Amazing 1-bowl Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Cookies that come together in not time, zero chilling required. Just as good as the classic and are gluten-free!
We’re on a cookie rolllll! Am I the only one that’s BAMBOOZLED over the fact that the holidays are next week? I can’t.
Because that means that we’re a hop, skip and a jump away from 2020. And that means I’m getting married like, TOMORROW.
Speaking of wedding bells and cookies, have you ever heard of the Youngstown cookie table at weddings? It’s totally a thing and if you’re from that part of Ohio, you know what I’m talking about.
All the moms bring a batch of cookies so you have an amazing table overflowing with love and mountains of homemade goodness. My kind of celebration!
Ingredients to make vegan and gluten-free peanut butter cookies:
I adapted my Vegan Ginger Molasses Cookies recipe in order to make these bad boys. Those are definitely more chewy thanks to the molasses while these peanut butter cookies are more soft. In fact, they’re still soft and moist and fabulous on day three!
I can’t lie…peanut butter cookies have never been my favorite (unless they have chocolate). I adore peanut butter by itself, but when it comes to burying itself in cookies, I’m not obsessed. Thus, today we’re adding peanut butter cups to the mix!
FLOUR: The base is my favorite combo of almond flour and oat flour. I get three pound bags of almond flour at Costco for less than $12—crazy good deal! Most store brands now sell almond flour, like ALDI and Kroger’s Simple Truth brand.
I love these two flours together because they make the most moist baked goods with amazing texture AND they’re undetectably gluten-free for all my GF readers!
OIL: We’re using solid coconut oil for the fat here, which is buttery and delish. Don’t melt it!
PEANUT BUTTER: We’ve got 1/3 cup of creamy salted peanut butter (I get the Kirkland brand at Costco) for stupendous pb flavor.
COCONUT SUGAR: For sweetness, structure, and moisture! Ahhh, the power of sugar. I imagine any kind of sugar would work fine in this recipe.
MINI PB CUPS: I like the natural dark chocolate ones you can find these at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or on Amazon. (Feel free to use good old Reese’s.) I went the route of slicing them in half because I love how it looks, but you can use them whole, too. I recommend folding some into the dough!
Tools to make vegan peanut butter cup cookies:
- Silicone baking mat: reusable and makes for the easiest clean up. I make roasted vegetables, cookies, and more on this!
- Cookie sheet: because everyone needs a few.
- Cookie scoop: for easy cookie portioning. I use the scoop and then roll the dough into balls so they’re smooth.
- Hand mixer: less than $20 and my go-to appliance for mixing since I don’t have a stand mixer.
- Air tight container: my storage solution for just about everything.
Craving more holiday treat goodness? I gotchu!
- Vegan Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pomegranate
- Vegan Peppermint Chocolate Skillet Cookie
- Fudgy Avocado Walnut Brownies
I have a feeling you’re going to adore these homemade peanut butter cup cookies. If you make them, please let me know by leaving a comment and star rating. I’m so grateful for your feedback!
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Amazing 1-bowl Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Cookies that come together in not time, zero chilling required. Just as good as the classic and are gluten-free!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/2 cup oat flour (certified GF if needed)
- 2/3 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/4 cup solid coconut oil, not melted
- 1/3 cup creamy salted peanut butter
- 3 tbsp almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 mini peanut butter cups*, sliced in half (plus more for dough, if desired)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, oat flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Add coconut oil, coconut sugar, peanut butter, vanilla extract, and milk. Cream together using a hand mixer or a stand mixer until dough comes together into large, moist crumbles that easily form a dough. At this point, you can fold in a few chopped pb cups or a handful of chocolate chips.
- Use a cookie scoop to form dough into round balls, using about 1 1/2 tbsp of dough each. Place on cookie sheet and press a pb cup half into each cookie. Top with flaky salt, if desired.
- Bake for 11-12 minutes. Let cookies cool for 10 minutes before devouring. Store at room temperature in an air tight container for up to a week.
Notes
*I used Whole Foods’ brand of mini pb cups and they held up well in the oven. To guarantee they don’t melt, you can slice and freeze them beforehand.
For more everyday flours (not gluten-free), try my Peanut Butter Blossoms.
Loved these! You’d never guess they were “healthier.”
★★★★★
These cookies are outstanding! I love the texture and flavor plus the chocolate pb cup in the center is the perfect addition. Even though my cookies spread out more, they still taste amazing. I’ll experiment with not using the silicone baking sheet next time. Perhaps mine and/or my oven just cook differently. Kaci, her husband, Matt, and I all loved them. (Re-posting to capture the five star rating. Such a wonderful recipe!)
★★★★★
Aren’t they divine? So glad you liked them friend!
These were so delicious and super easy to make. They do not taste “healthy” at all! Even my picky allergy 5 year old loved them! Thanks so much for this amazing recipe!
Best news ever! Thanks so much, Annie 🙂
Hey again Annie! If you’d be so kind as to leave a star-rating, I’d really appreciate it! It’s super helpful for other readers. Thanks again!
I was really amazed at the result! Super easy and tastes like heaven! Thank you so much
So glad you enjoyed them!
These cookies are delicious and mouth watering – I’m having trouble walking by them in the kitchen without eating one / twelve☺️ I am peanut butter’s number one fan – the texture of these cookies are amazing. I used Justin’s mini PB cups at room temperature and they melted in the oven but that didn’t affect the flavor whatsoever. Next time I will try frozen PB cups if I want to photograph them for the gram. 10/10 would recommend these yummy treats!
Hahahah yessss! I’m realizing some brands melt so hopefully freezing helps. Glad you loved them, Erika!
Hey again Erika! If you’d be so kind as to leave a star-rating, I’d really appreciate it! It’s super helpful for other readers. Thanks again!
These cookies are outstanding! I love the texture and flavor plus the chocolate pb cup in the center is the perfect addition. Even though my cookies spread out more, they still taste amazing. I’ll experiment with not using the silicone baking sheet next time. Perhaps mine and/or my oven just cook differently. Kaci, her husband, Matt, and I all loved them.
Yay! Might depend on how solid the coconut oil is, too. Either way, glad they still tasted yummy! Happy holidays, Kori 🙂
Hello! I made this recipe with regular all-purpose flour and found that I had to add extra almond milk and a little extra melted coconut oil to be able to get a consistency that could be shaped into cookie dough balls. My peanut butter cups also completed melted and spilled out over the cookies. I am going to try to re-make them today by pressing the peanut butter cup into the cookie after baking!
These cookies are delicious though- even with melty gooey peanut butter cups. Thanks for the share!
Hey Brianna! Thanks for the insight here. That makes sense–almond flour is super moist due to the fat content so if you use all purpose flour, you’d need a lot more moisture to form dough.
I’m guessing the spreading depends on what brand of peanut butter cups you use. I just added a note to the recipe saying to freeze them before hand to prevent spreading. I used Whole Foods’ brand ones that didn’t spread much in the oven, so I didn’t foresee this being an issue. Glad to hear they still taste delish, though!
Oh my goodness, these are amazing! I can usually refrain from becoming a cookie monster, but I just couldn’t help myself with these cookies. I’m about to make a second batch, they were that good. Thanks for sharing a delicious GF + vegan cookie recipe just in time for the holidays!
Thank you tons, Jenny! I’m so glad you’re already up for batch #2 🙂 Enjoy!
Hey again Jenny! If you’d be so kind as to leave a star-rating, I’d really appreciate it! It’s super helpful for other readers. Thanks again!
These look SO dang good! Saving to make ASAP 🙂
Hope you love then, Caroline!
these look yummy !!
i’m from youngstown – cookie tables are everything ! are you guys going to include that in your celebration?!
I think so!
these look delicious!!! can’t wait to make these for the holidays!
Thanks, Krissy! Let me know if you try them 🙂
Hi!
I love making all your almond flour cookie recipes for friends and family, but I am allergic to almonds and thus have a lot of trouble adapting your cookie recipes to work for me. Is there ANY substitution for almond flour? I can have most other nuts, but not in large quanitities, so I’m not sure if sunflower seed flour would be the best option.
-Nicole
Hi Nicole! I’m so sorry but I’ve only tested this with almond flour and haven’t worked with any other nut flours. If you can get your hands on cashew flour that may work? Sorry I can’t be more help!
When making treats for my grandson class I found a few had allergies to nuts .so what I found was coconut flour and almond butter are not in nut family at all and I made cookies and other treats peanut butter is nut allowed at all in school so for this recipe I use coconut flour thank you for so many great recipes
Great news!
I have everything I need except for the pb cups to make these! I can’t wait to give it go! They look and sound amazing.
Wahoo! Get your hands on some pb cups stat:)