These are the best soft, chewy vegan peanut cookies! Their fluffy shape and soft interior are irresistible. Creamy peanut butter is the main ingredient in a simple list, and a little sea salt is the perfect finishing touch.
I love these holiday cookies; they certainly don’t have to be limited to the holiday season.
But today, I will share a cookie that should be in your snack drawer all year long.
These vegan peanut crackers are the soft, chewy cookies of my dreams. If I have to choose between crunchy and chewy cookies, I’ll go with chewy cookies any day – these round, fluffy, nutty little snacks will do the trick.
The most peanut-flavored peanut cookie
I’ve made vegan peanut cookies, but they taste less peanut-filled than these cookies.
Purity of taste is a great thing for a peanut lover like me. It’s also suitable for people who like to eat sweet cookies, but not too sweet.
Right after I made these cookies for the first time, I was with a friend who didn’t like dessert. I hesitated to share it with her because I knew she didn’t want cookies.
My friend loves peanuts, though, and she seemed excited to try the freshly roasted ones. She also really likes cookies, which makes me happy.
Why is there such a strong peanut smell?
It’s just a matter of ingredients and proportions. Smooth peanut butter is the only fat source here, so it is essential to the recipe.
The main inspiration for this recipe is a great almond butter chocolate chip cookie from recipe creator Jesse May, which I tried a few years ago. I was also inspired by America’s Test Kitchen chocolate chip cookies, a longtime favorite of mine, which incorporate almond butter into the dough.
These two cookie recipes proved to me that nut butter could be just as effective as vegan butter or oil in some baked goods, and they add a lovely nutty flavor to the recipe.
For this particular recipe, a nutty flavor is essential. The base of peanut butter can be delivered to your door.
Vegetarian peanut cookie ingredients
The ingredients list for these vegan peanut crackers is relatively simple. I’ve found that the fewer ingredients a recipe has, the more impact each ingredient has.
So, it’s worth highlighting some of the ingredients in these cookies.
Flax egg
Flax “eggs” consist of a tablespoon of ground flax seed mixed with a few tablespoons of water. The mixture thickens and takes on a micro gelatinous texture, which helps recreate the bonding effect of the eggs during baking.
I don’t always use flax eggs in my vegetarian desserts. Egg substitutes are usually not necessary if the original recipe calls for two or fewer eggs.
However, egg substitutes are essential in some recipes. Thanks to flax eggs, these vegan peanut cookies retain shape and have an excellent chewy texture.
My usual flax-egg ratio is one tablespoon of flax to three tablespoons of water. For these cookies, I used four tablespoons of water, and the extra tablespoon is important for their consistency.
Plain, unbleached flour
Plain flour is my first choice when baking. If you need to replace it with gluten-free flour, I recommend an all-purpose gluten-free flour. My personal favorite is King Arthur Baking Company’s one-measure flour.
Baking powder
I usually add a small amount of baking soda to the cookies instead of baking powder. However, baking powder works for these cookies. It helps to create the soft, fluffy, chewy texture I want.
Coconut sugar or brown sugar
I’ve given you two options for peanut cookie sweeteners: coconut sugar or brown sugar, light or dark.
Both sweeteners are helpful. I mostly opt for brown sugar because it’s cheaper than coconut sugar, and I’m more likely to eat it at home. But I love the subtle caramel taste of coconut sugar.
In summary, regular cane sugar will also be helpful in this recipe. It gives baked goods a little less moisture than brown sugar, but the two are interchangeable for these cookies.
Creamy peanut butter
It’s time to add the most essential cookie ingredient: peanut butter.
Vanilla extract
You can’t taste the vanilla extract in this recipe, but I think it deepens the cookies’ flavor.
salt
The recipe calls for two types of salt: fine salt, which adds flavor to the cookie itself, and Melton salt, which adds a little crunch and saltiness to the top of the peanut cookie.
Both are essential! It’s well worth keeping sea salt flakes at home, even if it’s just for baking cookies.
Roasted salted peanuts
Sea salt isn’t the only ingredient in peanut cookies; they also contain small, chopped, roasted, and salted whole peanuts.
Those peanut chunks contribute to the flavor of the cookies, and they also provide some interesting textures.
How to make vegetarian peanut cookies
Chewy vegan peanut cookies aren’t hard to make, but there are a few tips to keep in mind. I’ll show you how.
Step 1 Make flax “eggs”
Place the ground flax and water in a medium mixing bowl. Add the water, stir, and set the mixture aside for a few minutes.
Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients
In a separate bowl—it can be slightly smaller—whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Step 3: Mix wet ingredients
Now add the flax eggs. Combine the peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla with the water and flaxseed and stir well.
The wet ingredients for this recipe are creamy peanut butter, sugar, and a vegan flax “egg”.
Step 4: Add dry material to wet material
Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture.
This is the tricky part: you need to use some physical strength to mix the dough! Stir everything together with a spoon. The dough will be very thick.
Your peanut cookie dough will on the thick side, but you should be able to easily shape it into cookie balls.
Step 5: Lay the dough down
Let your peanut cookie dough sit in the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes, or you can cover the bowl and refrigerate for up to 2 hours.
Step 6: Roll
Scoop up the dough with a large spoon and shape it into a ball with your hands.
During this process, I recommend that you wet your hands slightly to make rolling out the dough easier. The balls should be more than an inch in diameter.
Step 7: Decorate
Top each dough with a few chopped, salted, roasted peanuts. When you do this, you can press on the balls slightly. You’re not trying to squash them; you’re just relaxing them a little bit.
Hand roll the dough into balls that are about 1 1/4-inches / 3cm in diameter and decorate each with a few pieces of roasted, salted, and chopped peanuts.
Finally, sprinkle the sea salt slices over all the cookies.
Step 8: Bake
Now, it’s time to bake the cookies.
Bake in an oven at 175°C for 9 minutes.
The cookies may not look quite ready after nine minutes in the oven, but they’ll continue baking for a few minutes after you remove them. Resist over-baking in order to achieve a perfectly soft and chewy texture!
Cookies may not look “done” when they are taken out of the oven, and that’s okay.
Resist the urge to overbake. Fresh cookies will continue to bake, and if you’re not careful, you could ruin their soft, chewy texture.
Step 9: Cool down
As much as you might like to eat cookies immediately, it’s worth chilling them for 20 minutes before enjoying them. At this point, they will be soft, but they will solidify.
Finished cookies will be set at the edges and nicely soft inside.
Step 10: Storage
These cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days. They do not need refrigeration. Store them at room temperature.
Ingredients
1 TBSP flax meal (8g)
4 TBSP water (60ml)
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (90g)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup coconut sugar or light-packed brown sugar (100g; You can use sugar instead.
6 tablespoons smooth creamy peanut butter (90g)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons chopped dry roasted salted peanuts
Ophiopogon salt (for decoration)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175°C.
- Place the ground flax and water in a medium mixing bowl. Add the water, stir, and set the mixture aside.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate medium mixing bowl.
- Add sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla extract to the flax mixture. Blend until smooth and even.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir with a spoon until well-mixed. Allow the mixture to rest in the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes, or cover the bowl and refrigerate for up to 2 hours.
- Use a tablespoon to scoop up the dough and use your hands to shape it into a ball about 1 1/4 inches (3 cm) in diameter. Your goal is to eat 10-12 cookies.
- Place the cookies on a nonstick pan, parchment paper, or a baking sheet covered with gauze. Gently crush a small amount of peanuts onto each cookie using light pressure. Then, sprinkle malt powder on top of the biscuits.
- Bake the cookies for 9 minutes. They should be fluffy and golden brown, and the texture should be soft, so be careful not to overbake!
- Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack and cool for at least 20 minutes before serving—store cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
