Easy Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

Who doesn’t love a classic peanut butter cookie? It’s even better when you make them vegan. The original recipe contains egg and lots of sugar, but those are easy swaps to make. First, replace the egg with applesauce, which in turn gives the cookie the extra sweetness needed to cut the sugar in half.

We’ve been enjoying using einkorn flour for baking — it makes baked goods really tender and naturally lower in gluten, but these cookies are great made with spelt or whole wheat pastry flour. Make sure your peanut butter isn’t too dense so it’s easy to blend with the other ingredients. This Makes about 30 cookies. Cut the recipe in half for a smaller batch. Photos by Evan Atlas.

Save Print

Author: Nava

Recipe type: Cookie

Cuisine: Vegan baking and sweets

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 30

Who doesn’t love a classic peanut butter cookie? They’re even better when you make them vegan.

Ingredients

2 cups peanut butter at room temperature (smooth, crunchy, or a combo)
1 cup flour (whole wheat pastry, spelt, or einkorn)
1 cup natural granulated sugar
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350º F.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl.
Work together with a pastry blender or the tines of a large fork until completely blended.
Scoop the dough up by rounded tablespoons, or a bit more if you’d like larger cookies. Arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet or two (or bake in batches).
Flatten the dough lightly with your palm, then press down lightly with a regular-sized fork in two directions to make that cool criss-cross pattern that peanut butter cookies are known for.
Bake for 10 minutes, or until the bottom of the cookies are golden brown.
Allow to cool for a bit to firm up, then transfer to a plate or container. Store cookies covered at room temperature.

–