Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies are made with just 5 simple ingredients, and naturally sweetened with honey. I love how they have a soft, almost gooey texture when they are warm, and you can cool them down for a chewier result.
Why You’ll Love Them
- They have a rich, peanut butter flavor. When you make cookies without flour, the peanut butter flavor doesn’t get diluted. This means you’ll wind up with peanut butter cookies that have a rich, peanut butter taste.
- They’re gluten-free. Perfect for those with special dietary needs.
- They are SCD friendly. If you follow a protocol like the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, these cookies are sweetened with honey, which is one of the approved sweeteners.
- They are flexible. If you don’t eat eggs, you can use a flax egg, instead. And if you prefer not to use honey, try swapping it for a 1/2 cup of coconut sugar instead.
- Easy as possible. With just 5 ingredients, this recipe couldn’t be easier to make. No specialty flours or ingredients required!
Looking for more flourless cookie recipes? Try my Almond Butter Cookies or Cashew Butter Cookies, and for a fruit-sweetened cookie, try my Peanut Butter Date Cookies.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Peanut Butter. Use an all-natural one, with no added oil or sugar. The only ingredients on the label should be peanuts and salt.
- Egg. This holds the cookies together, but you can use a flax egg instead. Just keep in mind that the egg-free cookie will be slightly more soft and gooey in texture. (Not a bad thing, if you ask me!)
- Honey. I started sweetening things with honey after reading the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle, but if you prefer not to heat honey, you can try using maple syrup, or use a 1/2 cup of coconut sugar instead.
- Baking soda. Helps the cookies rise! If you use a flax egg, be sure to add 1 teaspoon of vinegar to this recipe to help react with the baking soda.
- Salt. Necessary in any sweet recipe to make the flavor pop. (I use Real Salt brand.)
You can stir in chocolate chips, or drizzle these cookies with melted dark chocolate, but that’s totally optional. If you don’t have peanut butter on hand, you can make homemade peanut butter in just 5 minutes, too!
How to Make Them
1. Mix. Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Add the peanut butter, honey, egg, baking soda, and salt to a large bowl and mix everything together.
2. Scoop. Use a tablespoon or 1-ounce cookie scoop to scoop the dough and drop it onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
3. Flatten & Bake. Use a fork to create a classic peanut butter cookie criss-cross pattern. Bake at 350ºF for 12 minutes, or until the cookies look lightly golden around the edges.
4. Cool. Flourless peanut butter cookies are very soft, gooey, and fragile when you first remove them from the oven. Let them cool on the pan completely to help them firm up, then enjoy! For a chewier cookie, place them in the fridge to chill, or in the freezer for a crispier cookie.
5. Decorate. This is optional, but you can drizzle some melted dark chocolate and a little flaky sea salt on top for an extra-impressive dessert.
Note: If you want a sturdier cookie, use coconut sugar as the sweetener, like my 4-ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies.
Variations
- Make it nut-free. Use Sunflower Seed Butter or tahini instead of the peanut butter.
- Make it vegan. Use a flax egg + 1 teaspoon of vinegar to react with the baking soda, and replace the honey with 1/2 cup of coconut sugar.
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-natural peanut butter (268 grams)
- 1/3 cup honey (116 grams; see notes for swaps)
- 1 large egg (50 grams; or flax egg)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (3 grams)
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (3 grams)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (75 grams; optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, mix together the peanut butter, honey, egg, baking soda, and salt.
- Use a tablespoon to scoop the dough onto the lined baking sheet, leaving at least 1 inch of space between each cookie.
- Use a fork to flatten the cookie dough, making a criss cross pattern. (These cookies won't flatten on their own.)
- Bake the cookies at 350ºF for 12 minutes, until the cookies have spread and look slightly crack on top. They will still be very soft to the touch while they are hot.
- Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet. For a firmer cookie, place them in the fridge or freezer and serve chilled. These cookies can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for 3 months. Decorate them with melted dark chocolate, if you like, for an extra impressive dessert!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
If you try these Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, please leave a comment below and let me know how you like them! If you make any modifications, I’d love to hear about those, too. We can all benefit from your experience.
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite type of cookie?
Today’s batches were made with the addition of 1/2 C unsweetened coconut. Devine!
This is the first recipe I’ve tried from your recipe file…. scrumptious.
I made these with the NuNaturals liquid Stevia Vanilla flavor, excellent!
My husband(and myself) could not stop eating them, that was my first and last clue that this recipe is a keeper! Doubled the batch, keep in the freezer, so not as much of a temptation!
I found this recipe after trying your peanut butter chocolate and banana “milk” shake and falling in love. I think these may be the best peanut butter cookies I have ever tasted! I wasn’t so sure about how they would turn out because the batter just looked like honey butter to me, but was pleasantly surprised. How on earth they turn into cookies without flour I don’t know. I used the liquid stevia and 1/4 cup of honey as you suggested and they were so good that I am going to have to hide the rest.
I can’t have ANY sugar right now. (I can’t even eat fruit!) I can have stevia, do you know of any chocolate chips made with stevia? I do already make my own chocolate, but can’t imagine making all those little chocolate chips! I’d rather just buy them. Thanks! These are great without chocolate chips anyway! 😀
I’m not familiar with any stevia-sweetened chocolate chips, but they do make chocolate bars that are sweetened with stevia, so maybe you could chop one up to make some “chips?”
I found some dark chocolate chips at Whole Foods that are sweetened with stevia and erythritol. They are called Lily’s Dark Chocolate Premium Baking Chips.
I’ve seen those recently! Unfortunately, Lily’s brand chocolate makes me feel extremely sick. Erythritol doesn’t sit well with everyone, so try it with caution!
I love these cookies. I actually used macadamia nut butter because I hate the taste of it (even though I love macadamia nuts) and wanted to use it up in something that would entice my son to eat it. It worked, and he was so pleased with his cookies! Subbed half of the called for honey with maple syrup. Thank you!
Can I sub maple syrup or any other sweetener for honey? I get horrible heartburn from honey/honey-heavy food.
Maple syrup can result in a sticky cookie, but it will still taste good!
Theresa, I just made these substituting 1/3 cup date paste for the honey and they came out fine. (Date paste: 1/2 c boiling water poured over 1 cup pitted dates. Let sit for about 10 minutes and then blend into paste-like consistency. Makes more than 1/3 c.) Megan, thanks for the great recipe!
Where do you buy the chocolate chips that you use in your recipes? I am on gaps and am looking for healthy. Am open to all options and brand names.
Thanks,
Kathy
Hey Kathy, I don’t for this recipe but I break organic black chocolate in chunks and it works fine !
I used cashew butter instead of peanut butter (everything else the same) and it is SO GOOD. I tried one and then fell off my chair it was so good.
These are great! I too made them with sunbutter to paleoize them but they didn’t turn green. They were SO delicious!
This is brilliant ! thanks for sharing. I have added shredded coconut which added some texture and flavour. Do you think it would be great with mashed bananas in the dough ?
I was wondering if there was a calorie count and I just missed it?
These cookies are so good and my kids love them.
I just made these and they are absolutely delicious! My kids and husband loved them too! Thank you so much for this!!
unreal!!! i am such a huge fan of your recipes, and want you to know that you make my healthy lifestyle of no grains or sugar so EASY!
I am in PB Cookie heaven…
Amazing! Moist, chewy, chocolatey heaven!
I made these tonight. They were awesome! Even my husband liked them! He never even likes cookies with regular flour. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
I’m sad these didn’t work for me (probably the only one of your recipes that hasn’t – and I’ve tried a lot!). I used a flax egg. I didn’t have enough honey so I used pure maple syrup. The consistency is strange – dry and crumbly on the outside and like pure peanut butter on the inside. They didn’t flatten/spread out at all either – just stayed exactly like I put them on the cookie sheet. Any thoughts?
I’m the middle of a detox with my wife and we needed a cookie fix. Came across this website and found these cookies fit into what we could eat so we made the version with stevia and a flax egg.
They were good, but when we compared them to an oreo we were sad. They were twice as caloric overall, had more fat cals, and more grams of sugar. We understand they’re technically healthier because they aren’t processed and don’t used refined sugar, but it was still a little disheartening nonetheless.
Forgot to mention we didn’t use chocolate chips either. Would have used carob chips but couldnt find any.
Made cookies… In oven now… Can’t wait to try them!! Justin and I are getting married in 6 months and we want to eat healthy without giving up sweets. I stumpledupon your blog and it was like heaven heard me!! So happy justin and I can eat sweets without guilty!!!! Thanks!
*without feeling guilty!!!
These cookies are amazing! I used almond butter and syrup instead of peanut butter and honey in the first round and they were good. Second round I used justins chocolate hazlenut butter instead of peanut butter and they were great. Just now I used almond butter and replaced chocolate chips with shredded coconut. They are soooo good!!! Recipe is easy and versatile. Love this blog!!!
Has anyone logged the recipe in a calorie counter? I got 139 cal/cookie and wanted to see if that was about right. The recipe says 2 dozen cookies but I made mine a little bigger, so I got about 18 cookies out of it.
I just made these with Almond Butter and raisins(instead of chocolate chips) and they are amazing!! Thank you so much!
I made these with Adam’s PB and regular store bought honey and they worked great. Next time I used the Costco peanut only PB and raw honey. Totally failed. Grainy, crumbly texture…super oily. Really bummed that this other PB option didn’t seem to work. Anyone else with similar ingredient issues?
I love your recipes! I was feeling deprived of my favorite treat, choc chip cookies. I used this recipe for my base and subbed in 1/2 cup cashew butter and 1/2 cup pecan butter for the peanut butter. Since my grand daughter is allergic to eggs, I subbed 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar plus 1extra tsp baking soda for the egg. I chilled the dough for 30 minutes in the fridge to firm it up. I baked them for 9 minutes but I don’t need to turn the pan. They flatten out but are so yummy! Today, I doubled the recipe and they still turned out fine. My hubby didn’t know they were not ” normal” cookies and neither does my very picky, taste and smell sensitive Asperger grandson. They love them! Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
OMG! I haven’t had a cookie in months. Been detoxing and came across your site last week. These cookies are AMAZING!!! Not only that, soooo much easier than flour recipes. I used almond butter since we have peanut allergies…tastes too good to be true! Thank you, thank you, thank you for this wonderful website!
Again,
thank you so much for that recipe that is as simple as it is good!!! 🙂
These turned out great! Made them for father’s day and everyone enjoyed eating them. Thank you!
5 Star cookies!
Just made them and OMG were they amazing. A dream come true. I added ginger to the batter and used almond butter instead of peanut, healthy gingersnap. I’m gonna try snickerdoodle next.
I didn’t really believe they would come out so good, due to the lack of flour,BUT.. I just made them and,even without the chocolate chips(I never use any) they are p e r f e c t !! I’m definetely gonna try your other recipes too! By the way, I think it would be really helpful if you informed us about the nutritional value of each recipe! <3
Has anyone ever made this recipe using a crunchy peanut or almond butter? I tend to like the texture of it but wondered how it affected the final result.
I have successfully made these using crunchy peanut butter! They were fantastic 🙂
Do you think these would work using maple syrup instead of the honey? I just happen to have a lot more natural maple syrup than honey right now.
Hello, I am highly allergic to honey, nuts and corn. What could I substitute for the honey? (Can’t be Karo syrup or nut-derived.)
Thanks!
These look amazing! My husband and I have been on a strict no cane sugar diet, and so the chocolate chips are entirely out of the question. We also don’t eat peanut butter, instead we rely on sunflower. So my first question is this; do you think sunflower could be used in this recipe given its generally thicker consistency? And do you think coconut with honey type chocolate “chips” would suffice for this delectable looking treat?
I’ve had other readers say they used sunflower butter with success– sometimes it results in a slightly more dense cookie, but you could reduce the amount of nut butter slightly to compensate for that, if you prefer. I’m not familiar with those “chips” so I couldn’t tell you how those would work– I’d probably just use cacao nibs if you wanted a sugar-free chocolate crunch.
You have chosen my favorite cookie for your offering and I look forward to trying it out.. thank you for all you do
I love these, but my go-to one are even easier – 3 ingredients (4 if you add chocolate chips!):
1 cup of tahini
1/4 cup sugar (I use coconut sugar)
1 egg
Mix the tahini and sugar then add the egg. Stir well and it will thicken once the egg is added. I ALWAYS add some enjoy life chocolate chunks. Bake for 10 mins or so at 350. Bit crumbly and not for everyone, but so simple to put together and I love them.
Actually, I just realized, this is the SAME as yours except for using tahini and no baking soda (which, I doubt is even needed)!
The would not rise without the baking soda.
If anyone is having trouble with the batter being mushy or crumbly, it might be due to mixing technique. I used my handheld electric mixer and the batter went from creamy to crumbly when I wasn’t paying attention. I’ve made lots of peanut butter brownies with nice creamy batter before, so not sure what I did wrong here … Too many variables 🙂 I just pressed the dough into a pan to make bar cookies instead and I’m sure they’ll turn out fine.
These cookies were a huge hit, Megan! Thanks so much for the recipe 🙂 I posted a review on my blog. http://rachelsnourishingkitchen.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/the-easiest-chocolate-chip-cookies-youll-ever-make-gluten-free-too/
Where do I even begin? Probably with the wonderful aroma that filled the house while these cookies were in the oven. Or maybe with how much of a hit the were with even the pickiest of family members. Or how about how they lasted all of 24 hours in our home. Maybe I should tell you that I’ve been requested to make these again and preferably instead of any other cookie recipe from now on. But I think I will just THANK YOU for thelst amazing cookie recipe ever! If I could give these 6 stars I would.
I have been making these for the last 3 months and bring them with me camping. They are awesome!! But my husband is a diabetic and my question is since honey & maple syrup are high glycemic, would you think that unsweetened applesauce would work in place of the honey?
I’m going to try making these tonight with sun butter.
Hi, these are very tasty, but the bottoms burned after 7 minutes in the oven at 350. Do you have any suggestions for avoiding this?
I would check the positioning of your oven rack to make sure the bottom of your cookie sheet isn’t too close to the heat source, and maybe get an oven thermometer to make sure your oven temperature is accurate? Burning in 7 minutes sounds like the oven is too hot.
OVEN RACK IN MIDDLE? ,
Cookies should always be baked with the oven rack in the middle position, and if cookie bottoms are still getting too brown when baking time is halfway through, move the cookie sheet up one rack.
I hope this helps.
I just have to comment because I’m on my 6 or 7th batch of these since September. THESE – ARE – SO -GOOD!! Every time I take a bite I just can’t believe there is no flour in them. I keep making them as gifts or to take to friends houses, 6 ingredients, 10 mins in the oven and 10 mins to cool, you are a godsend.
I like mixing chunky peanut butter with creamy, using flax egg and maple syrup (might switch to date syrup next.) Even added a teaspoon of tahini to change it up, sunflower or sesame butter probably would work too but a different animal (Im sure its mentioned somewhere in the thread). Even tried it with chocolate peanut butter and it was yummy too. THANKS MEGAN for helping make dessert delicious and healthy.
what’s the difference if i use regular peanut butter (ex: jif brand) instead of organic? will i still get the same results?
love this website. if i can’t have sugar, and only Stevia, how would you substitute this recipe with only stevia?
Have you ever tried making these with PB2? I’m chicken to make up a cup of PB2 peanut butter and have an epic fail…the stuff is spendy!
Hi Jana!
I wanted to respond to you because I made the cookies today with PB2. I also tried them without any honey at all, so I’m not 100% sure what affect that might have had on the end result. I found that the PB2 was a great consistency but it has salt in it so I should have reduced the amount of added salt. They are a *tad* bit too salty. They’re not as crispy as they are cake like. Over all I think they’d be much better with less added salt. I will try them again at some point and maybe add a little honey and less salt.
By the way – Costco has a great deal on PB2 for just under $6 for a huge jar. 🙂
Have a great day!
I just wanted to point out that I don’t think it’s fair to rate a recipe when you haven’t made it with all the listed ingredients! It might be only 3-stars for your version, but I personally give 5-stars for the actual recipe published. Not saying this to be mean-spirited, just trying to keep the rating system at an accurate level for the recipe given! 🙂
Thank you for posting all your lovely recipes.
I enjoy all of them.
Love, Ashley (mama to two kiddo’s who also love your recipes)
I baked these cookies tonight and they are amazing!
Love that the recipe is easy!
Thank you for sharing!
Unbelievably good. Impossible not to eat all the batter!