This healthy peanut butter cookies recipe is so tasty and easy to make by hand with just 7 ingredients.
My go-to recipe for when I’m craving a batch of warm, delicious, and slightly-healthier cookies…stat. ♡
These peanut butter cookies are always here to save the day. They’re wonderfully low fuss with just 10 minutes of prep time and only require 7 basic ingredients that are likely already hanging out in your pantry. They’re naturally gluten-free and dairy-free and made with a chewy oatmeal base. There’s no mixer or chill time required here. And even without the usual flour and butter, these peanut butter cookies are still downright delicious.
Feel free to stir some chocolate chips, nuts, or other add-ins to the dough if you’d like. And I definitely recommend a little sprinkle of flaky sea salt for a crunchy finish.
Let’s bake some cookies together!
Healthy Peanut Butter Cookie Ingredients
Here are a few notes about the ingredients you will need to make this healthy peanut butter cookies recipe:
- Natural creamy peanut butter: This recipe was developed with natural creamy peanut butter made from 100% peanuts. (The consistency of natural peanut butter varies significantly from traditional peanut butter.) As always, be sure to give your jar of natural pb a good stir before adding it to the recipe.
- Old fashioned oats: Old fashioned oats (aka “rolled” oats) will serve as the base for these cookies. If you want to make this recipe gluten-free, be sure to check labels to ensure that your oats are certified gluten-free.
- Eggs: We will use eggs to help bind all of the ingredients together.
- Brown sugar: I typically make this recipe with light brown sugar, but other forms of granulated sugar may work well too.
- Baking soda: Baking soda will serve as our leavening agent to help the cookie dough rise.
- Vanilla extract: A hint of vanilla extract brings out the best of the peanut butter flavor.
- Salt: And finally, we will use fine sea salt in the cookie dough to bring out the best of all of those flavors. Then I also highly recommend sprinkling a pinch of flaky sea salt on the cookies after baking.
- (Optional) Chocolate chips or nuts: Feel free to also add in a handful of semisweet chocolate chips or chopped nuts (such as pecans or walnuts) if you would like!
Peanut Butter Cookie Tips
Before we get to the full recipe below, here are a few additional tips to keep in mind when making these peanut butter cookies:
- Use natural peanut butter. Again, this recipe was developed using natural peanut butter, which you can either purchase at the store or make homemade. The texture/consistency will not be the same if traditional peanut butter is used.
- Save time with a cookie scoop. You’re totally welcome to just use a spoon to scoop the batter into roughly 2-tablespoon balls. But if you’d like to save time, a medium cookie scoop makes measuring and scooping the batter a breeze.
- Be sure to flatten the cookies slightly. This batter doesn’t rise and spread very much on its own, so I recommend patting the cookies down slightly before baking.
Recipe Variations
Here are a few additional variations that you are welcome to try with this recipe:
- Add cocoa powder: Add 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder to the batter if you would like to make it more chocolatey.
- Add cinnamon: Add 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon to the batter if you would like a hint of cinnamon flavor.
- Use different chocolate chips: Use any other favorite kinds of baking chips (i.e. butterscotch, white chocolate, peanut butter, Heath bar chips, M&Ms, etc) in place of semisweet chocolate chips.
More Cookie Recipes
Looking for more delicious cookie recipes to try? Here are a few of our faves:
- The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Brown Sugar Cookies
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Linzer Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup natural creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats
- optional: 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chopped nuts
- flaky sea salt, for topping
Instructions
- Prep oven and baking sheet. Heat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Mix the dough. In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs and brown sugar together until smooth. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt evenly over the top of the mixture and stir until combined. Add in the vanilla, peanut butter, and stir until combined. Add in the oats (and chocolate chips or nuts, if using) and stir until evenly combined.
- Scoop the dough. Use a medium (2 tablespoon) cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Gently press down the dough balls to slightly flatten the tops, since they will not spread much while baking.
- Bake. Bake for 10 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and sprinkle each cookie with a small pinch of flaky sea salt. Let the cookies cool for at least 5 minutes.
- Serve. Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Just made these and am so impressed! I shouldn’t be surprised?. Well done, Ali! Another great one???????
I made these today and I’m really happy with the results. There are a few things I would like to experiment with, however. I was really surprised at how visually pleasing they are. They don’t look healthy, and that’s a great thing. While these are said to be light, I didn’t have the same experience. Mine were somewhat dense, but not unpleasing. It felt like I was eating a really moist cookie. They are VERY satisfying. By my second cookie, I was feeling satisfied. While enjoying these, I had to remind myself that they did not have butter, flour and a ton of sugar. I was starting to feel guilty! :)
Future changes:
I may use crunchy BP next time
I will process the oats to a course texture, and probably add 1/4 cup more.
I will toast the oat in a dry pan to bring out the nuttiness prior to use
I dislike chocolate so I left that out in my first batch and will continue to do so in future batches.
These look delish! I’d like to whip some up tonight, but I only happen to have fine sea salt crystals on hand – think it’ll be okay to use this instead of Maldon flakes? Thanks in advance!
Sure thing! Just use a small pinch! :)
Just made these! They turned out so good! Just bought a jar of natural, crunchy peanut butter and was looking for a healthy-ish cookie recipe. I only had instant oats on hand and I was worried that the oats would cook too fast and become mushy, so I substituted a 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour and 3/4 cup of instant oats. I baked for the full 10 mins, but would probably add on another 2-3 mins (used a convection oven). The insides were a bit too soft/ raw looking. I have a sweet tooth, so I also added two extra tablespoons of brown sugar, but next time I’ll only do the 1/2 cup sugar. It was plenty sweet!
Thanks for the recipe :) Looking forward to trying more!!
I made this recipe tonight and they came out awesome! I didn’t have any oats so I used almond flour instead and baked them for 15 minutes. They came out so good, even my husband liked them! Will definitely be making again.
Can I use crunchy peanut butter? Ps: I’ve made this once before and it was a great recipe.
Would it work to use Agave or other sweetener? I am trying to stay away from refined sugars like white or brown. Love your blog <3 <3
Thanks!!!!
Linda
Agave has a high index, actually highest and stays in your body longer. I’d try coconut sugar or honey. I haven’t tried recipe yet but going to this evening after reading reviews. And I want to move to Spain too! ?
I love these cookies. Turned out perfect.
absolutely delic!!! hard to stop myself from eating the whole batch!
Hi! I used honey instead of sugar (because it’s a natural sweetener and sugar isn’t.) I also used steel-cut oats (because they’re healthier than rolled oats) and it was delish! Thanks, I’ll be making these all the time!
What quantity of honey did you use?