My vegan peanut butter cookies will knock your socks off! These cookies are soft, chewy, and studded with a mix of rich chocolate chips and peanut butter chunks. Delicious, decadent, and perfect for dunking!
I often say that chocolate is my favorite flavor, but that’s not really true. Chocolate and peanut butter is my favorite flavor. It is a flavor! The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is amazing — better than either component individually. My chocolate peanut butter cupcakes and and vegan peanut butter bars are a couple of my favorite treats. And just recently, when I created my vegan peanut butter pie recipe, I realized I really needed more of this scrumptious combination in my life, so I made these vegan peanut butter cup cookies. OH YES!
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These cookies turned out to be absolutely irresistible! This might just be my new favorite cookie recipe, combining all the delicious elements of my vegan peanut butter cookies, vegan chocolate chip cookies, and vegan peanut butter blossoms. They’re rich, chewy, delicious, and amazing with a big glass of almond milk.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Water.
- Ground flaxseeds. You’ll be combining these with the water to make a flax egg, which is one of my favorite vegan egg substitutes for baking. Most stores carry ground flaxseeds in the baking aisle or natural foods aisle.
- Flour. I’ve only made this recipe with all-purpose flour, also known as wheat flour or white flour. Use other varieties at your own risk.
- Baking soda.
- Cornstarch.
- Salt.
- Vegan butter. You should be able to find this in the refrigerated section of most grocery stores, right near the regular butter.
- Creamy peanut butter. This recipe was developed using conventional peanut butter. I don’t recommend using natural peanut butter, which is the type you need to stir. Your cookies might end up spreading too much if you do!
- Brown sugar. Use organic brown sugar to keep the recipe vegan. Conventional sugar may have been processed using animal bone char.
- Sugar. This also needs to be organic, for the same reason.
- Vanilla extract.
- Apple cider vinegar. This will add some acidity to the dough, helping our cookies to rise. Need an alternative? Check out my list of apple cider vinegar substitutes.
- Vegan chocolate chips. Most chocolate chips contain dairy, so check the ingredients. I used Enjoy Life brand, which are vegan and available at most grocery stores.
- Vegan peanut butter cups. I used Reese’s Plant Based Peanut Butter Cups.
How They’re Made
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!
Step 1: Start by preheating your oven to 350°F and lining a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2: Make your flax egg by whisking water and ground flaxseeds together in a large mixing bowl. Let it sit for a few minutes to gel. You can gather your other ingredients in the meantime.
Step 3: In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Set this mixture aside for a moment.
Step 4: Add the vegan butter, brown sugar, sugar, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar to the bowl with the flax egg. Use an electric mixer to cream the mixture until it becomes light and fluffy.
Step 5: Begin beating the flour mixture into the butter mixture, adding a bit at a time and beating it in at low speed. You’ll end up with a soft dough.
Tip: Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature before adding them to the recipe. This will mean setting your vegan butter out a few hours in advance, and possibly warming up anything else that’s been in the fridge.
Step 6: Stir in chopped peanut butter cups and chocolate chips. Reserve about a half cup of the peanut butter cups.
Step 7: Drop the dough in mounds on the prepared baking sheets, using about 2 tablespoons per cookie.
Step 8: Stick the cookie sheets in the oven and bake the cookies until they’ve spread out and darkened a bit around the edges.
Step 9: Place the baking sheets on cooling racks as soon as they come out of the oven, then press the remaining chopped peanut butter cup pieces into the tops.
Step 10: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, until they’re set, then transfer them directly to the racks to finish cooling.
Shelf-Life & Storage
Your vegan peanut butter cup cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about two weeks, or in the freezer for about three months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Based on my experience with other cookie recipes, I think an all purpose gluten-free flour blend would work, but I haven’t tried with this recipe, so no promises!
Nope! In fact, I don’t recommend it. Your cookies will not spread enough if you do.
You can, but because natural peanut butter is so runny, your cookies may end up spreading too much. You’ll also need to keep a close eye on them when baking, as the required time might change with natural peanut butter.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes
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Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
My vegan peanut butter cookies will knock your socks off! These cookies are soft, chewy, and studded with a mix of rich chocolate chips and peanut butter chunks. Delicious, decadent, and perfect for dunking!
Ingredients
- â…“ cup water
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup vegan butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter (Note 1)
- 1 cup organic brown sugar
- ¾ cup organic granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups vegan peanut butter cups, chopped and divided (Note 2)
- 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
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In a large mixing bowl, stir together the water and ground flaxseed. Let the mixture sit for at least five minutes, to gel. You can proceed to the next step of mixing the dry ingredients in the meantime.
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In a second large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt.
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Once the flax mixture has sat for at least 5 minutes, add the vegan butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, sugar, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar. Beat the mixture at high speed using an electric mixer for about 1 minute, until it lightens in color a bit and becomes fluffy.
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Begin beating the flour mixture into the butter mixture, adding about a third at a time and beating each addition in with the mixer at low speed.
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Stir 1 ½ cups of the chopped peanut butter cups and all of the chocolate chips.
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Drop the dough on the cookie sheets in rounded mounds of 2 heaping tablespoons each, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
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Bake the cookies for 11 to 12 minutes, until they’ve spread out and darkened very slightly around the edges. They will look undercooked and not fully spread out when they’re done, with a little bit of doming at their centers. This is fine and will settle as they cool.
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Place the baking sheets on cooling racks and gently press the remaining pieces of peanut butter cups into the surface of the cookies.
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Let the cookies cool for about 10 minutes on the baking sheets, before removing them and transferring them directly to the racks to finish cooling.
Notes
- I created this recipe using conventional peanut butter — the kind you don’t have to stir. I don’t recommend using natural (runny) peanut butter, as I suspect the cookies would spread out too much.
- You’ll need about 14 large peanut butter cups to get 2 cups after they’re chopped.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 221kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.03g | Cholesterol: 0.1mg | Sodium: 186mg | Potassium: 80mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 288IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 1mg