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Growing up, I remember my mom baking a classic four-ingredient peanut butter cookie recipe that you can find all over the internet these days. Just four ingredients – peanut butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla – and you have a delicious peanut butter cookie with a moist and perfectly crumbly texture!
We all loved those cookies back then, and I remember my Mom making them quite often – partly because they were so quick and easy to make, but also because my older brother Andy was obsessed with peanut butter.
But I was very surprised to learn recently that my husband Jack had never heard of these peanut butter cookies! So with our daughter’s first communion party planning in the works, I decided to introduce Jack to these fantastic cookies from my childhood!
We made a batch of the classic recipe – but we also made a second batch swapping in coconut sugar for the granulated sugar. The classic recipe was and always will be delicious – but the coconut sugar version was even better! (So that is the Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies with Sea Salt recipe we’re sharing here today.)
Swapping in coconut sugar for the granulated sugar gives these cookies a chewier consistency and a – for lack of a better term – a ‘milder’ sweetness that everyone seemed to prefer. We used a crunchy, all-natural peanut butter in our cookies – but your favorite smooth peanut butter can easily be swapped in.
And – a sprinkle of sea salt on top of the cookie dough adds the perfect finishing touch after it bakes…a little bit of crunch and saltiness against the sweetness of the cookie. We hope you’ll give this version of these Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies with Sea Salt a try – and let us know which you prefer!
P.S. Hand modeling credits above go to my brother-in-law Joe who was visiting us last week. (Hi Joe!) 🙂
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies with Sea Salt
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-natural peanut butter (creamy or crunchy, your choice)
- 2 cups coconut sugar (granulated sugar can be used instead)
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Sea salt, to sprinkle on top (optional but highly recommended)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl with a wooden spoon, mix peanut butter, coconut sugar, eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined.
- Line two sheet trays with parchment paper.
- Scoop out 36 balls just under an ounce each. I used a number 40 scoop. Place 18 on each pan and with a dinner fork, press fork marks into each cookie.
- Sprinkle with a little sea salt (or kosher salt if you can not get sea salt).
- Bake five minutes, turn pan and bake five more. The bottoms will be slightly browned and the cookies will be very soft. Let rest on pan for five minutes to set up then using a spatula, move to a cooling rack to finish cooling. They will firm up as they cool.
- Note, if you are baking both pans at once, the baking time may be a little longer than ten minutes.
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Due to dietary restrictions, I can’t have peanut butter. Do you think it might work with almond butter, instead?
Hi Meredith – We haven’t tried making these cookies with almond butter ourselves, but I definitely think it would work! (Please let us know how they come out if you try it!)
Absolutely wonderful! The only bad thing was I ate the whole pan. I made this recipe twice. The first time with real sugar and crunchy jiffy peanut butter, as I didn’t have coconut sugar or enough raw peanut butter. They were very good. The second time I made them just as the recipe States and they were fantastic. So good ,very uniquely flavored and so chewy. YUM…..Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks Sherry! I agree – these cookies are even better with the ‘healthier’ sugar and peanut butter! So glad you enjoyed the cookies!
I’ve heard people talking about 4-ingredient pb cookies, but have never tried them myself. That needs to change! And I love the idea of sprinkling some sea salt over top.
These cookies look amazing! Love that topping of sea salt and the fact they are big on the peanut butter flavor…yum!
I love salt on top of cookies, it’s the perfect balance of sweet and salty. Now I just need to figure out how to get that plate of cookies here in front of me.
My mother made them, too! I haven’t ever made them myself but after seeing these, I want to change that. 🙂
What a fantastic idea to use the coconut sugar!!
I’m loving that sprinkle of sea salt on the top! Great contrast with both the chewiness and sweetness of the cookie.
I love that you can use the natural peanut butter. I will be making these
I hope you love them as much as we do!
Love a cookie that has few ingredients and really you can change out the sugar to anything you prefer to work with so I love the recipe even more!!