These Almond Flour Peanut Butter Cookies have a light peanut-y flavor studded with chocolate chips. Gluten-free, low-carb, and so easy—no mixer required.
Looking for a new entry for your holiday baking repertoire? Or just a great afternoon snack that happens to be gluten-free? These Almond Flour Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips may be even better than your traditional peanut butter cookies: that great peanut flavor, sandy texture, and a few pops of chocolate for fun. And because chocolate, say it with me, makes everything better. (See, you get me.)
This is just one of many gluten-free almond flour recipes on my site. I fell in love with using almond flour in desserts during my French pastry chef program 25 years ago, and since then have created all sorts of recipes that feature this ingredient. Sometimes paired with regular flour and sometimes by itself, so that the entire recipe is gluten-free. I’ve got links to all of them later in this post!
Jump to:
- Why Make Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
- Why Almond Flour for these GF Peanut Butter Cookies
- 🥗 Ingredients for GF Peanut Butter Cookies
- 🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions for Almond Flour Peanut Butter Cookies
- 🧐 Recipe FAQs for Peanut Butter Almond Flour Cookies
- 👩🍳 Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe Tips
- Other Desserts Featuring Almond Flour
- 📖 Recipe
- More About Molly
Why Make Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
- Easy to Make: No mixer required for this recipe. Just combine everything in a large bowl and stir!
- Gluten-Free and Low-Carb: These peanut butter almond flour cookies may be gluten-free, but they're so delicious you won’t notice the difference. And replacing regular flour with almond flour adds protein to your cookies without the carbs. Almond flour also adds fat, which adds richness to a recipe and can extend the shelf life of the cookies.
- Great Peanut Flavor: The almond flour in these cookies doubles down on that peanutty flavor, making these cookies truly one of my favorite peanut butter cookie.
Why Almond Flour for these GF Peanut Butter Cookies
Replacing regular flour with almond flour adds protein to your cookies without the carbs, in addition to making them gluten-free. In many baking recipes, switching to just almond flour won’t work because almond flour won’t give your recipes the structure they need. But combined with the peanut butter, you get a perfect chunky cookie with great texture. Plus, the almond flour doubles down on that nutty flavor you love in peanut butter cookies.
🥗 Ingredients for GF Peanut Butter Cookies
- Almond Flour: Almond flour is key to this recipe, making these moist almond flour peanut butter cookies entirely gluten-free. Read on for more information about almond flour and how to use it. If you don't have almond flour, you can also substitute hazelnut flour for a slightly different flavor.
- Chocolate Chips: You can use regular chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or mini chocolate chips in this recipe. Or, use a combination of white and dark chocolate chips (or butterscotch chips!).
- Peanut Butter: I prefer to use a traditional creamy peanut butter for this recipe, like Jif or Skippy. "Natural" peanut butters, as wonderful as they are, have a tendency to separate and may not combine as well with the rest of the ingredients.
- Brown Sugar: I used light brown sugar in this recipe, but you could use either light or dark or a combination of the two.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions for Almond Flour Peanut Butter Cookies
To make these peanut butter cookies with almond flour, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C). Then combine 1 cup peanut butter, ½ cup light brown sugar, 1 egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in a large bowl and stir with a large wooden spoon until combined. (If your peanut butter seems too stiff to stir, heat in microwave for 30 seconds on medium power to soften).
Then stir in 3 tablespoons melted butter.
Stir in ⅔ cup almond flour and ½ teaspoon salt.
When fully combined, stir in chocolate chips.
Scoop out one generous tablespoon of filling at a time, and roll with your hands to make a ball. I find a cookie scoop like this makes this process easy. If dough is too soft to hold its shape, refrigerate for 20 minutes. The butter will start to firm up so that you can roll dough into balls. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet a couple of inches apart. Use a fork to flatten and make a cross hatch on them.
Bake for 12-14 min, until you can smell them, and they are lightly browned on top. Put the cookie sheet on a cooling rack and let sit for 3 minutes to let cookies firm up. Then remove cookies and place directly on cooling rack.
🧐 Recipe FAQs for Peanut Butter Almond Flour Cookies
Yes! To freeze the dough, follow the recipe up through the point of rolling the dough into balls. Then, put the balls into a ziplock freezer bag and freeze. Defrost in the refrigerator for 24 hours, and then take them out 10-20 minutes before baking. Letting them warm up a little will allow you to smoosh them down and cross-hatch them without them cracking too much.
To freeze the cookies, wait for them to fully cool after baking, then put them in a ziplock freezer bag or freezer-safe container. Separating them with parchment or waxed paper is a good idea. When you’re ready to eat them, just defrost them in the refrigerator 24 hours in advance. Both cookie dough and cookies will last up to three months in the freezer.
Almond meal and almond flour are terms used for the same thing—both mean finely ground almonds. The majority of almond flour products are made by finely grinding blanched almonds (almonds where the skins have been removed). Almond meal can mean finely ground blanched or unblanched almonds, and almond meal may be a coarser grind than almond flour.
Almond flour, since it is made just from raw almonds, is quite healthy for you. Almonds are low in carbs and high in fiber, protein, manganese, magnesium, and Vitamin E. They are also high in omega-3 fatty acids.
Yes! And since almond flour is expensive both to buy and to make, you should definitely freeze any leftovers for your next batch. According to Bob’s Red Mill, you can even freeze almond flour for 4-5 months after its sell by date, as long as you keep it in an airtight container. You can also keep it in the fridge if you prefer, and in fact, if you are planning to store almond flour for over a few weeks, you should keep it in the refrigerator or freezer. Almond flour (and other nut flours) can turn rancid more quickly than traditional flour.
This recipe is not keto, as it contains a decent amount of sugar. If you are looking for a keto option, check out these Keto Peanut Butter Cookies instead: only 3 ingredients!
👩🍳 Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe Tips
Making your own almond flour is easy with the help of a food processor. Just take a quantity of blanched almonds (you can often find these as blanched, slivered almonds in the grocery store) and blitz in a food processor until they are finely ground. Just make sure you stop as soon as you see the texture you want—if you grind for too long, your almond flour will turn into almond butter.
How about making your own peanut butter? Try this guide to How to Make Peanut Butter, and go from there!
Wondering what else you can do with almond flour? Almond flour is used in many French desserts—try making macarons or making a frangipane base for a tart. Almond meal can also make a delicious crumble topping for a fruit crisp, crumble, or tart when mixed with flour, sugar, and butter. You can make muffins too, like these Banana Muffins with Almond Flour, Lemony Almond Flour Muffins, and Almond Flour Blackberry Muffins. And, you can replace breadcrumbs with almond flour when you are making breaded chicken or fish—though almond flour will burn more quickly than traditional breadcrumbs.
You can also use almond flour as a replacement for all-purpose flour (or for some of the flour) in regular cake or cookie recipes. For more information about substituting some almond flour in your baking recipes, consult this almond flour baking guide from King Arthur Flour. It’s a great resource that shows you exactly how different kinds of recipes react to almond flour. And if you love cookies as much as I do, don't miss my round-up of The Best Almond Flour Cookie Recipes.
Other Desserts Featuring Almond Flour
If you enjoyed these almond flour cookies, you might also want to check out this round-up of my favorite Almond Flour Dessert Recipes. Here are a few favorites:
If you don't need an entirely gluten-free dessert, please also try my French Yogurt Cake with Almonds or my Apple Almond Cake. These recipes use a combination of almond flour and all-purpose flour to create an excellent, moist cake texture!
If cookies are your jam, and you can tolerate regular flour, don't miss my Matcha White Chocolate Chip Cookies and my Snickerdoodles!
If you try these Almond Flour Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me. And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter 250g
- ½ cup light brown sugar 100g
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted (45 g)
- ⅔ cup almond flour 67g
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C).
- Combine peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla extract in a large bowl and stir with a large wooden spoon until combined. (If your peanut butter seems too stiff to stir, heat in microwave for 30 seconds on medium power to soften).
- Then stir in 3 tablespoons melted butter.
- Stir in almond flour and salt.
- When fully combined, stir in chocolate chips.
- Scoop out one generous tablespoon of filling at a time, and roll with your hands to make a ball. If dough is too soft to hold its shape, refrigerate for 20 minutes. The butter will start to firm up so that you can roll dough into balls.
- Place cookie dough balls on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet a couple of inches apart. Use a fork to flatten and make a cross hatch on them.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, until you can smell them, and they are lightly browned on top.
- Put the cookie sheet on a cooling rack and let sit for 3 minutes to let cookies firm up.
- Then remove cookies and place directly on cooling rack to finish cooling.
Notes
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Carol S. says
Delicious cookies! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Chef Molly says
So glad you enjoyed them, Carol! Thanks so much for leaving me a comment to let me know! 🙂
Jeff the Chef says
This sounds really, really interesting. I love peanut butter cookies, and I'm so curious about what the almond flour might do to the texture. Eager to try it.
Chef Molly says
Yes, try it! The texture is a bit different from a traditional cookie with flour, but I think it's a great fit for peanut butter cookies. My kids agree!
Alexandra @ It's Not Complicated Recipes says
These look so delicious! I only wish I had one with my cup of coffee right now 🙂 I love peanut butter sweet treats!
Chef Molly says
Me too! I was so happy to have one with my afternoon chai today!