Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These gluten free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are rich, chewy and bursting with flavor. They have perfectly crisp edges, soft and gooey centers and are so easy to make!

These gluten free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies have been in the works for a looong time. They started with several not so great attempts a few months ago, so I put the recipe on pause and came back a few months later. Same thing with my marble chocolate chip cookies!

It took about 7 tries to get to this final recipe, but it was WELL worth it! These cookies are rich, full of flavor, buttery (even if you opt to use coconut oil!) and entirely gluten free AND dairy free.

They have perfectly crispy edges with soft and gooey centers, but you can easily bake them for longer if you like a more well done center.

Even though it’s called peanut butter, I don’t recommend swapping peanut butter for butter in recipes. If you want more of a classic recipe, try these chocolate chip cookies instead!

Or, if you’re craving some oatmeal cookies, you can sub the almond butter for peanut butter in my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! If you love this recipe, try my small batch chocolate chip cookies or browned butter chocolate chip cookies next!

Before we get started…

• With over 1/2 cup of real, natural peanut butter, these cookies truly have the best flavor. I suggest sticking with natural peanut butter and not peanut butter spread.
• There is only one egg here so you can safely sub for your favorite vegan egg alternative.
• Let the dough rest! This will help deepen the flavors and ensure the cookies don’t spread prematurely.

How to make gluten free peanut butter cookies

Cream butter and sugar. In a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened butter or oil and both sugars. Cream together for about 1 minute.

Add all wet ingredients. Add in the peanut butter, vanilla and egg. Beat together until creamy.

Fold in dry ingredients. Add in the flour, making sure to spoon and level to measure, salt and baking soda. Mix together with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Let dough rest. Let the dough sit out at room temperature for 1 hour. This will not only prevent the cookies from spreading too much but will also allow the flavors to deepen.

I have found chilling the dough in the fridge is too much and the cookies don’t end up spreading well, so letting it sit at room temp is ideal.

Scoop. After 1 hour, preheat the oven to 350. Use a two tablespoon cookie scoop and scoop the cookies into balls. place no more than 6 on a cookie sheet at a time since they will spread.

Bake. Bake for 11-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. The center will still be soft, but this is what you want.

As soon as they are out of the oven, sprinkle with a few additional chocolate chips and use a round cookie cutter to scoot into perfectly round cookies.

Serve. Let cool, then sprinkle with flaky salt and enjoy! Try my pistachio chocolate chip cookies next!

Key ingredients

Butter. You’ll need one stick of butter for these cookies which we’ll cream together with the sugars. I suggest unsalted.

Sugar. A mix of white sugar and brown sugar will give these gluten free cookies a lot of flavor as well as the perfect crisp edges but chewy centers.

Peanut butter. The star of the show! I suggest natural peanut butter, but you can use something like jif or skippy if that’s all you have.

Egg. One large egg will help bind all ingredients together.

Flour. I used the Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour in the blue bag which I recommend here. If you use a different blend, just make sure it has xanthan gum.

Swaps and substitutions

Dairy. You can easily make these dairy free by using a dairy free butter in place of the regular butter. Coconut oil is an ok option as well, but butter will yield a richer flavor.

Eggs. Since there is only one egg in these cookies, you can safely swap for a vegan option with little to no issue. I suggest either a flax egg or 3 tablespoons of apple sauce.

Sugar. You need a mix of white sugar and brown sugar, which add moisture but also give a crispy edge. You can swap the brown sugar for coconut sugar, but for best results, I suggest keeping the white sugar as is!

Flour. I opted to use a gluten free 1:1 baking flour, but regular all purpose flour is totally fine if you aren’t gluten free.

How to store and freeze

To store. Once prepared, these cookies will store at room temperature for about 3 days. I suggest storing these in an air tight container at room temperature for best results.

I like to warm them up in the microwave before serving for about 10 seconds so they’re good as new!

To freeze. Prepare the cookie dough as using with the 1 hour of rest time. Then, scoop into balls and place in a zip lock bag or freezer safe container.

Freeze until you’re ready to bake. Lower the temperature to 325 Fahrenheit and bake for a few minutes longer to account for the frozen dough.

The best peanut butter for baking

My recommendation may vary from what other bloggers recommend, but I suggest using natural peanut butter.

The only ingredients should be peanuts and salt. I have tested this recipe with peanut butter “spreads” like Skippy and Jif, but I find the cookies are a bit more oily and the flavor isn’t as rich.

Those brands also have added sugar and oil, so they can change the way the cookies bake.

Gluten free cookies you’ll love

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