These vegan chocolate peanut butter cookies are pools of chocolatey, peanut buttery goodness with layers of flavor and plenty of texture all packaged in lusciously soft delights!

It’s been a while since I baked cookies. I think it was around Christmas and I made ginger cranberry oatmeal cookies. In a home where even one day without them seems like eleventy-thousand years, that’s a really long time.

So, much to the appreciation of the people at home, Friday morning, I gathered the ingredients for vegan chocolate peanut butter cookies.

The combination had been in my head for some time because all of us are big, big fans of peanut butter and who here doesn’t love chocolate?

The cookies came out soft-baked and much like a brownie. Basically, deathly good. By the time I sat down to write this blog, only three were left. Wondering how many did I bake? 18!

How to Make Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies?

Vegan chocolate peanut butter cookies are rich, nutty, chocolaty delights that you can make in just half an hour! They bake to a creamy, fudgy consistency with the sweet/salty flavour of the peanut butter truly coming through.

In a bowl toss in the dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder – and set it aside.

In another bowl, add coconut sugar, peanut butter, coconut oil, milk, and vanilla extract. Beat the ingredients to get a creamy, fluffy mixture.

Make the dough by mixing the dry ingredients into the wet and then rolling it into small balls.

Flatten the tiny orbs slightly by using the tines of a fork and imparting that lovely signature criss-cross pattern to the chocolate peanut butter cookies.

The cookies are now ready for the oven!

Non-vegan variation

I prefer vegan recipes, but you can easily bake non-vegan chocolate peanut butter cookies. Instead of coconut oil, use softened butter.

For the milk, you can use almond, coconut or regular milk. I had some homemade almond milk, so I used that.

Gluten-free variation

For delicious, no-compromise gluten-free chocolate peanut butter cookies, use buckwheat flour. I’ve made cookies with it before, like the Lemon Buckwheat Linzer Cookies, and they come out deliciously buttery.

Quick notes

If you want to amp up the flavour of cookies, though they surprisingly don’t need it, use good cocoa powder. I feel when baking chocolate goods, you should go dark or go home.

By dark, I don’t mean the bittersweet taste. I mean the intensity. That’s why my chocolate peanut butter cookies came out dark, intense and wonderfully chocolaty.

The coconut oil has to be melted and then cooled before you pour it in.

Instead of coconut sugar, you can use brown sugar, raw sugar or even jaggery powder.

Baking the vegan chocolate peanut butter cookies

Truth be told the cookies are actually creamy peanut butter fudge masquerading as scrumptious chocolate cookies. The trick to getting that crackly exterior with a decadently tender center is not to over-bake them.

About 8 to 10 minutes should do it. I recommend keeping an eye from the eight-minute mark. If you leave them for too long, the cookies will get dry.

For me, 10 minutes was the perfect time to get that absolutely intense peanut butter savour that melts and coats the top of the palate with every mouthful of these gooey cookies!

Decorating the chocolate peanut butter cookies

Once the cookies are out of the oven and cooled (takes all of 5 minutes), you can pretty them up with some peanut butter glaze.

This is an entirely optional step, but it does add to the look of the otherwise dark cookies.

FYI, don’t judge the chocolate peanut butter cookies by their cover. The taste is phenomenal with or without the glaze.

To make the glaze, mix peanut butter with warm water and icing sugar. You can then drizzle the smooth, thick paste on the cookies using a spoon. I used a piping bag since there was one at hand.

Serving the chocolate peanut butter cookies

With the chocolate peanut butter cookies, I was gunning for soft cookies with a brownie-like thickness. Not at all cakey, but uber fudgy. Think soft, rich interiors you can sink your teeth into with a tall glass of cold milk or even a cup of coffee!

The recipe is easy. It is remarkably quick and makes about eighteen decent sized cookies. But even if it dictated that I blend 20 different types of ingredients while singing an aria, I would have done it.

The vegan chocolate peanut butter cookies are that good!

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Print Recipe

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time8 mins

Total Time23 mins

Servings: 18 cookies

Calories:

Author: Natasha Minocha

Ingredients

• 1.5 cup All purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 3/4 cup Coconut sugar You can use brown sugar instead.
• 1/2 cup Peanut butter, smooth You can use crunchy peanut butter
• 1/3 cup Coconut oil, melted and cooled You can use softened butter instead
• 1/3 cup Almond milk You can use any milk
• 1.5 tsp Vanilla

Peanut Butter Glaze ( optional)

• 1 tbsp Peanut butter
• 2 tbsp Hot water
• 1-2 tbsp Icing sugar

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with Silpat or baking paper.
• Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
• In another bowl, combine the sugar, oil, milk, peanut butter, and vanilla extract.
• Cream all of these together till a well mixed and fluffy.
• Mix the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. The mixture will look a bit crumbly but not dry. You should be able to form balls with this dough. Add some more milk, if it looks dry-ish.
• Form even sized balls with this dough and place them on the prepared tray. Make a criss-cross pattern with tines of a fork.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes. I baked mine for 10 minutes. These are soft baked cookies.
• Let cool for a few minutes on the tray before transferring on a cooling rack.
• If you want to glaze the cookies. Let them cool completely, then drizzle over the peanut butter glaze using a spoon or piping bag.

Peanut Butter Glaze

• Combine all the ingredients for the glaze in a small bowl. Whisk till very thick and smooth.