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.
–
Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite type of cookie?
I know you say that you do not list nutrition facts, but I would like to make these for my dad who is diabetic. The dietitian said that he needs to focus on carbs more than sugars. Is there anyway you can please at least list the sugar and the carb content? I don’t really care about the calories. Thank you.
I’m a big fan of honey and peanut butter so finding a recipe that combines them both is heaven for me. I experimented with several other honey peanut butter cookie recipes, but this is the one that has consistently been the best so now it’s my “standard” recipe. At first, I made the recipe without the chocolate chips and it was so-so. I then tried following the recipe 100% using all the ingredients. The chocolate chips (Nestle Toll House Mini) made a huge difference in taste. This recipe is so easy to make that I make a batch at least once a week.
I’ve just come across your website as it was recommended to me by a friend who was no-carbing in January. All your recipes look great but this was the first one I’ve tried. I used 3/4 cup of peanut butter and 1/4 cup of greek yogurt to try and cut down on some fat and they turned out beautifully! My husband doesn’t normally like peanut butter but these have converted him 🙂
On the Stevia issue that someone asked you about… I wouldn’t touch it myself let alone give it to my child. Our bodies are not designed to handle calorie-free sweeteners, whether natural or artificial. If we taste sugar and don’t actually get the hit we’re expecting, our body eventually craves more sugar and we end up over-eating. On a scarier note, the likes of aspartame found in diet drinks has cancer causing properties. My son will only ever be given fruit and honey, or one of these cookies as a treat!
I have loved so many of your recipes but I find that I don’t like the ones with honey as much. I have never liked the taste of honey. My question is, can I replace the honey with maple syrup or something else? If yes, is it an even substitute? I just recently bought coconut sugar to try in baking. Do you know anything about that ingredient?
I prefer to use raisin paste rather than honey whenever I can.
Basically you just barely cover some raisin with water, let sit overnight, then purée in blender of food processor. Some people use date paste as well–same method.
I just happen to like the nutrition profile of raisins/grapes.
Tried these this afternoon – they did not change shape to a nice formed cookie for some reason! 🙁 I will have to try again and see what went wrong!
Mine didn’t either 🙁 did you ever get them to look beautiful?
I recently found your website and have made a few of your recipes. They have all been delicious! I was wondering when your recipes call for peanut butter, do you use the unsweetened kind? The recipes only say organic…
Yes, I use the natural peanut butter that you have to stir the oil back in and refrigerate after opening– no sugar is added.
Yum! Can’t wait to try! Did you take these pics using a real egg or flax egg? They look great! I use flax eggs quite a bit in my baking, and it seems to take longer to bake in comparison to using a real egg. Any tips when using flax eggs?
Thanks!
Thank you!! I just made these last night and LOVE them! 🙂 They also did not spike my blood sugar!
tried it, loved it.
I made these last night and they turned out wonderfully! I was skeptical at first because the dough was much runnier than usual doughs I work with. But after seeing them come out of the oven, I was pleasantly surprised. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Thanks so much for the simple and healthier-than-normal recipe!
Thank you so much for this recipe!!!!
My son has severe autism and I have to be very super careful with his food and his sugar intake!!!!
He hasn’t had cookies in ages and he loves these!!!!
He likes them best frozen 🙂
I use the fresh ground peanut butter (Publix supermarket sells it in their deli)
These cookies have been a hit with the whole family but the fact that my son can eat them, and stay calm afterwards, has made them a staple food!!!!
Thank you!!!!!
For some reason i can’t rate it 5 stars (it isn’t allowing me too)
But I totally rate this 5 STARS!!!!!
These look really delicious! However, at high altitude they kind of fell apart (using a flax egg). Is there any type of flour (like coconut or chickpea) that you would recommend adding to keep them together?
Thanks!
Kris
Oh my goodness! Indeed these cookies are a life changer!! Soooo good! Thank you!
I baked them this morning! Just tried them, OMG! I must admit I was a little but scared when the batter turned out so gooey but they were sooo perfect!!! I’m gonna take some to my neighbor right now 🙂
These might be the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had. Thanks for sharing!
I feel like these cookies changed my life! I realize that sounds dramatic but that’s just how good these are to me. One of the most delicious cookies I’ve ever tasted by any standard, not just a flour-less one. 🙂 These immediately jumped to the top of my go-to dessert list. Thank you!
Sorry to say, but this was the worst cookie recipe I’ve ever made. They were flat, spread out and combined so it was like one sheet, paper thin, and burned. I will stick to my regular flour PB cookies from now on. No amount of sitting after they were done baking would have saved them. They all went into the trash immediately.
Made these this morning with No Nuts (green pea based) “peanut butter”.
They were really soft and flavourful!
I might actually reduce the honey next time, because they were a tad sweet. (No Nuts has added sugar).
You also should flatten the cookies with a fork first, otherwise the cookies are round and cakey. But I used a cookie scoop, this might be why?
By far the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had. Add in the flourless and sugarless and they’re even better. This recipe is so simple and easy to make. I grid my own peanut butter from dry roasted, unsalted peanuts and they work great in this recipe. Perfect all around! Thanks!
I made these with only 1/4 cup of honey, crunchy organic peanut butter, along with organic dark choc chips and they turned out amazingly, I can’t even begin to describe how good they are! Better than any of the flour filled, processed sugar based, traditional cookies out there.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe, I also made the coconut flour cookies, and they are delicious, although I like the texture of these more. As someone on the road to clean, well rounded eating along with my body building journey, it’s recipes like this that stave off the binge eating monster when you’re trying to cut down, and make you realise that you really can have it all in moderation. I’m off to buy your recipe book now 🙂
I made these with Trader Joes Organic Crunchy (Salted) Peanut Butter and just omitted the extra salt.
They are delicious. I prefer them frozen.
Thank you for the great recipe!
Jen
My daughter has T1D and they do not spike her blood sugar. I’ve made these many times and they always taste yummy, however, they never look like the picture. They are always lumpy. what can I try to do different?
I am a huge nut butter + chocolate fan, and these are by far one of the best PB cookies that I have made!! You cannot believe that they are flourless and are very easy to make. I plan on making more and experimenting with different nut butters. Your cashew cookies are next on my list 🙂
Excellent cookies!
I love that the flavour of peanut butter is more pronounced because there is no flour to get in the way.
I made a batch of these last night with the chocolate chips included and a batch this morning without them (so they’re just peanut butter cookies) and oh my goodness, both batches are chewy, delicious perfection!! Thank you so much for this recipe! I eat gluten free but the coconut and almond flours bother my stomach so it’s so nice to have a really good cookie recipe without flour. It was so easy (and fast, which I like 😉 ) to make too!
I made these cookies tonight, and they turned out great. I made the recipe as written save for the fact that I halved the recipe and I used less salt since my homemade peanut butter was made with salted peanuts. Letting these cookies rest on the baking pan after they are taken out of the oven is a must…it gives them time to finish firming up since they are taken out of the oven relatively quickly due to the nature of the ingredients.
I used these in your double doozies recipe, fantastic! I found these pretty tasty mini chips from Gerbs on Amazon and Once Again organic peanut butter also (no refrigeration and it stays creamy!) and used coconut sugar and a flax egg, I will make these plenty of times, thanks a bunch.
These cookies are awesome. Just as good as the picture looks. You will not miss the sugar. I made them with chunky organic peanut butter. I have two after dinner for my dessert….and I don’t share
Made these today. My batter actually wasn’t any different from normal cookie dough batter! Maybe because I used clover honey which isn’t runny at all. I found that they weren’t done at all at 8 minutes. I made a second batch and pressed them down with a fork so that they were thinner and then the 10 minute mark was perfect. I used good quality dark chocolate so the cookies aren’t very sweet at all, but I stil delicious. Would love to see an almond butter recipe as I prefer almond taste to peanut butter! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
I’ve used peanut butter recipes and just replaced the peanut butter 1:1 with almond butter and it always works great!
Could I substitute maple syrup for honey? Thanks, these cookies look delicious!
Just made them, delicious!
instead of PB I used almond butter, 3/4c of lo han sweetener instead of coconut sugar plus 1 tsp vanilla stevia because im doing a sugar free diet, the tough was a bit dry so I added a few tbs of coconut oil, baked them for 9 minutes and boom! delicious like all the other recipes from Megan!
Made these today and they are PERFECT. can’t wait to make them with cashew butter as well as almond butter. simple and excellent! i’ll try the cashew butter recipe you have with the coconut sugar too. have you tried these with maple syrup? if i do, i’ll let you know how they’ve turned out! thanks for yet another awesome recipe! xo
I love these, they are perfect. I used Lily’s chocolate chips made with stevia. Got some fresh ground peanut butter, still warm and easy to mix. Next time will try almond butter. I can’t have eggs either so the flax egg works just fine. Thanks for this life saver recipe.
Excellent!! Used Jif, Tollhouse chips and Agave but next time I will do the healthier alternatives and raw honey.
I use PB2 (reconstituted), egg-substitute, raw honey, and dairy-free dark chocolate morsels. I knew the texture would be odd, so I wasn’t expecting a cookie-like cookie. What I got was something more akin to a muffin cap! They are delicious and my friends who have similar food restrictions enjoy them. There are never any left over when I take them to a get-together. The batter is very runny and I spoon it onto a baking pan covered with parchment paper. I bake at the same temp/same time. On a side note, I can only have 20g fat per day due to chronic pancreatitis, so using the pb2 powder and egg substitute was the only way I could have them!
My mind is blown that these could be so easy, so delicious, and no flour!!! They will be my go-to cookie while I’m avoiding flour. I love this site!
By far the best peanut butter cookie recipe I’ve come across. These cookies were absolutely delicious, and you can adjust the recipe to your liking. I used brown sugar instead of honey and my two friends and I ate nearly the entire batch in five minutes.
I commented on these once before but wanted to say again: thank you for bringing these cookies into my life! I’ve made them so many times and everyone loves them AND they’re easy!!??! Perfection.
This is our FAVORITE cookie recipe. I love them cold!
The cookies are great! Not a wonderful texture — a little dry for my taste, but really flavorable. I’m just starting to be aware of the gluten AND sugars allergies I have and so they were my first baked good (maybe that’s partly why) without using wheat. Also, I didn’t use the chocolate chips because I felt like a purist today. ALL peanut butter and no chocolate makes Jack a dull boy, I guess! I substituted the honey with Truvia and they are plenty sweet. I’ll definitely try them again!
Is it possibly to over mix the batter? Mine weren’t as gooy/ oily as yours. They didn’t flatten out in the oven either.
I actually double this recipe every single time lol. Except for the honey. I use the 1/3 cup in my doubled recipe. I also reduce the chocolate chips and add chopped pecans and raisins. And… sub almond butter to make them Paleo friendly. So for anyone else who’s Paleo and wants a larger batch, that version looks like this:
2 cups almond butter
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cups chocolate chips
3/4 cups chopped pecans
3/4 cups raisins
Everyone loves them, Paleo or not. I use them for a breakfast cookie if I’m running late, and for every other possible excuse. Thank you for this awesome recipe!
So good! I just made these with raw crunchy almond butter did the lower sugar version and needed only 1/4 cup of chocolate chips. My mom hates any healthier option dessert and loved them
Another fantastic and flexible recipe!
I added 3/4 cup of oat flour to make them a bit more fluffy and tall. Delicious!
One of my favorite cookies and so easy to make!
OMG best cookies ever for sure. I only had cashew butter and a little bit of peanut butter – about 2/3 cup cashew to 1/3 cup peanut butter. I reduced honey to 1/4 cup and skipped the stevia. and we only had about a tablespoon of chocolate chips. They were plenty sweet for us. Our family was definitely blown away. Cashew butter really makes it fluffy and marshmellowy..
Can I make the dough ahead of time and bake the next day?
Sure, I don’t see why not! Hope you’ll love them!
Made this recipe with chunky peanut butter and all the other ingredients as recipe called and they were a perfect chewy cookie
Hi! Could you give the quantities of the ingredients in grams, too? I’ve been looking for the equivalents but every page says something different. Thanks!
When I make these again I will measure the ingredients out in grams! I’m trying to add weights as I update and post new recipes now.
These are SO good. I´ll use almond butter instead of peanut butter next time just because I prefer it. Thank you!