It’s no joke, these soft vegan peanut butter cookies contain no oil or butter, but still manage to be everything you want in a soft peanut butter cookie!
I was craving peanut butter cookies one day, but I had some pumpkin puree I needed to use, and it was February, so making pumpkin cookies felt a little odd. Also, it wouldn’t have solved my craving for peanut butter cookies, so would have been pretty pointless. I was also trying out a 100% vegan diet, so my usual peanut butter cookie recipe was a no-go too since it has eggs. But I really really really really really really really wanted peanut butter cookies.
Oh, and I didn’t want to buy vegan butter. Because somehow that felt like cheating when it came to making the cookies??? I’m not sure how, but the alternative solution solved two problems for me, so it all worked out. First of all, I didn’t have to go to the store and second, I was able to use the pumpkin puree I wasn’t going to use for the pumpkin cookies I didn’t want at the time. I also got to make this little video which made my on-a-whim cookies feel that much fancier:
What I really love about this recipe is that these are actually soft vegan peanut butter cookies, as in, if you leave them in an airtight container they are still soft a few days later. I also appreciate that the pumpkin lends a bit extra fiber so you feel slightly more virtuous while eating them.
I used a natural style smooth peanut butter (the kind you have to refrigerate), which I find takes a little longer to set up in baking, so don’t skip refrigerating the dough if you want pretty cookies. I measured the cookies out using a 1 tablespoon-sized cookie scoop, which gave me a nicely sized cookie – something large enough to be satisfying, but small enough that I could eat two without automatically needing to eat plain salad for dinner. Balance. 😉
Soft Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, 192 g
- 1 cup brown sugar, 213 g
- 1 tbsp ground flax
- 2 tbsp warm water, 29 mL or 1 oz
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 c all purpose flour, 90 g
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, 120 g
- granulated sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Mix together the ground flax and warm water in a small bowl and set aside 10-15 minutes while you gather the rest of your ingredients.
- Cream together the peanut butter, brown sugar, and pumpkin puree in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the flax "egg".
- Sift together the baking soda, salt, and flour, then mix into the peanut butter mixture, stirring until just combined. Refrigerate the dough 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 375 F (190 C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and scoop into 1 tbsp sized portions. Roll each in sugar, and then place on your prepared baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies 8-10 minutes, rotating the pans once during baking.
- Allow the cookies to set on the pans 5-10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Nicole @Little Blog on the Homestead
Sunday 3rd of April 2016
These look great! I love peanut butter cookies a whole lot! When I was a vegan I made them with bananas which was pretty tasty but not quite as virtuous as pumpkin! I'm thinking I might revisit my vegan diet this summer and see if that helps me out, I love how I felt when I was 100% vegan