Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

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These Vegan cookies are crunchy and have a great peanut flavour. I love using crunchy peanut butter for these and they make the best ice cream sandwiches!

Whether you are Vegan or not these are the best cookies.

Have you ever wondered how you can make cookies without eggs or butter?. Well read on.

Making Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

I mashed up a couple of recipes when I was making these. The aim was to end up with a cookie that was crunchy but not too dense. It needed to break easily if they were eaten as part of an ice cream sandwich.

These are perfect. They are just slightly sweet but the sugar is part of what makes the structure work and I am OK with that. Don’t get me wrong though these are just as good with a cup of tea as they are with a slab of ice cream!

Vegan baking is all about finding plant based substitutes for eggs and dairy and that means ways to leaven and bind. These cookies are not gluten free because that is an added step. I managed to get these cookies to the texture I really wanted and I just couldn’t be arsed going any further, sorry. So here it is. I think they are almost the perfect cookie (unless you have gluten problems of course)

What to use in place of eggs for plant based cooking

Fruit Puree

Fruit puree adds moisture and works as a binder in baked goods.  I usually use unsweetened apple puree / sauce but mashed bananas, pumpkin puree and even avocado are most commonly used as egg substitutes. Fruit egg substitute can be used for quick breads and cakes, and even for veggie burgers or salad dressings.

How to Substitute: Use 1/4 cup of fruit puree in place of each egg. If you are baking bread or cake and want a little extra leavening power, add 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder for every egg.

Chia Seeds or Flaxseeds

Another great substitute for eggs are ground seeds. Chia or flaxseeds are a surprisingly good way to bind. I much prefer to use chia seeds as they are a lot more gloopy and resemble eggs pretty convincingly. I just put them into a spice grinder and turn them into a powder before using.

How to Substitute: Mix one tablespoon of ground seeds with three tablespoons of water until fully absorbed and viscous. Use in place of one egg.

Keeping these cookies in peak condition is easy.  Pop them in an airtight container and keep them in the fridge.  They’ll keep for up to a month.

My favourite way to eat these cookies is layered with ice cream in a big old sandwich. Get the recipe that’s coming up here for my Vegan Chocolate ice cream sandwich.

Meantime if you want to make a simple ice cream for these try this recipe or use store bought in big scoops

Print Recipe

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

You will love these Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies no matter if you are vegan or not. They are crunchy and full of peanut butter.

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time15 mins

Course: Cookies, video

Cuisine: Baking

Keyword: cookies

Servings: 16

Calories: 185kcal

Ingredients

• 115 gm Nutalex or other butter substitute
• 200 gm caster sugar
• 250 gm peanut butter crunchy
• 190 gm flour plain
• 2 tablespoons apple sauce unsweetened
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

• Set the oven to 180 C / 350 F. You'll need a couple of paper lined flat cookie trays.
• Beat the butter and sugar in a stand mixer with a flat beater attachment . This can also be done with an electric hand mixer or by hand if you are very energetic. It needs to be well combined creamy and light.
• Mix the flour, baking powder and baking soda together. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients and mix to a dough. If using a hand held mixer, mix in with a spoon swapping to hands as the dough forms. You don't need to knead it just mix till it comes together
• Roll the dough into 30 gm (walnut sized) balls. I like to weight mine so all of my cookies are the same size 🙂
• Put the dough onto the tray at a good distance apart so when they spread they stay round. Flatten then with the palm of your hand (watch the video). Bake for 15 minutes.
• Take the tray out of the oven and check the colour of your cookies. They need to be a nice golden colour not pale.
• The cookies will be soft when they come out of the oven so let them sit for a minute before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
• These cookies keep best in the fridge in an airtight container.

Notes

I suggest baking for 15 minutes and then checking for the colour, put back into the oven and re-bake till golden and this is because every oven is different.

The cookies do get a little soft if kept on the bench. It is the non dairy butter butter that seems to affect this.

Hints on keeping these cookies fresh

Bake till golden then cool completely and put into a container with a lid and keep in the fridge till needed. This way thy stay fresh and crunchy for up to a month.

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