharing such great recipes!
Aww thank you so much!! So glad to hear it! 🙂
Nevermind. I just read the info before the recipe and see that pulverized oats is what you are using.
Can I pulverize old fashion oats for the oat flour? I know it will be a little more coarse. Will I need to adjust the amount?
Truly a great balance of sweet, salty and delicious.
I want more of these cookies everyday.