These flourless chocolate peanut butter cookie sandwiches are super fudgy and rich and happen to be grain-free, gluten-free and dairy-free!
I’m super excited about this post! First of all – because it’s peanut butter and chocolate. That’s one of my favorite combinations and I’m guessing one of yours, too? ;)
Second of all – they’re flourless! So that means all of you can make these cookies! I love it when I can make my whole grain and gluten-free friends happy at the same time. :)
For more flourless cookies, check out The View from Great Island’s roundup of 25 flourless cookies. I can’t wait to try those peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!
These cookies are actually more like brownie bites, especially when you add the peanut butter filling and refrigerate. But to achieve the ridiculously chewy texture, you can’t over bake them. And I know you’ll want to!
I only baked these tiny cookies for 4 minutes. I tested them at 5 and 6 minutes and that just wasn’t working for me. They totally turn from soft and fudgy to cakey in a minute. All ovens are different so if you’re worried about underbaking your cookies, bake a test cookie or two and see what works for you.
These cookies are kind of weird, too. They’re peanut butter cookies, but – they actually use almond butter in the dough. I tried this twice with natural peanut butter but there was such a funky aftertaste. Not only in the dough but in the baked cookies.
So you have to make these cookies with almond butter! You’ll be able to taste the almond butter in the dough, but once they’re cooked, it’s all chocolatey goodness with absolutely no hint of almond.
If you don’t have almond butter on hand, I recommend not going out to buy some. It’s absurdly expensive, especially when you can make your own at home in only a few minutes! All you need are almonds and a food processor.
One thing that’s kind of sad about these cookies is how much sweetener I ended up adding. I started off with, “I’m just going to use a little honey!” Um. Yeah. In goes a fourth cup of coconut sugar after trying that batch.
“But that’s it! I refuse to add more sugar.” And after that batch… in went half a cup of melted chocolate (which also contributes to the fudgy texture!)
I have a little confession to make. The yield might be a little off. I assembled one peanut butter cookie sandwich. Ate one peanut butter cookie sandwich. Assembled three more. Ate another.
What I do know is that the filling makes just enough for the cookies! And that’s what’s important, right? ;)
Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches (gluten-free, dairy-free)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 24 cookie sandwiches
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups (300 grams) natural almond butter (the kind with just almonds)
- 1/4 cup (80 grams) honey
- 1/4 cup (40 grams) coconut sugar or granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup (40 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder (or Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (90 grams) semi-sweet chocolate, melted (use Enjoy Life chocolate chips for dairy-free)
- 1/2 cup (132 grams) natural peanut butter (the kind with just peanuts and salt)
- 2 tablespoons (40 grams) honey
- 1 tablespoon (14 grams) coconut oil1 or unsalted butter (for a non-dairy-free version)
For the cookies:
For the peanut butter filling:
Directions
- Give the almond butter a good stirring with a spoon or a knife. This is to help redistribute the oil.
- In a large bowl, mix all the cookie ingredients together except for the melted chocolate.
- Once it's thoroughly combined, mix in the chocolate. At this point, the dough will be very wet and seem a little oily. That's totally normal but refrigeration will take care of that.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour or until it's no longer sticky and it's easy to roll into balls.
- Meanwhile, prepare the peanut butter filling.
- In a medium bowl, mix together all the filling ingredients until well combined. Place this in the refrigerator for now.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (162°C) and line a baking tray with a Silpat or a piece of parchment paper.
- Roll the dough into 3/4" balls and place 1 1/2" apart on the prepared baking tray.
- Bake for 4-6 minutes or just until the top of the cookies appear baked. They may or may not have puffed up. If they appear puffy, they'll deflate a little while cooling and will then look like the cookies pictured.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool completely on the baking tray.
- Once the cookies have completely cooled, assemble the cookie sandwiches by rolling a marble-sized ball of filling mixture and placing it in the middle of a cookie. Press down slightly and place another cookie on top.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
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98 comments on “Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches (grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free)” — Add one!
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Hi Erin,
Once again another AMAZING recipe!
I made these cookies for the cookie itself cuz I was in the mood for a chocolate cookie. I am lazy so I used a 1 1/4 inch cookie scoop. I used Hershey regular cocoa so they didn’t come out as dark as yours but I knew that going into it 😉 They puffed up but because they were larger than yours they also flattened out more…again knew that going into it. OMG they are soooo good. I am almost afraid to try them as sandwich cookies because I may eat them all myself in one sitting.
Deb
These cookies are absolutely INCREDIBLE! I have an egg white intolerance, so I ended up using the flax seed egg substitute. I used the paddle on my kitchenaid, and it didn’t mix quite right (I’m assuming either because of the paddle or the flax eggs) because after refrigerated it looked like an oily substance was separated from the rest of the dough, but I just took that part out of the bowl and threw it away, and went on with the recipe just as it is written. I found the peanut butter mixture to be a little thin, so next time I may try adding some powdered sugar (I think dry milk would work too, but I’m dairy free so I can’t try that). This is absolutely THE BEST dairy free, gluten free, soy free, grain free cookie recipe that I’ve found so far! I’ll definitely be making these again! Thank you, Erin!
I’m so glad that they worked out well for you! I’m shocked that the flax eggs worked in this. I have a lot of egg-free cookies that might work better for you, without the weird separation issue. :) These have a chia seed option but I’m guessing flax eggs would work, too – paleo chocolate chip cookies and coconut flour cookies. These are naturally egg-free – coconut macaroons and gluten-free lemon cookies. Thanks for your nice comment! :)
Hi! How many cookie sandwiches does this make?
Hi! It’s at the top of the recipe. :) 24 cookie sandwiches. I hope you’ll enjoy them!
Has anyone tried making ice cream sandwiches w/the cookies?!?
I’m so sorry for just now seeing your question! I haven’t tried it but think it should work.
Have you tried these cookies with a vegan egg?
I normally use chia eggs these days but doubt it’d work in this recipe. Sorry about that!
My daughter’s boyfriend has celiac and he loves sweets, so I am always looking for a good recipe. I did not think this was going to be good. The dough seemed so oily, but the finished product is a winner. My husband who is a Cookie Monster LOVED them. Now to get them to the person with celiac before he eats them all.
After mixing and chilling the dough, I formed the balls and then refrigerated again. They took about 8 minutes to bake and I let them cool. I actually formed the peanut butter filling into a flat disk because they wouldn’t quite flatten and the cookies are delicate. I am so excited to give them to my daughter’s boyfriend and I do believe the other peanut butter and chocolate lovers will love these too.
I’m happy that the cookies exceeded your expectations! I hope that there are some left for your daughter’s boyfriend and that he’ll love them as much as your husband did. :) Thanks so much for your feedback and happy holidays!
These have become my GO TO COOKIE for every occasion! Absolutely everyone who has tried them has loved them! I use cashew butter and don’t change up anything in the recipe. It’s perfect!!!! :)
These look awesome! Can maple syrup be used in place of the honey?
Thanks! I haven’t tried it but I think it’d be fine. :)
I scrolled through comments looking for my answer but to no avail? Would the cookies be alright with regular butter instead of almond butter? These cookies look to sweet to not try! I also want to substitute the cocoa powder for some cacao powder, do you think they will turn out alright?
Thank you! (Hope your new year is amazing!)
The cacoa powder is fine but using regular butter instead of almond butter won’t. You could try another kind of nut butter, as long as the only ingredients are nuts and salt. Hope you’ll enjoy them! :)
I can’t see where it says to add the melted chocolate in the directions. Am I issuing something?
I meant am I missing something?
Sorry for just now seeing your comment! Hopefully you found the answer – it’s in Step 3. :)
These look amazing! My son is allergic to almonds and peanuts. Do you know if I could use sunbutter instead?
Thanks! It’s often a good sub but I haven’t tried it here so I can’t say for sure. I’d love to hear how it goes if you try it out!
These are my favorite cookie right now. So amazingly good. Thank you so much!!!!
Aww, yay! I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for your feedback. :)
Oh my goodness these look mighty fine.
Thanks, Emily! :)
These look delicious! Do you have any subs for a honey and chocolate chips? Thank you!
Thanks! :) You could try brown rice syrup or agave syrup for the honey, though I haven’t tried it and so I can’t say how it’d work out. But unfortunately there’s no sub for the chocolate. There’s 1/2 cup of melted chocolate in the batter and so it’s integral to the recipe. Sorry about that! I wish I had a better answer for you.
These are fantastic :)) I ended up using the trader joes cocoa powder and sweet chocolate chips instead and it took my 6 mins, but still turned out great! Mine definitely don’t look as gorgeous as yours, most likely due to almond butter I used from the store which had a lot of almond bits, but overall still amazing. I can’t wait to make these for my bf who can’t have gluten and is the whole reason I invested in gluten free desserts <3 thank you for this wonderful recipe
I’m so happy that they turned out well! I hope that your boyfriend will enjoy them. And that’s so nice of you to bake gluten-free for him! I hope he realizes that that’s not always an easy task. ;) Thanks so much for your feedback!
These were amazing!!any idea any of the nutritional Co tent?
I’m so happy you liked them! I don’t have that info but you can copy and paste the recipe here for that info, if you like. Thanks for the feedback. :)
Hey, this recipe looks amazing! Where can I find the cocoa powder or will it be screwed up if I don’t have that exact brand?
You can use any brand of cocoa powder! I recommend Dutch-process because of the darker, more chocolaty taste but Hershey’s Special Dark would be good, too. And sorry for my slow reply! I just got back from vacation and didn’t really have internet access. Hope you’ll enjoy the cookies! :)
Can you use canola oil instead of the coconut oil for these? They look amazing!
Thanks, Sharon! If it were a cake or something, it’d be fine, but with these cookies, I’m not so sure. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature (at least if it’s not really warm) and canola oil isn’t. I’m guessing it’d be okay, but I’m not positive. Sorry about that! I hope you’ll enjoy them if you try it out. :)
Oh my! These are soooooo good, just made some today, but only a half batch in case they didn’t turn out just right, but wow! I will definitely be making another batch as soon as these are gone. I had to adjust my cook time, (I think mine must have been a bit bigger than your, I used a regular cookie scoop), so mine baked for about 10 min.. They were so fudgey and chewy….sooooooo good! I am also sugar free..so I used sugar free honey ( I know, I know..sounds weird, but it looks, tastes, and reacts the same as reg honey in recipes), instead of the coconut sugar I used my just like sugar brown sugar substitute, and sugar free choc chips. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! it’s definitely a keeper!
I’m happy to hear that they came out well for you! And I’m so happy that your sugar-free honey worked. It doesn’t sound weird – whatever works sounds good to me! I think I’d like to try making these with a regular cookie scoop. Bigger = better. :D Thank you so much for your feedback!
Love the recipe!! I kinda hijacker it and made it vegan still came out awesome!! I also used peanut butter and didn’t notice any funny after taste.
That’s awesome that the peanut butter version came out without a weird taste! And so happy that they came out well for you. :) Thanks for the feedback!
Hi, I’d like to make these vegan as well! How did you do it? thanks :)
Hi there! I doubt she’ll see your comment so I thought I’d jump in. I haven’t tried it but I’d try 2 chia eggs and brown rice syrup instead of honey to make them vegan. I’d love to hear how it goes it you try them out!
Turned out fantastic! Used some swiss 63% dark chocolate I had kicking around. They taste as good as they look. I cooked mine for about 12 minutes.
I had my doubts but they were worth all the work! Thanks for posting.
Awesome! So happy that you liked the cookies and that they came out well for you. :) Thanks a ton for the feedback and the rating!
*bookmarked* :)
No flour at all in these babies? I was almost expecting a touch of coconut flour in the cookie batter. Just checking before I try out the recipe!
Nope! No flour at all. :) I hope you’ll enjoy them!
These are SO yummy!! There are a lot of comments on here about how good they look, but not many on how they taste. ;) I made a batch today with a few tweaks. I didn’t have enough almonds for the almond butter, so I threw in a small handful of peanuts and cashews to make up the difference. I didn’t add any salt since the peanuts I used were salted. The coconut oil I used is unrefined, but it didn’t taste coconutty to me. They are a bit oily, but it didn’t matter to me. They are delicious! Thank you!!
I’m so happy you liked them, Jolene! And good to know that they didn’t come out coconutty with unrefined oil. I love your addition of peanuts and cashews to the almond butter! I’ve never tried mixing nuts when making butters so I think I’ll give that a try. Thank you so much for leaving feedback and for the rating! I really appreciate it. :)
Erin, these look fantastic. I’ll make them today :) Awesome recipe!!
Mine turned out SUPER OILY. I made my own almond butter. Does that make a difference?
Oh, no. I’m sorry to hear that. :( Did you refrigerate the dough for at least an hour? Before you refrigerate the dough, it’ll seem pretty oily but after baking, the cookies shouldn’t be oily at all. I also used homemade almond butter and I’ve made these several times so I’m not sure what the problem could have been. Do you think another minute or two of baking time could have helped? Sorry they didn’t work out for you! :(
I had something like this happen to me before; with my own recipe, actually. One batch was too oily, the other was too dry although I made it exactly the same way – I figured out later that I hadn’t mixed up the almond butter properly. As the oil floats towards the top, the top half of my jar was a lot oilier (not visibly) than the bottom half so once I made sure to take my time mixing my almond butter thoroughly from top to bottom, I had no more problems with the recipe :) (it only took, like, three jars haha!)Hope this helps!
Thanks a bunch for your comment, Rose! I don’t know what’s with my almond butter, but it never separates. Maybe I use it too quickly? ;) I never thought about this being a problem before so thanks for letting me know. Now I’ll know what to tell people in the future! And I’ll also make a note to stir your almond butter first.
I made them today and they turned out great!! After 1h in the fridge, they were nice and firm – not very oily at all, considering they’re made out of nut butter and a few other liquid-y ingredients ;)
Andi, I hope you’ll give these cookies another chance; I almost ate the whole batch myself!
So happy to hear that they came out well! Thank you so much for your feedback. :)
These look AMAZING! And the PB means they are healthy right?
But of course! ;) And if you use dark chocolate, then there are antioxidants involved and that makes these health warrior cookies! :D
Oh boy do those look super fudgy and delicious!
Thank you, Sylvie! :)
I’m going to come live with you so I can eat these little gems every day. I hope you’re okay with that :)
That’s okay with me but you have to bring American baking ingredients with you. ;)
These cookies are so appetizing that can only imagine how tasty they are. They contain all my favorite sweet products- peanut butter and chocolate. As far as I can judge from the photo the top crust should be crispy.
Thank you! :) And they’re not really crispy at all. Just chewy, chewy goodness. :)
Erin, do you think peanut butter would work in the cookies instead of almond butter to really up the PB factor? I keep huge jars of peanut butter on hand, but don’t always have almond butter.
It doesn’t really work taste-wise. I tried! :( (see the first paragraph after the second picture ;))
I love that you use almond butter for the cookies, sounds incredible!!
Thank you, Kristi! :)
Chocolate AND Peanut Butter? Yes please! These look amazing!
Thanks, Phi! :)
Oh, these look amazing! I would probably have to make them at nap time so I wouldn’t have to share… ;)
Hahaha. Best comment ever. :D
Don’t forget about your vegan readers! :D We don’t do eggs, but maybe they’d work with flax eggs? They look so cute and scrumptious!!
Thanks, Katie! And I know. I feel bad that these are pretty much okay for everyone except the vegans. It’s often that way with my recipes just because I use a lot of eggs. :( Sorry! I have no idea if these would work with flax eggs but if you try it, please let me know how it goes! :)
These are beauties! I love chocolate and peanut butter combinations especially when they involve chewy, fudgy looking cookies!
Thanks! :) And yes. Chewy and fudgy is the best! Cakey-ness? Pssh. Not around here! ;)
Can’t believe how fudgy these look! Peanut butter + chocolate is perfection in any form. :)
Thanks, Jessica! And yeah. Peanut butter and chocolate is never wrong. ;)
These look SO fudgy – and of course I never get tired of pb and chocolate!
I have to admit that after making these cookies 224 times, I’m a little tired of it. But that’ll pass by tomorrow, I’m sure! ;)
Oh my gosh, I love how fudgy these look!
Thank you! :)
Oh my these look awesome! They are basically that peanut butter cup brownie in cookie form! :D So excited to tries these sometime.
YES! You’re exactly right. This is what they taste like. :) I hope you get a chance to make them!
These look like super addicting little cookies!
Yup! They are indeed. ;) Thank you!
These cookies look so scrumptious. I love that you used almond butter for the filling. Oh my goodness I want one…maybe 3
Thank you! And the almond butter thing is kind of weird but it just works for some reason. :)
Wow those look amazing. I would’ve never guessed they were gluten-free with how fudgy they look.
Hehe. It’s all that sugar! ;)
These look yummy. Should not be advertised as dairy free though since it contains chocolate.
I forgot to link to the dairy-free chocolate chips that I recommend for the dairy-free folks. I’ve used them myself and love them! Thanks for pointing that out. Post is fixed! :)
Yay flourless! And I love mini brownie bites of any kind – so good!
Thanks, Katrina! :)
Chocolate and PB is the best combo ever, so I’m totally loving these cookies!
Right?! Except raspberry and white chocolate. ;)
This is right up my alley! These cookies look so delish, Erin!
Thank you! I’ll have to make them for you in May. :D
Erin,
Thanks for your wonderful website first & foremost! My girls and I love to use your recipes for healthier desserts. Anyway, we tried these cookie sandwiches & followed recipe exactly. The cookies crumbled very easily and in fact were very difficult to apply peanut butter. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Heathar
Hi, Heather! Thanks for your nice comment. :) These cookies are very easy to overbake. Could that have been it? When they come out of the oven, they should not appear fully cooked. The top should just no longer appear wet. Did you maybe do yours a little longer? Or did you perhaps have oil pooled at the top of the almond butter that you poured out before measuring what you needed? A lack of oil might explain it! I’m sorry that didn’t come out. They’re really like little brownies and shouldn’t have been crumbly at all. :(