So what’s your favorite dessert?
The one that makes your mouth water. The one that makes you go weak at the knees. The one that you’d work out extra hard at the gym for.
You know the one I’m talking about.
For me? It would probably have to be a super-dark chocolate fudgy brownie. Like, so dark that the brownies are black. That ultra-seductive chocolatey pow gets me every.dang.time.
For Mark? His mom’s famous lemon meringue pie. My brother’s would be something fruity. My mom’s would be something with coconut.
My dad, on the other hand, his is the good ol’ classic peanut butter cookie.
This always surprised me because I never really liked peanut butter cookies growing up. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was just as big of a peanut butter fan back then as I am now; however, every time I seemed to bite into a PB cookie, I would almost break a tooth. Every single peanut butter cookie I ever had was rock-hard, flavorless, and definitely not my idea of a mouthwatering dessert.
Until now.
These Healthy Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies understand exactly how a peanut butter cookie should be. Super soft, melt-in-your-mouth buttery, and with just the right amount of chew. All while being gluten free, vegan, and refined sugar-free. Believe you me, after sinking my teeth into one of these babies, I’m seriously reconsidering that whole “favorite dessert” question.
These cookies get their mouth-wateriness (tooootally not a word ?) from a few key ingredients:
- Almond Flour – While these aren’t almond cookies, the almond flour lends a special flavor to these cookies that reinforces that nutty, rich, peanutty flavor we all know and crave. I’m also seriously addicted to the texture this flour brings to this cookie party because you seriously won’t be able to tell you’re not using the all-purpose stuff based on texture alone. BUT instead of these cookies being filled with empty calories and refined ingredients, the almond flour adds both protein and healthy fat to the mix. So…these would be considered a health food. Right? !!
- Cinnamon – Because tis the freakin’ season! There’s no way I’m going to pass up the opportunity to throw cinnamon into anything this time of year, so I needed to add a small dash to my cookie dough today. You definitely can leave it out, but I think it makes these cookies even more special!
- Coconut Sugar – I’ve been expanding my horizons and starting to use coconut sugar a little more, and I’ve gotta say that I love the stuff. Today, we’ll be using it to coat our cookies with a layer of tasty shimmery sweetness. That coconut sugar crunch you get as you bite into these soft, pillowy cookies is seriously my favorite part!
These Healthy Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies totally made a PB cookie believer out of me. Say “goodbye” to those dry, crunchy cookies from your childhood; there’s a new chewy cookie sheriff in town.
PrintHealthy Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/2 Tbsp. coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
- pinch salt
- 1 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
- 2 Tbsp. natural peanut butter
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- splash pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp. coconut sugar, for rolling (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt to a mixing bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined. Be sure to whisk out any pesky almond flour lumps.
- In a small bowl, add melted coconut oil, peanut butter, maple syrup, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
- Add wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula. The mixture will come together in a ball when mixed. Place in the fridge to chill for 5 minutes.
- Scoop 1 Tbsp.-sized mounds of cookie dough onto the baking sheet. Once all cookies have been portioned out, place the entire baking sheet in the freezer to sit for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add coconut sugar to a small bowl.
- After 5 minutes, remove your cookie dough from the freezer and roll into balls. Roll each ball in the coconut sugar, and then place the balls back on the baking sheet. Freeze cookie dough for another 10 minutes.
- Remove cookies from the freezer, and press the back of a fork into the top. Press the fork in the opposite direction to create a cross-hatch pattern.
- Bake cookies for 9 minutes, then remove from oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheet.
These look so delicious AND the ingredient list makes me happy :) so since they’re so healthy, I can eat the whole batch, right?
Thanks, Emilie! And it ABSOLUTELY means that you can eat the whole batch! haha my boyfriend and I are having trouble keeping our hands off of these things. So dang addictive!
Now, maybe you can help me out with this… is there a difference between almond meal and almond flour?? PS These look AWESOME!!
Yes! From what I understand almond MEAL is made from ground raw almonds. Almond FLOUR is made from blanched almonds (aka. no skin). I bought the giant 5-lb. pound bag of Honeyville almond flour on Amazon, so I’m looking for any way to use it up!
I love using almond flour though – it has such a great flavor on its own, and its protein content = maximum chew in baked goods!
Yummy! They look absolutely mout watering!
Thank you!! We love these cookies in our house!
Woah. Hello delicious-ness. Need to try these!! I love peanut butter cookies for this time of year.. but the recipe we usually use has tons of butter and sugar. These look a lot lighter :)
You’re exactly right, Liz! They’re definitely lighter, but they still pack a powerful punch of flavor! Let me know what you think if you give these a try! :)
I just made these and I must say they are sooooo delicious that my husband and I ate them all!! He kept saying how good they are and was the best thing he had all day even after eating delicious salmon and veggies. Well, now I’m doubling the recipe and making more!!! Thank you so much… I’ve baked a lot of gluten free and ended up tossing it out and the flours etc are not cheap so this go around will double to have on hand since I know they will go in the mouth and not in the trash…Thank you so much!!!
This made me SO SO happy! I’m so glad you guys loved these – they’re one of my favorite recipes, too :) You’re totally right; I love that they don’t require too many flours, yet they’re still chewy and delicious. Enjoy!
Is the coconut flour necessary since it’s in such a small quantity?
Hi, Dana! It helps dry out the dough a bit. You can try subbing a few Tbsp. almond flour it in its place though!
HOW MANY COOKIES DOES THIS MAKE? Yes i’m shouting.
Hi! 10-12 in the final batch. :) Just make them each 1 Tbsp. big, and you should be good to go!