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Built off of my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, these irresistible cookies are unapologetically thick, and soft, with a slightly crispy, slightly chewy edge, and an almost gooey middle. Even better, the pockets of melted dark chocolate are complemented by undertones of peanut butter for what some would consider the perfect flavor combination!
Here’s Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
- It’s clean eating and gluten free – we make use of a blend of almond flour, and a Gluten Free Flour blend.
- It was created specifically to use natural peanut butter, most other cookie recipes avoid natural peanut butter because it tends to make the dough dry and crumbly, not the case here!
- It is so easy to make and requires no special equipment beyond a bowl and spatula, plus a scoop and baking tray!
- Each cookie has 6 g of protein thanks to the eggs, almond flour, peanut butter and heart-healthy oats.
- I bake these cookies up LARGE to make 1 dozen but you can easily split them to make 2 dozen smaller cookies.
- The dough for these cookies can be made in advance and it also freezes well for future use!
- I’ve included two not-so-secret flavor enhancers to take our dough to the next level, they’re optional, but if you have them on hand, I highly recommend using them
Here’s the Ingredients You’ll Need To Make These Cookies:
- Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats: I like to use rolled oats which are made from oat grains that are steamed to soften them and then pressed flat with a roller. They cook much faster than steel cut oats, and adds the perfect texture and chew to these cookies that you won’t get with instant oats.
- Butter: Salted or unsalted, you’ll need one stick that we’ll semi-melt/soften.
- Eggs: Two whole US-standard large eggs acts as the main binder for our cookies.
- Blanched Almond Flour: Ensure you’re using a super fine grind for the best results.
- Gluten Free Flour: I use a small amount of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour to keep the recipe gluten free and to help our cookies have a more traditional texture, spread and set. I’ve also remade this recipe numerous times using King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour with great success.
- Coconut Sugar: This low GI sugar adds a ton of rich caramel flavor to our cookies.
- Raw Cane Sugar: I’ve finely blended my sugar to make incorporating it into our cookies easier.
- Vanilla Extract: This adds a wonderful flavor and depth to our cookies. Alternatively you can use maple extract if you like.
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder: We’re using two here to help lift the heaviness that the peanut butter adds to these cookies to ensure our cookies bake up with an amazing and soft texture.
- Salt: I’m using a pink Himalayan salt but you can also use a sea salt.
- Cinnamon Powder: This spice adds a depth of flavor to our cookies but don’t stand out as it blends well with all other ingredients. Whether you use cassia or Ceylon, it’s up to your personal preference. If you’re not a huge fan of cinnamon, swap it out for ground nutmeg!
- Espresso Powder: Though optional, a small touch of espresso powder amplifies our chocolate flavor and wonderfully compliments our peanut butter.
- Molasses: I’m using a full-flavored unsulphured molasses. I recommend this kind over the blackstrap variety. The addition of molasses adds not just flavor to our cookie but also moisture which helps with our cookies having a near-perfect spread when baked. I don’t recommend skipping the molasses because it also serves the purpose of being the ingredient that activates our cookie’s rising agent…
- Dark Chocolate: Chips or chunks.
- Tip #1: you can opt to vary the chips by using different cocoa percentages (example using half 60% and half 85%).
- Tip #2: you can rough chop or blitz your chocolate to vary the size and dispersion for a more rustic and artisanal cookie!
- Natural Peanut Butter: I’m using natural, unsweetened peanut butter that is made using just peanuts with a touch of salt. This gives us a clean eating and concentrated peanut butter flavor which is exactly what we’re going for here!
Here’s How To Make These Cookies:
To our melted butter we’ll stir in our peanut butter until smooth and combined (1,2), then we’ll add in our molasses, raw cane sugar, and coconut sugar (3). Once we’ve combined it together we’ll beat in our eggs and vanilla extract (4)…
And beat it until glossy (5). To our mixture we’ll first incorporate our oats, and then our almond flour, and we’ll mix it all together (6,7, & 8).
The next step is to mix in our gluten-free flour, salt, espresso and cinnamon and stir until a cookie dough is formed (9 & 10). And finally, our last step is to add in our chocolate chips (11 & 12). A great option is to chop or blitz your chocolate chips into irregular chunks for better dispersion and to make your cookies even more bakery-like.
With our dough made we’ll pop our bowl into the fridge to rest it for an hour to as long overnight.
Why Chill The Dough?
There are three reasons why I highly recommend chilling our dough.
- Set: It allows the dough’s flours (almond flour and the GF flour blend) as well as our oats to absorb as much of the liquids as possible which will help the dough set.
- Bake: It helps the fat in the dough to be cold which will assist in our cookie’s final bake and set (the warmer the fat, the more the cookie will spread and the thinner it will be).
- Flavor: It gives all our flavors time to mingle and bloom. This works especially well for the cinnamon, molasses, and espresso powder.
I covered my bowl and left my dough to rest overnight in the fridge. With the dough chilled I’m going to use an ice cream scoop to scoop our dough out into 12 (generous) portions. You can use a #20 scoop or use about 3 leveled off tablespoons.
Place your dough onto a parchment lined tray, spaced out about 2″ and allow them to sit at room temp while your oven preheats to 350F. If you like, you can gently press down the domed tops a bit to ensure an even baked cookie with a better spread.
Once preheated, bake your cookies for 8-10 minutes until the edges begin to brown and the tops look set.
Thanks to the peanut butter’s consistency, these cookies will bake up and cool with an almost under-baked softness to the middle. Another thing you’ll notice is the heft and heaviness of the cookies. After my friend asked me about it, I popped one onto my scale and it came in at a whopping 3-oz!
These cookies are the best of all worlds and arguably three cookies in one! Trust me, if you love peanut butter you’re going to love these. 😍
Looking For More Cookie Inspiration? Try Some Of These:
- The Best Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten-Free)
- Lemon Shortbread Cookies (Gluten-Free, Egg-Free)
- Blondies – With Chocolate Chips and Pecans (Gluten-Free)
- Classic Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (Gluten-Free)
- Gingersnap Cookies (Gluten-Free, Egg-Free, Vegan-Friendly)
- Chewy Gingerbread Cookies (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free)
- Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)
- Gluten-Free Peanut Butter and Jam Thumbprint Cookies (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)
- Gluten-Free Double Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)
- Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies (Gluten-Free)
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies (GF)
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp salted butter (½ stick)
- 6 tbsp natural peanut butter
- ⅓ cup organic coconut sugar
- ½ cup raw cane sugar finely ground
- 2 tsp molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs or 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
- ½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- ½ cup blanched almond flour finely ground
- ¾ cups Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour or King Arthur's Measure For Measure, scooped and measured
- ¼ tsp Himalayan salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ tsp espresso powder optional
- ⅛ tsp cinnamon powder or ground nutmeg, optional
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large, microwave-safe bowl, melt your butter. Once melted, stir in the peanut butter until fully combined.
- Add the coconut sugar and finely blended raw cane sugar along with the molasses and mix thoroughly.
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fully combined and glossy.
- Mix in the oats, followed by the almond flour, and finally the gluten-free flour blend, baking powder, baking soda, salt, espresso powder and cinnamon/nutmeg.
- Fold in the chocolate chips. Your dough should be soft and shiny but still scoopable (see notes). Set your dough in the fridge for at least an hour to rest (for the best results let it rest overnight).
- Using an ice cream scoop, scoop 12 equal portions of dough (#20 scoop or 3 tbsp of dough per cookie) onto a parchment-lined baking tray and slightly press down the domed top to flatten them and encourage even baking. Let your dough rest at room temp while your oven preheats (about 10-15 min).
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Let your dough rest at room temp while your oven preheats (about 10-15 min).
- Bake your cookies for 8-10 minutes (see notes), or until the underside's edges just beginning to turn golden brown and the tops look set. Note: Your cookies will be soft right out of the oven so let them cool and set for 5-10 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
- To store, ensure your cookies at fully cooled, then either:- Store your cookies in an air tight container at room temp for up to 5 days or in the fridge for up to 10 days. - You can also freeze these cookies. Wrap each cookie individually and store in an airtight container or zip bag with the air removed, for up to a month.
Notes
- Though the espresso powder and cinnamon or nutmeg powder is optional, they add a great flavor and help to amplify and complement your cookie's taste.
- The peanut butter you use will affect your dough's consistency and this recipe was created to use natural peanut butter (aka peanut butter that is made using just peanuts and maybe salt and no other ingredients). You want the dough to be soft and almost greasy but still scoopable without it being sticky. If your dough is crumbly, you can add 2 tbsp of whole milk or add in an extra egg yolk. If your dough is wet and sticky, you can add in more flour (almond or gluten free flour blend) until you get the desired consistency.
- You can bake your dough right away if desired, but letting it rest will allow your flavors to meld which will allow them to be more intense and full-bodied.
- I bake using a convection (fan) oven at 350F. 8 minutes results in a slightly under-baked cookie that has an almost gooey layer, 10 minutes gives a soft cookie. If using a convection oven, reduce your bake time by a minute or so and keep an eye on your cookies.
