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Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

By Afton Cyrus

Published on February 28, 2020

Time

1¼ hours, plus 2 hours chilling

Yield

Makes 24 cookies

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

1½ cups (7½ ounces/213 grams) all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 1¼ cups creamy peanut butter 1 cup packed (7 ounces/198 grams) organic light brown sugar ½ cup light corn syrup ¼ cup coconut oil, melted and cooled3 tablespoons water 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ⅓ cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped fine

Before You Begin

Use processed peanut butter for the best texture; natural peanut butter will make the cookies too dry and tough. The dough is quite soft, so keep it chilled until you are ready to form and bake the cookies.

Instructions

  1. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in bowl. Whisk peanut butter, sugar, corn syrup, melted oil, water, and vanilla in large bowl until well combined and smooth. Using rubber spatula, stir flour mixture into peanut butter mixture until just combined.
  2. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
  3. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 2 tablespoons dough at a time, roll into balls and space 2 inches apart on prepared sheets. Using bottom of greased drinking glass, press dough to ½-inch thickness, sprinkle with chopped peanuts, and press lightly to adhere.
  4. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until puffed and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 12 to 14 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Let cookies cool completely before serving. (Cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)
Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Photography by Keller + Keller. Styling by Kendra McKnight.

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

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Time

1¼ hours, plus 2 hours chilling

Yield

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients

1½ cups (7½ ounces/213 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup packed (7 ounces/198 grams) organic light brown sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
¼ cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped fine

Ingredients

1½ cups (7½ ounces/213 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup packed (7 ounces/198 grams) organic light brown sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
¼ cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped fine

Ingredients

1½ cups (7½ ounces/213 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup packed (7 ounces/198 grams) organic light brown sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
¼ cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped fine

Why This Recipe Works

Peanut butter is a staple ingredient in our vegan pantry, so we wanted a vegan peanut butter cookie that conjured that nostalgia. We needed to start by eliminating the eggs in the recipe. We were happy to find that simply adding more peanut butter bound the cookies nicely—and gave them deeper peanut flavor to boot. And a little bit of water—3 tablespoons—made up for the loss of moisture. The softest, chewiest peanut butter cookie recipes we tried included a form of liquid sweetener like molasses or maple syrup in addition to the sugar, but we found those flavors overbearing. Light corn syrup was a better bet; it helped the cookies retain moisture without overshadowing the peanut flavor. A full teaspoon of baking soda reacted quickly with the acidic brown sugar, causing the cookies to puff up and deflate before their structure had time to set. This left the centers pleasingly soft and chewy—just as we like our peanut butter cookies.

Before You Begin

Use processed peanut butter for the best texture; natural peanut butter will make the cookies too dry and tough. The dough is quite soft, so keep it chilled until you are ready to form and bake the cookies.

Instructions

  1. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in bowl. Whisk peanut butter, sugar, corn syrup, melted oil, water, and vanilla in large bowl until well combined and smooth. Using rubber spatula, stir flour mixture into peanut butter mixture until just combined.
  2. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
  3. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 2 tablespoons dough at a time, roll into balls and space 2 inches apart on prepared sheets. Using bottom of greased drinking glass, press dough to ½-inch thickness, sprinkle with chopped peanuts, and press lightly to adhere.
  4. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until puffed and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 12 to 14 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Let cookies cool completely before serving. (Cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

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