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Throughout my entire childhood, my mom worked part-time, which meant that she left us at home during the summers from 7 am until 2 pm. Mom hired a baby-sitter while we were still in grade school, but once I reached middle school, she trusted us to stay by ourselves. Â
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My younger brother and I knew how to serve ourselves breakfastâshake out the cereal box and pour in the milkâbut Mom always stocked the fridge with our favorite lunch items of yogurt, bread, cheese, and lots of fruit. However, the jar of peanut butter called my name fairly loudly every once in a while, so Iâd wander into the pantry and grab that instead.
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On those days, lunch consisted of two things: peanut butter and crackers. Iâd dip one buttery cracker into the jar at a time, scraping up at least a teaspoon of peanut butter every time. With 10-15 crackers for lunch, that really added up⌠And Mom had to buy a fresh jar nearly every other week!
But besides crackers, sandwiches, and toast, we didnât really eat peanut butter any other way, including desserts. (I always preferred my cookies with lots of chocolate!) But after seeing one too many peanut butter treats on Pinterest, I decided that might need to change and set out to make theseâŚ
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The Ultimate Healthy Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies! Theyâre soft, chewy, and have a prominent nutty peanut butter flavor, but not too much to make you feel bogged down and sluggish. With the irresistible balance of sweet and salty, these wonât last long at all in your cookie jar!
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To help you understand what makes these the ultimate healthy peanut butter cookies, letâs talk a little baking science. (Or feel free to skip this section and head straight to the recipe!)
First off, the dry ingredients. I chose white whole wheat flour because it gives you the benefits of fiber and extra nutrients like with regular whole wheat flour, but it has a lighter, less wheat-y taste. Then youâll need baking powder for rise and just a hint of salt. Most peanut butters already come salted, so adjust the amounts to suit your tastes.
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The rest of the ingredients proved to be a bit trickier, so letâs move on to sugar. I started out by trying honey, but that added too much moisture to the cookie dough. The cookies spread as flat as pancakes, even with over 3 hours of chilling, and they tasted like muffinsânot cookies!
I switched to brown sugar and coconut sugar next because theyâre both solid sugars, so they didnât add the same moisture. Both of these options taste exactly the same (no tropical coconut taste, I promise!), but they look a little different. The coconut sugar cookies are darker and look speckled because the coconut sugar doesnât dissolve quite as well. But that doesnât affect their taste or texture!
Note: Coconut sugar is clean eating friendly, while brown sugar is not.
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And now for the most important part⌠The peanut butter! I tried making these cookies with 8, 9, and 10 tablespoons. The first batch didnât have quite enough peanut butter flavorâjust a little too faint for my tastesâbut the batch with 10 tablespoons turned out a little greasier than I wanted. So to quote Goldilocks, 9 tablespoons was âjust right!â
I originally tried using pure peanut butter and an egg as the fat sources, but those cookies failed the spread, even without chilling. To increase the spread, I omitted the egg yolk and added in a tiny bit of butter because butter melts when heated. The resulting cookies spread a tiny bit (think a few millimeters), so youâll still need to flatten the cookie dough to the thickness and width that you want.
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My secret to soft and chewy cookies? Slightly underbake them (not a second more than is called for in the recipe!), and leave them on the warm pan to cool for longer. This allows the centers to continue cooking all the way through without the outsides turning crisp and crunchy. The cookies will stay soft and chewy for an entire weekâif they last that long!
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So grab a glass of milk, your favorite jar of peanut butter, and start baking! And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees Iâll see your picture! ?) Iâd love to see your cookies and feature them in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| The Ultimate Healthy Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies | | Print |
- 2 cups (240g) white whole wheat or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 ½ tsp (4g) baking powder
- Âź tsp (2g) salt
- 1 tbsp (14g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 2 tsp (10mL) vanilla extract
- 9 tbsp (144g) homemade creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup (192g) coconut sugar or brown sugar
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, egg whites, and vanilla. Stir in the peanut butter until completely incorporated. Stir in the sugar. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated.
- Roll the dough into 24 balls, and place onto the prepared baking sheets. Flatten to the desired thickness and width. Bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Whole wheat pastry flour, regular whole wheat flour, and all-purpose flour may be substituted for the white whole wheat flour.
I highly recommend using my easy homemade creamy peanut butter recipe. (It only takes 5 minutes to make!) This recipe works best with natural-style peanut butter made with just peanuts and salt. It will also work with Skippy Natural creamy peanut butter. Do not use crunchy peanut butter; the cookies won't turn out.
Coconut sugar is clean eating friendly, while brown sugar is not.
The cookies barely spread at all during baking, so flatten them to the desired thickness and width before placing the baking sheets in the oven.
The cookie dough should look crumbly when you first mix it up, but as long as you can roll it into balls without the balls falling apart, it's the right consistency! If your cookie dough is too dry to roll into balls, add milk one tablespoon at a time until the cookie dough holds together.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat}
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
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These were a hit with the whole family, all 6 of us. I used half cup coconut sugar and 3/4 tsp powdered stevia. As my Granddaughter and I can’t have too much sugar. Thank you for sharing. Always come to your blog for the best tasting and healthy desert recipes…we all have a sweet tooth in this family. đ
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed these peanut butter cookies, Keri! It means so much that you and your family are enjoying my recipes. Hearing that made my entire day — thank you for taking the time to let me know!! âĄ
Could I use honey or maple sugar in this recipe or is that too much liquid?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Jennifer! Yes, honey and maple syrup would add too much liquid to the cookie dough. It’d have the consistency similar to muffin batter, and the cookies would turn out more bready and cake-like.
However, if you do have access to maple sugar (the dry granulated kind!), that should work in place of the coconut sugar or brown sugar! đ
I’d love to hear what you think of these cookies if you end up making them!
Hi! Can I put my crunchy peanut butter in a blender to make it smooth?
We really appreciate your interest in this recipe, Jamie! We haven’t personally tried that before, but as long as there are zero crunchy bits after blending, that should work! We’d love to hear what you think of these cookies if you give them a try!