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?
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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.
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!
This cookie recipe was fantastic. I just loved the recipe. Instead of using cane sugar, I substituted coconut sugar and it tasted fabulous.
Should I put the cookies in the refrigerator or shall I freeze them?
Thanks again for the recipe!!!!
I think these cookies were gone in a flash. Really amazing cookies – so addictive. I also changed the sugar over to just coconut sugar and still came out great.
Great to hear that sub worked out well for you, Kaitlin! :)
What would you suggest for a substitute to oats? I’m gluten and oat free
Hi Anna, I’m sorry I don’t know of a substitute at this time. If I try anything out I will be sure to add a note to the recipe though!
Just made these, and they look incredible! Subbed the earth balance for organic shortening, and didn’t have cane sugar, so I used turbinado sugar, but they look and smell amazing. Easy recipe!
Hey Amanda, So happy you tried them out! It’s always nice when you can make subs and it still turns out too :)
These cookies are crazy delicious. I made the almond butter version, and just left them in the cafeteria at work without any kind of note.. people couldn’t believe it that they were vegan and GF when I told them! Will make again and again :)
Hey Felicia, I’m so glad to hear the cookies were such a hit! Winning ;)
Hi- I just made these this afternoon and I love the texture, taste, and ease of making! My Ninja was amazing as it ground the almonds in a matter of seconds!! My only negative comment is ½ tsp. is too much salt. I would do a pinch or no more than ¼ tsp. next time!
Love your site! Thank you for sharing all your wonderful ideas and recipes with us!! Barb
Hey Barb, Oh I’m so glad you enjoyed these cookies! And thank you for the suggestion about the salt. I use pink Himilayian salt and it’s a bit more “gentle” (for lack of a better word) than some other salts I think.
Hey! I’m just wondering if you have nutritional info for these :) I love them !!! Just want to be able to track the calories , sugar and such intake
Hey Kayla, I’m sorry I don’t have the nutritional info for these. :)
I’m with her hubby, I could eat a plate full too! they’re addictive especially since I know they’re better for me than other cookies with processed everything in them.
Hi Angela!
These cookies are delicious, I love your recipes! I made the recipe of the cookie, but mine didn’t spread :-( Did you push them down with a fork before?
Hey Yasmine, So glad you loved them! I don’t push the balls down as I find they spread out on their own. I’m wondering if the nut butter you used was maybe on the thicker side? Or did you change anything in the recipe by chance?
These are hands down my favorite cookies of all time and I’m not even intentionally gluten free! I have made them over and over again for the past 5 years. They have been my go-to pot luck contribution and presents for friends. Now I have more excuses to make them since I started making my own almond milk. They’re perfect for using up the leftover almond pulp! Thank you so much for creating this masterpiece!!