These delicious vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies are a quick and easy healthy snack recipe that you can make using 8 wholesome ingredients and one bowl! They are made healthier without refined sugar, butter, and eggs but are oozing with nutty flavor and crunch from peanut butter and nuts!
The Best Vegan Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe
If you are a certified peanut lover, then these yummy peanut butter cookies will blow you away with its rich nutty flavor! I love how they are both chewy and crunchy due to the combination of oats and peanuts. It is a lovely mix of my Vegan Nut Clusters and Vegan Oatmeal Cookies that you can easily whip up in just a few minutes using one bowl and simple pantry staple ingredients!
Simple and Healthy Vegan Cookies
You don’t need any fancy kitchen equipment to make these cookies. They are super easy to make – just mix everything in a bowl, top with more nuts and bake – it will only take you 20 minutes. 5 or 10 minutes to prep the cookies, and 10 to 15 minutes to bake the cookies. And you will not believe how amazingly fragrant the whole house smelled! You will never stop with just one!
Ingredients Needed
- Peanut butter: you can either use creamy peanut butter or chunky for this easy cookie recipe. Crunchy peanut butter will give your cookies more texture but the creamy one makes moister cookies. You can also use almond butter, cashew butter or other nut butters if you prefer. If you’re allergic to nuts, try using sunbutter instead.
- Peanuts: I prefer using salted ones for this recipe. It keeps the cookie bars from becoming too sweet. You can use other types of nuts like almond, hazelnut or cashews.
- All-purpose flour: or spelt flour works for this recipe. However, you can also use a gluten-free flour blend.
- Rolled oats: I used quick cooking oats for this recipe. Do not use steel-cut oats for this recipe or they will turn hard and tough.
- Baking soda: this will give the cookies a lift making them tender to the bite. If you don’t have it you can sub baking powder.
- Maple syrup: aside from sweeting the cookies, this will also make them moist. You can use other liquid sweeteners like agave syrup, date syrup or vegan honey. If using raw cane sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar or other types of granulated, you may need adding a bit more plant milk to get the right consistency.
- Plant milk: Soy, oat or almond milk works great for this recipe.
- Salt: Use more if you are using unsalted peanuts.
How to make Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
As always, I recommend checking out the recipe video and these step-by-step instructions first. Then you’ll find the full recipe with exact measurements in the recipe card below!
Step 1: Make the cookie dough
Start by sifting flour into a large mixing bowl. Then add oats, baking soda and salt and mix everything together. Add peanut butter, maple syrup and plant milk to the dry ingredients and mix using a wooden spoon to form a dough.
Step 2: Bake cookies
Roll into 9 cookie dough balls and place them on a parchment lined baking tray. Flatten them slightly with your hands or a fork or spoon. Brush the cookies thinly with plant milk and top with peanuts. Bake in a preheated oven at 355 °F (180 °C) for about 12-15 minutes.
Step 3: Allow to cool and enjoy!
Then let cool completely on a wire rack. Sprinkle your easy vegan cookies with sea salt if desired (if you used unsalted peanuts) and drizzle with peanut butter. Enjoy!
Using Natural vs Regular Peanut Butter
100% Natural peanut butter usually contains just one ingredient – peanuts. Conversely, regular peanut butter includes sugar and vegetable oil to ensure that its consistency is not affected by time or temperature so it’s better for baking and flavor. However, since natural peanut butter contain no added sugar, no preservatives, and no trans fat, it is definitely the healthier choice.
Tips when Making Vegan Peanut Cookies
- Use a tablespoon or a cookie scoop to measure out even cookies, then use your hands to roll the cookies into balls.
- Make sure that there is enough space between each cookie dough ball as they expand during baking.
- For softer cookies, take them off the oven sooner. The longer they stay in the oven, the crispier they become.
- If you like your cookies extra crunchy, simply bake them a few minutes longer.
- Leave the cookie to cool and firm up after baking. Since they contain no butter or eggs, they need a little time to firm up. If you remove them from the sheet too early, they may crumble.
- Get creative with the recipe and try different types of nuts and nut butters. You can also add spices or flavors like vanilla extract, tonca bean oder cinnamon.
- Feel free to add chocolate chips to the cookie dough or dip some of the baked peanut cookies in melted chocolate.
How to store and freeze cookies
Leftover cookies can be stored in a cookie jar or airtight container for up to a week or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. If they become hard, you can gently warm them in the microwave for a few seconds before eating.
To freeze peanut butter cookies, let the cookies cool completely and store them in a freezer safe container with parchment paper between each layer of cookies.
These Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies are:
- Dairy-free
- Eggless
- Gluten-free possible
- Perfect for crowds
- Easy to make
- Done in minutes
- Healthier than most cookies
- Super yummy!
More Vegan Cookie Recipes to Try:
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Swedish Oatmeal Cookies
- Lemon Cookies
- Apple Oatmeal Cookies
- Shortbread Cookies
- Linzer Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Cinnamon Stars
- Vanilla Crescent Cookies
- Nut Corners
- Pecan Pie Bars
- Almond Horns
Recipe Video
If you try this easy vegan peanut butter cookie recipe, feel free to leave me a comment and a star rating! And if you take a photo of your treats and share it on Instagram or Facebook, please tag me @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka because I love seeing your creations! Happy baking! 🙂
Peanut Oatmeal Cookies (Easy, Vegan, Healthy)
Author:You do not have a fitting cake pan at hand right now? Try my Cake Pan Conversion Calculator!
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup all-purpose or spelt flour or gluten-free flour*
- ¾ cup quick cooking rolled oats or gluten-free oats, as needed
- ½ tsp baking soda or 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 100 g peanut butter or other types of nut butter
- ⅓ cup maple syrup or other sweeteners (*read notes in the text above)
- 2 tbsp plant milk + a little more for brushing
- 50 g peanuts preferably salted (or sub other nuts)
- coarse sea salt optional for sprinkling
Instructions
*Note: Check out the recipe video + step-by-step photos above!
- Preheat the oven to 355 °F (180 °C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Then add oats, baking soda and salt and mix everything together.
- Now add peanut butter, maple syrup and plant milk and mix using a wooden spoon to form a dough.
- Form 9 balls of the dough about 1.3 oz (37 g) each, place them on the baking sheet and flatten them slightly with your hands or a spoon to make cookies.
- Brush the cookies thinly with plant milk, then spread the peanuts on top and gently press them a bit into the cookie dough.
- Bake in a preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes (if you want the cookies softer, don't bake them too long).
- Then let cool completely on a wire rack.
- Sprinkle with sea salt if desired (if you used unsalted peanuts) and drizzle with peanut butter.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Flour: Instead of all-purpose or spelt flour, you can use a gluten-free flour blend.
- Read more about the difference between regular peanut butter and natural peanut butter.
- Leftover cookies can be stored in a cookie jar for up to a week or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. If they become hard, you can gently warm them in the microwave for a few seconds before eating.
- More helpful tips and information about this recipe, including notes on ingredients and substitutes, storing tips, are mentioned in the blog post above!
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