These chocolate peanut butter cookies are SO good. They can be eaten as cookies, as batter, or even rolled into balls and dusted in cocoa powder for a strange but delicious truffle/oatmeal mochi ball experience! And did I mention they’re delicious and super easy to make? If you try out this recipe, please share it with me by commenting here or on my YouTube channel, or even tagging me in a photo on Instagram @plantsnotplastic. I read every comment and love hearing from you. Enjoy!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Equipment
- nonstick or lined baking sheet
- Mixing bowl
- blender (optional if using pre-made oat flour)
Ingredients
- 1 cup oat flour ~12oz rolled oats, blended
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt optional
- 3 tbsp cane sugar
- 3 tbsp brown sugar unpacked
- 4-5 tbsp unsweetened plant milk more as needed; sub water
- 2 tbsp peanut butter
- 1.5 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips optional [note#1]
Instructions
- Combine all dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.
- Add plant milk, almond butter, vanilla extract, and 1-2 tbsp of water and combine.
- Add additional water 1 tbsp at a time until cookie texture forms [note#2], then transfer to freezer for ~20 minutes to chill the dough before baking [note#3].
- Once dough is ready, preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Form into cookie balls using ~2-3 tbsp per cookie and place on nonstick baking tray, leaving enough space for cookies to spread slightly as they bake.
- Bake 15-18 minutes on the center rack, then remove and let cool for 10 minutes on the tray.
- If needed, press down with a spoon after baking to flatten slightly.
- Serve and enjoy!
Make them Cookie Dough Balls!
- Add slightly less plant milk and you're mixing everything together, until you get a dry dough that can be easily formed into balls.
- Separate into ~2-3 tbsp per cookie and place in a freezer safe storage container so that each ball isn't touching.
- Freeze for 40 minutes or overnight and enjoy as a sweet, unbaked snack.
- Roll them in cocoa powder for an even more delicious treat!
Notes
- Will obviously make these more calorie-dense and less healthy.
- The dough should be able to be pulled together and stick to itself without being so dry that it can fully form into a ball, but not be so runny that it flattens out once you've stopped pulling it together in the bowl. As you're chilling the dough, if you notice it's too wet, you can add more flour; if it's too dry, you can add more water.
- You can freeze extra balls to make into cookies later, or to enjoy as frozen treats on their own; you can also store in fridge for two hours or more to chill the dough rather than the freezer, but I'm too impatient for that!
Video Transcript:
Hey there, welcome back to Plants Not Plastic. I’m Nikita, and today we are going to be making some peanut butter chocolate cookies that are delicious, inexpensive, simple, healthy, plant based, low fat and oil free.
Before we jump into the video, I do want to say that I use sugar in this recipe. You can play around with an alternative, though I have never actually done that with this recipe before, you could use something simple and closer to a whole food like date sugar, which is just pulverized, dried dates, so it still does have some fiber in it. Or if you want to use a liquid sweetener, like maple syrup, I would just make sure that you are adjusting the liquid appropriately, so start with adding your maple syrup first and then add the water from there so that you don’t end up with a batter that’s too runny.
The last thing I’ll say is that I have turned these into actual cookies today, but keeping it as just a cookie dough is really really good. This is the same case as with my chocolate chip cookies; if you roll them into balls and then freeze them you can just keep them raw. They are super, super tasty, and this batter specifically really reminds me of like a Reese’s peanut butter cup. It’s great for a cooler treat if you don’t want to heat up your oven during the summer. Alright with that, let’s jump into the recipe.
For my first ever recipe video on YouTube, I showed you how to make easy chocolate oatmeal cookies, for those times when you have a chocolate craving but you want to avoid running to the store and buying junk food. These chocolate peanut butter cookies have a similar backstory. One night after dinner with sweet tooth craving for chocolate chip cookies, no chocolate chips and no almond butter. BUT, with a couple of easy swaps and same base recipe as my chocolate chip cookies, I ended up with these delicious, peanut buttery, chocolately, delicious cookies that I immediately realized needed their own recipe. And honestly, that first night I just ate the cookie dough raw because, I could. It was delicious and reminded me of peanut butter cups and if you want to eat this recipe the same way, I will not judge you.
Before we get started, if you are new or you’re hanging around and not yet subscribed, click the subscribe button and the bell so you get notifications whenever I upload a new video. I release new content weekly, would love to have you stick around and appreciate your support! You can also connect with me on social media for day-to-day content and subscribe to my blog for recipes and new videos right to your inbox. And, give this video a thumbs up; it does really help.
So here’s everything you need to make this recipe. I’ll also leave everything in the description box below along with a link to the blog post with the nutrition label and a printable recipe card. And as always, this recipe will cost you less to make, have more fiber, and you’ll get to eat more of it for the same or less calories than a non-vegan or processed vegan alternative. So let’s dive in!
Start by blending up your oats to make a homemade oat flour. Then grab a medium mixing bowl, wipe of any water spots to make it pretty for the camera, then combine your dry ingredients; oat flour, baking soda, optional salt, cane and brown sugar, and cocoa powder. Mix it all together and then add your wet ingredients; the peanut butter, optional plant milk, vanilla extract, and one tablespoon of water at a time, mixing until you get a very sticky dough that can almost form into a ball but starts to deflate or melt a little bit into the bowl if you let it sit or hold it up with a spoon.
At this point you want to cover the batter and stick it in your fridge or freezer to chill for 20 minutes before baking, if you’re baking it. I tend to check it at the halfway point, stir it again to make sure the texture isn’t to wet or dry and adjust as needed by adding more flour or water. If you’re just making cookie dough balls, I would suggest adding a little less water so that you can easily form them into full dough balls and freeze them for about an hour to get them to be hardened all the way. I didn’t wait this long the first time that I ate them. They were still super tasty. You can eat the dough just straight out of the bowl if you want to, but if you want actual cookie dough balls to be able to like bite into, then you want to let them chill for a little bit longer.
If you’re baking them, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit in the last ten minutes of chilling. Remove the batter from the fridge or freezer and separate the dough into about two to three tablespoons of batter per cookie, and if your dough is drier or won’t flatten out on it’s own after your spread the dough out, use a fork or spoon to squish the dough down into cookie shapes before baking them. You’ll want to bake for 15-18 minutes until the cookies are hardened on the outside. Let them cool for a couple of minutes and they’re ready to serve up and enjoy!
These cookies are sweet and chocolately with that nice peanut butter flavor and have a soft, chewy and flakey texture. They store great on the counter at room temperature and can be enjoyed for up to a week after making them if you put them in the fridge, though they will soften up a little bit over time. And if you want my more traditional chocolate oatmeal cookie you can check that video out here, and if you’re looking for more plant based, low fat, oil free, and even gluten free desserts, you can check out that playlist here. Thank you so much for watching and see you next time. Bye!
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