The most delicious and easy Vegan Gluten-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies that are just 7 ingredients, oil-free, made in 1 bowl and dairy-free. Ready in about 20 minutes!
VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
I am a vegan cookie making machine, haha. I enjoy creating vegan cookie recipes more than anything else! When I’m not making these really popular, Easy Peanut Butter Cookies, I’m usually making these Vegan Gluten-free Chocolate Cookies or these Best Vegan Thin Mints!
My original vegan peanut butter cookies use almond flour, which many people ask to substitute, so therefore, I needed a go-to gluten-free peanut butter cookie recipe that used different gluten-free flours.
I love that these cookies are super fudgy and moist with a slightly crispy edge. In other words, the perfect cookie texture.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
You don’t need all-purpose flour here. All you need are 7 easy ingredients for these gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (+salt if your peanut butter doesn’t have it):
- White rice flour: This gives a wonderful chew to the cookies and keeps them gluten-free. I use Bob’s Red Mill. It also binds much better than brown rice flour and they aren’t as dry as brown rice flour would make them.
- Tapioca starch: This replaces eggs and gives browning, structure and a wonderful texture to the cookies. Using all white rice flour would result in them being too gritty. The tapioca balances out the overall texture.
- Peanut butter: Use an all-natural peanut butter here, without added oil or sugar. Salt is fine. I like the Simple Truth Brand that I buy from Kroger.
- Maple syrup
- Baking powder
- Vanilla extract
- Dairy-free vegan chocolate chips: I use either the Heb brand, Enjoy Life brand or Sprouts or Trader Joe’s. Always check the ingredient list to make sure milk/dairy is not added.
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Step 1: Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk them well.
Step 2: Add the peanut butter, syrup, vanilla and chocolate chips. Stir until a thick batter forms.
Step 3: Form balls using 2 tablespoons worth of the batter and place about 2 inches apart on the pan, 9 on each pan.
Step 4: Flatten each cookie with your hands to 1/4 inch thick which should yield them to about 2 inches wide.
Step 5: Bake for just 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden. Enjoy!
WHY YOU’LL LOVE THESE PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
- Easy to make with Only 7 ingredients!
- Gluten-free: Including, not having any oats, which many people cannot eat that avoid gluten. So, they are really allergy-friendly!
- Fudgy
- Perfectly sweetened
- 1 bowl
- 20 minutes from start to finish!
- Impress your non-vegan friends and family
TIPS AND SUBSTITUTIONS
- If you are allergic to peanut butter, you could try cashew butter, since it’s a very similar thickness and texture as peanut butter. You do not want to do almond butter here, it is much more oily and runny. I have plenty of almond butter cookie recipes already on the blog, linked below.
- If you are not gluten-free you can try subbing the white rice flour with regular all-purpose flour if you are not gluten-free. See the NOTES below for tips.
- You can sub the tapioca starch with cornstarch and it will give similar results.
- Agave can be subbed for the maple syrup.
MORE VEGAN COOKIE RECIPES
- Cashew Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Gluten-free Sugar Cookies
- Best Vegan Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Almond Butter Blossoms
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Vegan Old-Fashioned Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Best Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Coconut Cookies (reader favorite!)
Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten-free)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (80g) white rice flour (brown will make them crumble, see NOTES below for sub) This is regular white rice flour, not the "sticky white rice" flour
- 1/4 cup (32g) tapioca starch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (if your peanut butter has added salt, then omit)
- 1/2 cup (160g) pure maple syrup
- 1 cup (256g) natural creamy peanut butter (with no added oils or sugar) I buy the Simple Truth brand from Kroger
- 1 teaspoon (5g) vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (180g) dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips
NOTE
- Always use a scale for accuracy when baking following MY gram weights listed. You never need cups, nor to compare cups with weights, just use the scale and bowl. All my recipes are tested strictly using my weights listed and this will produce exact results.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Add the rice flour, tapioca starch, baking powder and salt to a large bowl and whisk well.
- To the same bowl, pour the syrup over the dry ingredients. Add the peanut butter, vanilla and chocolate chip and stir to combine everything. The batter will seem loose and wet at first but you will need to stir for around 2 minutes until it comes together into a thick, cohesive batter. It should no longer be wet. That is the nature of peanut butter.
- Form balls using 2 tablespoons worth of the batter and place about 2 inches apart on the pan, 9 on each pan. Flatten each cookie with your hands to 1/4 inch thick which should yield them to about 2 inches wide. Flatten them with a patting motion going around the cookie to keep the round shape. Refer to photos in the post for visual help.
- Bake only 1 pan at a time for 10-12 minutes. I did mine at 12 minutes, this will yield a crispier cookie and a nice golden brown color. Repeat with the 2nd pan.
- Cool 10 minutes on the pan, no exception, or they will fall apart. They firm up as they cool. Then transfer to cool completely on a rack.
Notes
Nutrition
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I subbed Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free baking blend for the white rice flour and it worked just fine. These cookies are delicious!
Oh that is wonderful to hear Tom, thank you so much for the lovely feedback!
Can I replace the maple syrup with honey? If so, how many grams of honey should I use? Thanks!
Hi Stephanie, I never use honey so I can’t give advice on how much you would need. I do know that honey is much sweeter than maple syrup and much, much thicker and stickier, so it will change the texture of the batter and sweetness level. I guess try to use the same amount, I’m not sure since it’s been years since I’ve used it!
Can cornstarch be used in place of tapioca?
You can try it! It might make them slightly more tender since tapioca has stronger binding qualities, but just make sure to let the cookies fully cool before picking up and that should help.
Just made these and they are SO good! I have tried a handful of your recipes and they’ve yet to disappoint! So glad I found your IG/website 🙂
Thank you so much Kathryn! So glad to hear how much you are enjoying my recipes and these cookies, thank you so much for the lovely review!
The Vegan 8 has been a go-to source for yummy vegan meals for our family for quite some time. After going gluten-free for health reasons a few months ago it’s been hard to find good vegan and gluten-free cookie recipes. So excited to have found this one for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!! I love peanut butter and I love chocolate… WINNER! Even had to fight my parents for the cookies 🍪 (who are not gluten-free).
Thank you so much Alli for such a thoughtful and amazing review! I’m so honored you are enjoying my recipes so much, thank you! So glad you and your parents loved these!
We love your Chocolate chip cookies and your peanut butter ones AND now they had a baby with these fabulous nuggets if wonderfulness. Chewy and a little crispy and I mean it’s chocolate and peanut butter. Need I say more? I dare say the dough barely made it on the cookie sheet. I did manage to cook a few.. haha
Yay! Thank you Estee for making them! So happy you loved them so much!
Made these today. Very good, although distinctly different texture than regular flour. Will share with my dietitian coworkers tomorrow and see what they think. And for all of us non-bakers unfamiliar with tapioca starch, I now know it’s the same as tapioca flour (at least that’s what Bob’s Red Mill package says) 😀 Thanks for all your great recipes!
Thanks you for this delicious recipe! I made the cookies today, can’t believe how simple and quick they were to make and they taste amazing!
I’m just so happy to hear that Jemma, thank you so much for the review!
Would soya nut butter work? Tastes just like peanut butter and my son won’t need his epi pens!! 🙂
I think so! I’ve never used that nut butter before so I honestly have no idea how it bakes up since it’s not made with just purely nuts. You can try it though!
It’s really yummy. I’ll give it a go and see how it works!
http://wowbutter.com/
I couldn’t imagine a more perfect looking cookie! And love that they’re non traditional and made with rice flour and tapioca – I would never have guessed that. Love the recipe, Brandi!
Thank you so much Nisha! They turned out just as amazing as any I’ve ever had with butter or white flour!
Hi Brandi, I just made these this past weekend for my family. They were terrific!!! I adjusted the second batch cooking time to the full 12 minutes and found the consistency much crispier than the first, but both were great! Thanks so much for sharing this with us!
Yay! So very happy to hear that Daniel! Thank you for the wonderful review!
These seem very quick and easy to make and they look delicious 🙂
Thank you, yes, very quick and definitely delicious!
Well a cookie recipe huh? Weird for you….LMAO There can NEVER be enough cookies. You hear me? NEVER!
Just made these and they are fantastic!!!!! Yum, finally a cookie I can eat, thank-you!
Yayyyy! So happy to hear that Molly! Thank you so much for leaving a review!
Hi Melody! I don’t have it yet but will try to get it added this evening. If you both are diabetic though, I would worry about the sugar and fat content of these cookies moreso than the carbs. These definitely are not what I would call diabetic-friendly because of all the sugar in the chocolate chips and maple syrup. If you are looking for a healthier cookie with less sugar, these peanut butter cookies are less sugar and not too much syrup used. I would skip the sugar coating.
https://thevegan8.com/2013/01/21/4-ingredient-vegan-peanut-butter-cookies/
Hehe!!! I don’t know that the cookie dough would make it onto a baking sheet in our house!!! Chocolate chip cookie dough is dangerous! I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, you’re the cookie queen!! Or cookie wizard 🙂 OK, really you’re the dessert queen and without having made these, i can pretty much say without a doubt that these will be amazing! I have yet to try a cookie recipe of yours that I didn’t devour. I can’t wait to make these for my family!
Haha, thank you my friend!! You are too sweet! Yes, you are so right, the cookie dough itself is so dangerous, but thankfully totally safe to eat!! I owe you an email!! Love you!
White rice and tapioca–I did not see that coming. I haven’t worked with rice flour in forever, and I am intrigued that two quite sticky flours together can make for such a marvelous looking cookie. You are some sort of flour combining scientists over there whipping out cookie experiments and always finding delicious new combos no one expects 🙂 But that little ball of dough just glistening with peanut butter richness on the pan…are you SURE we have to bake them? Haha! It would be a crime not to be generous with the chocolate chips and the salt on this one. I mean reese’s in cookie form, does it get any better than that? No. And GIMME!
Hahaha flour combining scientist! LOL! I honestly just find it so darn fun and intriguing how there really is no end to the creative combos of gluten-free flours that actually DO work amazing! I have another one that I used for a baked muffin recipe in my cookbook that I’ve never used before either on the blog that blew me away! 😉 Haha, seriously, I admit I ate my share of spoonfuls of the cookie dough before I baked it. Thanks girl!!
These look delicious! How many do these make?
Hi Phoebe! It says 18 cookies at the very top of the printout recipe sheet 🙂 It’s kind of small but on all the recipes, it will have the yields in that top left corner 🙂 It makes a nice size batch of cookies!
Looks great! Can cashew butter and coconut flour be used?
Hi Louisa! Cashew butter should work okay but definitely don’t use coconut flour. Coconut flour is VERY absorbent and very drying to baked goods. It would make them crumble terribly. The white rice flour or even all-purpose regular flour really work best here.
These look delicious! Is there another flour we could substitute for rice flour that would work? I feel like I’ve purchased so many different types of flour that I’d like to use one I already have – whole wheat, spelt or almond?
Hi Sarah! You can try spelt. Whole wheat and almond would not work as well. I have of course not tested spelt so can’t guarantee the results, but it should work similarly. Spelt does have a grain taste though, so it will somewhat change the flavor. Hopefully they bind okay. Make sure to let them cool and let me know how they turn out please!
If you want to bake some with almond flour, here is my original peanut butter cookie recipe that uses just almond flour. You can always add chocolate chips to the batter if you want!
https://thevegan8.com/2013/01/21/4-ingredient-vegan-peanut-butter-cookies/
SOOOOOO yummy!!! I followed the recipe to the T and it is fabulous. They are moist on the inside and a little crisp on the outside. I have never been disappointed with any of the recipes. You are my go to blog and I sing your praises to everyone that will listen:-) Can’t wait for the cookbook!
Woohoo! So happy to hear this Susan! Thank you so much for such an amazing review! You really made my day, thank you so much for such kind words about my recipes and your excitement for the cookbook. It means so much to me!
Can we use regular flour?
Hi DG! I haven’t tested it personally but think so. It will change the texture some and possibly make them a bit drier but think it should work. Let me know!
Would I need the tapioca starch if using regular flour?
Without testing them, this is just a guess, but I would try just using 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons of the all-purpose flour and omit the starch, so you will need 80 grams of all-purpose flour. I think that should work, but again, can’t confirm as I’ve not tested this version. If after mixing the batter for a minute or two, if it’s still not thickened up and rollable into balls, add another tablespoon of flour. Let me know if you try it.
These sound good but oil free is misleading with 1 cup of peanut butter. Peanut oil?
Oil-free meaning oil is not an added or listed ingredient. They are not fat-free, but oil is not added. 90% of cookie recipes use oil or butter, I never use those in my recipes. I stick to whole foods, like nuts for the fat instead of processed oils. The peanut butter I use is just peanuts ground up. Just like flax seeds have natural oils and even lemons/oranges have natural oils but they aren’t technically oils. Oil by itself is 100% liquid fat. Nuts still have their whole nutritional profile of protein, carbs, fat, etc. Hope this clears things up!
Can’t wait to try making these cookies, never cooked with rice flour before but I’m digging finding vegan cookies to swap for regular ones.
Just a friendly note, in the recipe section you mention “Try these Chocolate Chip Cookies instead if allergic to peanut butter.” but there’s no hyperlink 🙂
Hi Nicole! Oops, sorry about that, I’ve added it now! Just make sure you use white rice flour for this particular recipe 🙂
These look tempting, but Every time I make one of your cookie recipes that contain rice flour, they crumble. I use Bob’s Red Mill. Bet the raw dough would be fabulous though!
Are you using white and not brown?? That is a huge difference in the result. I only have one other cookie recipe on the blog that uses white rice flour and not one reader has had trouble with them, the Iced Oatmeal Cookies. In fact, they are my most popular cookies and hold together fantastic. These do not crumble. I’ve made them 4 times already. The white rice combined with tapioca is what binds them. As long as you let them cool (as instructed) on the pan, they firm up considerably. If you try to remove them while still warm, they will definitely crumble.