Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

These flourless cookies are a quick fix and packed with big peanut butter flavor. They’re soft-baked for your ultimate snacking pleasure!

Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Hello! I hope everyone reading this is doing well and feeling fine. I’m still baking on the practical side, trying to conserve and stretch ingredients, although yesterday’s post might make you think differently. However, the Easter Bunny Cake was created weeks ago when my kitchen life was different. Now it feels like an extravagance to have enough butter to whip up a big batch of buttercream frosting!

Until life gets back to normal (and it will!), I’m leaning into easy recipes that rely on fewer ingredients, and that give us happiness and comfort. These cookies fit that description.

Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Oatmeal is an ingredient that you can always find in my pantry. It’s a wonderful replacement for flour in this recipe. I used old-fashioned rolled oats, which gives the baked cookies chewy texture. If you only have quick-cooking oats, those will work too, but the cookies will be slightly softer.

Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Eggs have been scarce, but this dough uses only uses 1, which I think is a pretty good trade-off for 1 1/2 dozen cookies. I considered halving this recipe, but then thought better of it. 18 cookies disappear pretty fast in my house (especially peanut butter cookies!). But if you’re not keen on baking a whole batch, then the dough freezes beautifully. Freeze half for later and your future self will thank you.

Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Portion the cookies using a cookie scoop if you have one, or if you don’t, the amount of dough per cookie is about 4 teaspoons (4 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon). Roll cookies into balls and then flatten with your palm or the bottom of a cup or bowl.

Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

10 minutes of oven time will yield a soft-baked cookie with set edges and a soft middle. Fresh from the oven they’ll be too soft to transfer to a cooling rack, so allow them to cool on the pan.

This is such an easy little weekend bake with big payoff! Keep them in a zip-top bag with the air removed, or in an air-tight container and they’ll last all week.

Flourless Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Heather Baird
If you’re avoiding gluten, be sure to use oats and baking chips clearly labeled “gluten-free”.
5 from 3 votes
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 18

Ingredients
 
 

  • 1 cup 270g smooth/creamy peanut butter (shelf-stable)
  • 3/4 cup 160g brown sugar, tightly packed
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup 75g old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/3 cup 55g semisweet chocolate chips, plus more for garnish

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350◦F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the peanut butter and brown sugar. Mix well on medium speed until creamy. Beat in the egg; mix in the vanilla extract.
  • To the creamed mixture, add the oats, baking soda and baking powder. Beat on low speed until crumbly; mixture will be thick. Use a rubber spatula to fully incorporate the ingredients into the mixture. Fold in 1/3 cup of semisweet chocolate chips.
  • Portion the dough using a cookie scoop (4 teaspoons, or 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon), roll into balls between your palms, and transfer to the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with your palm or the bottom of a cup or bowl. Dot tops of cookies with 3-4 additional chocolate chips.
  • Bake for 10 minutes and cool completely on the pans. Transfer cookies to an air-tight container, or a zip-top bag with the air removed.

Notes

Freeze cookies: After dough is rolled into balls, transfer them on the cookie sheet to the freezer. When the dough is frozen, transfer them to a zip-top bag with the air removed and return to the freezer. Thaw and flatten before baking as directed.
Keyword baked oatmeal, pantry staples, peanut butter balls
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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penguinstamper
penguinstamper
3 years ago

Can't wait to try these. They look phenomenal!

Amy D
Amy D
3 years ago

Thank you for the encouragement that life will get back to normal. Things are feeling pretty extreme these days.
Made your rainbow checkerboard cake for my husband's birthday. He helped put the layers together and was so excited to show our friends he cut into it before I could get back to the table with matches for the candles! It was a labor of love and worth every minute. Delicious!

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
3 years ago
Reply to  Amy D

Hi Amy! Things are definitely extreme right now – we're all in uncharted territory – together (apart!). Through this quarantine I think it's important to have some normalcy, which is why baking feels so therapeutic. To me, anyway. 🙂

That checkerboard cake is definitely a labor of love! How wonderful that you made it together. Thank you for trying the recipe. It is really cool to slice, right?! Happy Birthday to your hubby! Stay well! xo

Anonymous
Anonymous
3 years ago

That is really sweet that your husband helped you! <3

Bellaleemarie
Bellaleemarie
3 years ago

I love all of your recipes! I have been making your Easter breads for a couple of years now and my family goes crazy for them.. my son ate one by himself between breakfast and snacking lol.
Question.. I just used my LAST egg! Can I substitute with something else that won't change the taste or texture???

Thanks!!!!! ��