So begins the time of the year when it’s totally acceptable to have a freezer bursting with cookies. There’s always something on hand for unexpected guests, not to mention evening nibbles while cozied up in front of the TV, which we’ve been kinda glued to lately (oops). My friends and family are about to be bombarded with cookies over the next few weeks. I just hope they don’t mind when I force them to fill out a recipe feedback form removing all pleasure from the cookie eating experience. There are always strings attached, you know.
These peanut butter chocolate cookies are made gluten-free by using almonds and gluten-free oats – both ground in my Vitamix to make a flour. You can either grind it yourself in a high-speed blender or you can buy pre-made almond and oat flour. I weighed and measured the amounts to take the guess work out of it for you. As is the case with many of my vegan cookie recipes, a flax egg (which is simply ground flax mixed with water) mimics the texture of a traditional hen’s egg.
Almond flour gives these cookies a crispy, chewy, and crumbly quality. If you’re looking for a softer texture, you might want to try swapping the almond flour for an all-purpose gluten-free flour (and perhaps a touch of almond milk if the batter is dry). After the cookies came out of the oven, I sprinkled them with flaked sea salt to bring out the peanut butter flavour and make everything pop! Flaked sea salt, where have you been all my life?
Crispy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield
20 medium or 15 large cookies
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
These gluten-free and vegan chocolate chip cookies are crispy, chewy, and perfect for dunking into a glass of almond milk! Ready in a half hour, you'll turn to this recipe again and again due to its quick prep time and irresistible flavour.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flax
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup (45 grams) non-dairy buttery spread*
- 1/4 cup (70 grams) natural smooth peanut butter or almond butter**
- 1/2 cup (80 grams) lightly packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (55 grams) organic cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats, blended into a flour (105 grams or 1 cup oat flour)
- 1 cup almonds, blended into a meal (145 grams or 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons almond meal)
- 1/3 cup mini non-dairy chocolate chips (or regular size chips)***
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, mix together the ground flax and water. Set aside for a few minutes so it can thicken.
- With an electric mixer or in a stand mixer, beat the buttery spread and peanut butter until combined.
- Add both sugars and beat for 1 minute more. Beat in the flax mixture and vanilla extract until combined.
- Now, beat in the dry ingredients (baking soda, baking powder, salt, oat flour, and almond meal) one by one.
- Stir in the chocolate chips, reserving about 1 tablespoon for pressing into the top of the dough balls.
- Shape 1-inch balls of dough (smaller than golf balls) and place on the baking sheet 2 inches apart. You can also use a retractable cookie scoop. If chocolate chips aren’t sticking to the dough, just press them in with your fingers. There is no need to flatten the balls as the cookies spread out while baking. Press reserved chips into the tops of the dough balls.
- Bake for about 11 to 13 minutes until spread out and lightly golden. The cookies will be very soft coming out of the oven, but they will crisp up as they cool. Allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack for another 10 minutes.
Tip:
- * I use soy-free Earth Balance.
- ** Be sure to stir the peanut butter well before using. Also, avoid using the dry nut butter that's often found at the bottom of the jar. It's simply too thick and dry for this recipe and will result in cookies that don't spread.
- *** For "pretty" cookies, reserve 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips for pressing into the tops of the dough balls before baking. I use Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Eric’s two cents – “I’m not a big peanut butter fan, but if you put a plate of 12 of these cookies in front of me, I’d probably still eat them all.”
Wise words, husband, wise words.
Love these cookies!! I just bought your latest cook book and I LOVE IT!! Thank you for the wonderful recipes!!
Ashleigh
I made these and they were amazing! I also added two tablespoons of PB2… It worked out because I was about 1/4 short on almond flour, so the consistency was right on. Super peanut buttery!!
I have tried many of your recipes- My husband and I are just about 95% vegan…My favorite treats are the peanut butter cups (freezer treat) and these cookies! So glad a friend told me about you- I make a new treat just about every week! I never knew about oat and almond flour– I normally use spelt flour in pancakes and other recipes- but WOW on the nutty flavored flours!! Love the light and fluffy texture as well!
You have amazing recipes!!! Thank you!
Came out perfect! Thank you for sharing this and your other recipes.
I just made these cookies and they are fabulous! I used a 1/4 cup of maple syrup instead of brown sugar and they turned out delicious. Thanks for sharing the recipe Angela!
Being a teenager, I have a big sweet tooth! I have to say that these are probably the best cookies I have made; my family and friends also loved them! I like my cookies soft and chewy so I put these into a plastic container and they stay soft for a couple of days! And in my opinion these cookies almost taste like Mrs. Fields cookies! Definitely going to be making these cookies often. Great recipe!
I just made these for my family, and they are perfect! I love a nice crispy cookie. My coconut oil was melted so the cookies spread quite far, reminded me a little bit of a lace cookie.
I made these cookies today. They were absolutely amazing. My girls and I LOVED THESE!!!!!!
Additionally, we made the sweet potato/bean enchilladas and those were a hit as well.
I am definately buying your book! Thank you so very much for such a tasty day.
T
I have everything for this recipe except for the almond flour! If I don’t need to be one hundred percent gluten free, would wheat flour work as a substitute? I also have some gluten free all purpose flour. Would one work better over the other?
Thanks! :)
Wow, THANK YOU, Angela! Tried these at home and they are now a staple for my household. What a great recipe :)
-They came out too salty the first couple times, but that might be the brand of PB I was using?? So I nixed the salt all together and they were perfect. (Everyone else thought they were perfect before, too!)
These are fabulous!! I made some with grape jelly, some with strawberry jam, and some plain. As Neil Diamond would say in the seventh inning stretch at Fenway: So good! So good! So good!
I made these the other day, and before I could even post a comment they were gone. I gave four to my neighbor just so I could say I didn’t eat them all myself. Now I’m making another batch, but I don’t think I’ll share. This is my new ‘system’ on days I make almond milk; I dehydrate the pulp and blend it into flour, then put it right in the cookie dough bowl. I also made vegan buttah this morning, so I am good to go. Thanks for the great recipes and website!
So Deelish! I am such a traditional baker and these were very very good! Wow~
I’ve made these several times and keep meaning to comment on them. But they are by far the best cookies I have ever made!!! My 3 boys (ages 9-6) LOVE them and love helping me make them. Thank you so much for this vegan GF recipe!!!
I just made these cookies (I bought your cookbook just before Christmas). I used coconut oil (as suggested in the cookbook), sunflower seed butter, and substituted 1 cup of homemade granola for the almond flour (nut allergy). Cookies taste awesome! Best GF cookies I think I have made, and I’ve made a lot! This is my new go-to recipe. Thanks so much for all the delicious recipes. Happy New Year!!
LOVE these – big hit for the whole fam, which I’m grateful for! Wondering best way to store them – tin or airtight container? Thanks!!!
LOVE this! I made my own version and I reviewed this recipe here: http://hannahclaudia.blogspot.com/2015/02/crispy-almond-butter-cacao-nib-cookies.html
Thanks for the recipe!
I made a double batch today. They’re already half gone. I used cashew butter instead of peanut butter. A huge hit in my house.
I love these cookies, but when I make them they come out flat what am I doing wrong?
I’m not seeing the nutritional analysis on any of your recipes, including these cookies. Do they appear anywhere?
I recently got your cookbook and let me say, it’s amazing!! I made these cookies and I give them 5 stars! These are one of the best cookies I’ve ever had.
For several months I’ve been making your dishes for my uber health conscious, macros-counting boyfriend; I am very pleased to say he loved this recipe and … well… I got TWO of my own cookies before he had claimed them all for himself. Thanks, Angela, for another brilliant recipe!
Just made these for the first time last night, and they are amazing! Probably my favorite vegan cookie I’ve made so far. The dough had the same consistency as “regular cookies” and my non-vegan best friend said they were delicious as well! Definitely bookmarking these for future batches. :)
wow i like cookies made using peanuts and cashews. Lovely recipe and sure i will try it :)
Hi Angela – Greetings from the UK! I’m contacting you to ask a favour, but hopefully one which will provide some good publicity for your great blog and cookbook (my colleague Tori is a massive fan!) I’m producing an amateur cookbook with friends at work, to fundraise for the charity Médecins-sans-Frontières / Doctors without Borders, http://www.msf.org.uk/. Here comes the ask: Tori is totally in love with your CRISPY ALMOND BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE recipe and wondered if we could include it in our little cookbook, provided we give a proper acknowledgement – for example: “reproduced with the very kind permission of Angela Liddon, author of the amazing cookbook “Oh She Glows” and popular food blog of the same name (http://ohsheglows.com).” – Please say yes ….!! best wishes from your enthusiastic fans, Alison and Tori
Hmmm, I just baked these, and there’s no way they’re ready after 13 minutes. They’re still pale as a ghost and still way too soft. I extended the cooking time to 16 full minutes, and after cooling, they’re still slightly undercooked (but taste great!). My oven is accurate (350F is at 350F, which incidentally is unusually low for baking cookies, no?)
What am I doing wrong?
Omg!!!! These cookies are amazing!! Thank you for the recipe ❤️
Unbelievably, dangerously delicious!!!!
Angela!
We just made these cookies and they were SO GOOD!
We stuck to the exact recipe and added the almond milk with almond meal and they turned out chewy and divine. We will be trying more recipes for our vegan journey.
Snowed in & happy with our batches of treats! Keep up the amazing work, ladybug!
I made these cooking during the Christmas season and absolutely fell in love with them. Even the meat eaters in my family loved them! I froze some (great suggestion Angela!) and they lasted me until just this week. I made another batch today and put them in the freezer again. These cookies are absolutely delicious. Two YUMs up!!!
Wow! This recipe is simply awesome. I cooked them this weekend and my family simply loved them … much better than the store bought cookies. Thank you so much for posting this recipe !
Saw this in your new newsletter while I took a break from writing a paper. Of course I just HAD to take a longer break to make these. Loved Loved LOVED them! Used coconut oil instead of the non butter spread, it worked great and had the added benefit of soothing my chapped lips!! Thank you Angela!!
Used coconut oil & nut butter instead of butter and peanut butter respectively. The balls did not turn as flat as pictured, just by a bit. Don’t know if it is because the dough is too thick? Dark chocolate chips on top all melt away in the oven and the darken the cookie surface making them appears burned. I will skip chocolate next time. Very delicious however.
My health conscious friend introduced the book to me and this is the second recipe I followed. Considering a guy that rarely cook and never make cookie for his whole life, this is not bad at all. I surprised my wife too.
These cookies were AMAZING! I may have under cooked them a bit but the results were perfect. Crispy on the outside and perfectly chewy at the center. I’ll be making more of these for my non-vegan/non gluten free friends and family. You would never be able to tell the difference if you didn’t know!
So happy you enjoyed the recipe, Samantha!
These are killer. Second time I’m making them??
This recipe looks good, and I’m really excited to try it! I don’t have organic and sugar… Has anyone tried it using all white or brown (or a combo of both)? I also have raw sugar- would that be a better substitute for that part?
I just made these with the brown sugar and regular white sugar because I didn’t have the other…and they’re completely fantastic. I didn’t have the whole amount of oat flour either, so I substituted it with a combo of coconut flour and more almond flour, added a little more wet stuff for the coconut flour addition, and they’re sooooo good.
Can I use something to replace the almond meal? Or do you have a gluten free, vegan, nut free chocolate chip cookie recipe? I want to make these for my baby shower in a few weeks and one of my friends who is coming is severely allergic to nuts. I love these cookies but need an alternative. Your help would great. Thank you for all of your delicious recipes that my family enjoys!
These cookies just saved my life…I might actually be able to survive medical school now. I took a four hour exam today and did not meet my goals with the score…Rather than having an epic breakdown, I meditated with the cat for smidge (since she was in a much better mood than I), and gathered myself up to stuff my emotions into the kitchenaid mixer. Now, I am stuffing them down with these fantastic cookies. I think it was a better use of my time; and now, I’m quite sure that I’ll have a bit of joy in my life while I continue to study for the next big exam! I took half of the dough and wrapped it up in tube of wax paper and then aluminum foil and put it in a freezer bag for cookies another time. I hope that’ll work! There isn’t time for baking in medical school, so if I’m gonna do it, I might as well save some for the next “meltdown”. If anyone has better storage/freezer suggestions, throw em at me. THANK YOU ANGELA! Oh…and the new App is REALLY fantastic. It’s really well done! Thanks!
Hi Pammy, It sounds like you had a bit of a rough day! I’m so sorry to hear that, but I’m glad the cookies helped (and the cat meditation, too–pets are the best therapy around, aren’t they?). As for freezing tips, stay tuned for today’s Friday FAQs: I’ll be sharing a bunch of storage/freezer advice that should help you out. I hope your next exam goes much more how you want it to, and I’m wishing you all the best with your med school studies. <3
Made these last night and everyone loved them! I was searching to see about how many calories per cookie?
Hey Steph, I’m so glad the cookies were a hit! Unfortunately, I haven’t calculated the nutritional info for these cookies myself, but a free online tool like caloriecount.com or nutritiondata.com should be able to calculate the data for you fairly quickly and easily! All you have to do is plug in the recipe. Hope this helps!
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I am a cookie connoiseur – and these are THE BEST chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten! (I used PB instead of almond butter) Thank you Angela! Also Love Love Love the warm nacho dip. Happy I can still eat Choc Chip Cookies since I joined the vegan world.
Aw, I’m so glad you like the cookies so much, Wendy!! :)
Omg amazing. So easy and turns out awesome. Warning: super addictive :)
Hi Angela,
I lurrrve the PB + chocolate combination and soooo excited to find this GF AND vegan recipe!
One small problem – I live in india and we don’t really get vegan butter here. What could I sub this out with?
P.s- the book that’s available on amazon(.com). Is that your 1st one or the 2nd. Someone’s coming down from the States next month and I’m going to ask them to bring it for me! :-)
I got a bit frustrated with these at first, as the dough came out quite firm and even halfway through baking the cookies were still perfectly spherical, haha. My nut butter was quite runny too, so that couldn’t be the cause for why they were so firm! I took them out and flattened out, which wasn’t a big issue.
Although not very pretty due to the halfway-through-baking flattening, they came out really delicious… And the struggle not to eat the entire dough raw was real :D
Thank you for all these amazing vegan recipes! It’s really comforting to know that my cookies didn’t cost anybody their life ;)
Wow! These were soooooo darn good! No one believed they were GF and vegan to boot! I made them a couple of weeks ago and have been dreaming about them since. Thank you Angela! I have two very satified and happy daughters!
Oh, I’m so happy everyone enjoyed the cookies, Jane! Sounds like they were a big hit. :)
These look amazing! Do you think this recipe would work in making one giant cookie cake? If I try it I’ll let you know how it goes!
A giant cookie? that sounds delish! I’d love to hear how the experiment goes.
Hi Angela,
This cookie recipe turned out fantastic! I made a few changes: I omitted the cane sugar, reduced the chocolate chips by about half, and instead of brown sugar I used raw sugar mixed with 1/2 Tablespoon of black strap molasses. The cookies were still plenty sweet, but they did not spread out as much as yours but they were still really cute! Thank you!
Thanks so much for sharing the helpful swap info, Tiffany! I’m glad you enjoyed the end result. :)
Hi Angela,
Was the buttery spread always an ingredient? I don’t recall it in the past when I made the cookies. Can I skip it?
Thanks,
Eliana
Do you think I could substitute peanut flour for almond? My kids like their cookies super peanutty.
Wanted to intensify the peanut butter flavor so made the recipe with oat flour (too lazy to grind oats) and subbed pb2 for almond flour. Then added an extra flax egg to make up for the defatted peanut butter powder. Outrageous! Soooooo delicious.
Thanks for sharing those great swaps/tweaks Debra!