These flourless, 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies are a dream for satisfying your sweet tooth! They’re quick to make, sweet and crunchy, and have a rich peanut butter flavor.

Why You’ll Love These 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

• This recipe has four simple ingredients: peanut butter, sugar, an egg, and vanilla extract! It’s a quick and easy dessert when you’re short on time.
• These cookies have satisfying crisp edges, a crunchy outer texture, and a moist inside. The flavor is chock full of peanut butter!
• These gluten-free peanut butter cookies are perfect for a keto, low-carb, paleo, dairy-free, or sugar-free diet!
• With a simple substitution of a non-sugar sweetener, these cookies can be made sugar-free!

Can You Eat Peanut Butter On A Gluten-Free Diet?

Peanut butter is naturally a gluten-free food. Most natural brands of peanut butter only contain peanuts, which are gluten-free. Some popular peanut butter brands may contain added sugar and oils but are usually gluten-free. If you have celiac, ensure you choose the right peanut butter to make these gluten-free peanut butter cookies.

Is Peanut Butter Celiac Safe?

Usually, peanut butter is celiac-safe, but check ingredients and cross-contamination warnings. Some peanut butter brands may share equipment with gluten-containing ingredients, which should be avoided for those with celiac. On occasion, some brands of peanut butter may add wheat-containing ingredients, so if you are celiac, make sure the peanut butter is labeled as gluten-free.

What Peanut Butter Brands Are Celiac Safe?

• Trader Joe’s Peanut Butter
• Maranatha Peanut Butter
• Santa Cruz Organic Peanut Butter
• Justin’s Peanut Butter
• Whole Foods Peanut Butter
• Walmart Great Value Creamy Peanut Butter
• Jif Peanut Butter
• Goober Peanut Butter
• Peanut Butter & Co
• Skippy Peanut Butter
• Peter Pan Peanut Butter
• Smuckers Peanut Butter
• Smart Balance Peanut Butter
• Aldi Peanut Butter
• PB Crave
• Adam’s Peanut Butter
• Reese’s Peanut Butter
• Crazy Richards Peanut Butter
• Krema Nut Company Peanut Butter
• Teddie Peanut Butter

Why Are My Gluten-Free Cookies Crumbly?

Making gluten-free baked goods can be challenging, especially if you’re used to wheat flour. Gluten is a protein present in wheat flour and is responsible for creating elasticity. Gluten also helps ingredients bind together when baking. Without gluten, you must account for the loss in elasticity and compensate with a gluten-free alternative.

Gluten-free cookies are often crumbly because they lack an alternative to compensate for the texture that gluten brings to baked goods. Another reason gluten-free cookies might fall apart is that they might require more resting or cooling time to set than cookies made with wheat flour.

How Can You Keep Gluten-Free Cookies From Falling Apart?

To prevent crumbling, it helps to have a binding agent like xanthan gum when baking with gluten-free flour. Many gluten-free flour blends already contain xanthan gum, but you can also buy it separately and add it to your recipes.

Allowing cookie dough to chill and rest before baking can help binding agents absorb moisture, making a more stable cookie.

For these flourless, gluten-free peanut butter cookies, we are not using any gluten-free flour or binding agents like xanthan gum. Our only binding agent is an egg. To prevent these peanut butter cookies from crumbling, they need to rest and cool after baking to set. If you try to pick up the cookies straight out of the oven, they will be soft and fall apart, but once they cool for about 20-30 minutes, they harden into the perfect sturdy cookie!

Can You Freeze These Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies?

These gluten-free peanut butter cookies are perfect for freezing. It’s best if they’ve cooled completely and are stored in an airtight container, ideally a ziplock bag. They can last in the freezer for about two months.

Ensure you defrost and allow them to completely come to room temperature after removing them from the freezer before eating them.

Flourless Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe Tips

Ingredients:

• These gluten-free peanut butter cookies work best when using natural creamy peanut butter without added salt, meaning peanut butter containing just ground peanuts and nothing else. I haven’t tried the recipe with sugar-added peanut butter brands like Skippy or Jif.
• If you’re using natural peanut butter, make sure you have mixed the jar of peanut butter to combine the separated oil. You can mix by hand with a fork or with an electric mixer. To make it easier, I use an electric mixer with only one mixing tong attached to blend the peanut butter and separated oil in a new jar of peanut butter. Keep a firm hold on the jar when mixing so it doesn’t fly around!
• I like to use brown sugar in these cookies for added moisture and depth of flavor, but regular white sugar works great too. You can use brown sugar erythritol for a sugar-free version, which works great!

Add-ins:

• These cookies taste incredible with added chocolate chips! You can also play with add-ins like nuts, sprinkles, or white chocolate chips.

Baking & Texture:

• When these gluten-free peanut butter cookies come out of the oven, they will be soft and flimsy. Since this recipe has no flour, baking soda, or powder, they need to set after baking. DO NOT attempt to pick the cookies up off of the cookie sheet right after they’re done baking because they will fall apart. You’ll want to avoid taking the cookies off the baking sheet and putting them on a wire rack like you’re used to. They need 20+ minutes to cool on the baking sheet to set and harden. Once they’ve cooled, they will be solid and crunchy!

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe Substitutions

• To make this recipe keto or sugar-free, use any non-sugar granulated sweetener. I’ve used sugar-free erythritol, and it came out great!
• You can easily make this recipe with a different type of nut butter if you prefer. Almond butter works great and gives a more earthy flavor.
• The egg is critical to the success of these gluten-free peanut butter cookies since it is the only binding agent in the recipe. I haven’t tried a vegan version with an egg substitute, but if you experiment, please let us know how it turns out in the comments!
• If you’re out of vanilla extract, you can omit it from this recipe, it just might slightly change the flavor.

How to Make The Best Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add the peanut butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl.

Use a fork to combine ingredients until it’s fully mixed. The cookie dough should be thick but pliable.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease it with oil. Take small dough balls and slightly flatten them to the shape you’ll want them to be when completed. These cookies won’t rise or change shape much in the oven. Optionally, create a crisscross pattern on the cookie by pressing fork tongs into the uncooked cookie, then pressing again from a different direction (see video).

Place the cookies in the oven set to 350°F. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Insert a toothpick in one cookie to make sure it’s cooked through, and no wet residue comes out on the toothpick. When the cookies are finished baking, they will be soft and flimsy because they need to set and cool to harden. Do not try to pick up any cookies right after they come out of the oven, or they will fall apart. They need at least 20 minutes to cool, harden, and set.

More Delicious Gluten-Free Cookie Recipes

• If you love easy, limited-ingredient recipes, these chocolate coconut haystack cookies require only two ingredients! Plus, they’re easy to make sugar-free, and keto.
• One of my all-time favorite cookie recipes is these chocolate chip cookies made with cashew butter. The nut butter creates a flavorful, rich cookie!
• For a unique recipe, try matcha cookies with a little caffeine boost! They’re similar to shortbread in texture, and they turn out green!
• A seasonal favorite of mine are pumpkin whoopie pie cookies. Soft, flavorful, and orange in color!