Flourless peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies

Heads up: This post was originally published in November 2011. I’m republishing today with updated photos. Enjoy!

This post is going to be short and sweet because it’s the day before Thanksgiving and I know most of you don’t have time to be reading lengthy blog posts about healthy cookies.  You’ve got pumpkin pie on the brain, right?

Plus, the sun is shining, the temperature is in 50’s, and I’m anxious to get outside for a walk. Sunshine is good for the soul.These Flourless Chocolate Chunk Cookies are also good for your soul.  I love a cookie that is healthy, tastes fabulous, and is simple to make.  These cookies  are simple.  I threw the ingredients in a bowl, mixed ’em, and put the dough in the fridge.

Then I made some dinner.  At the end of my dinner-making, I plopped the dough on a pan and into the oven they went while we were eating.  By the end of dinner, we had warm, chocolate-y cookies for dessert.  So easy and so good.

I was initially inspired by this recipe on Back to her Roots.  She made her flourless cookies with chocolate nut butter, which I didn’t have.  After a quick google search, I found a variety of similar flourless peanut butter cookie chocolate chip recipes, including one from Epicurious and one from Recchiuti.

They all looked great, but I wanted to cut back on the sugar content.  Most of the recipes used one cup of regular or brown sugar, but I boldly cut it back to 1/2 cup and used Sucanat (affiliate link) instead.  They were plenty sweet with the 1/2 cup and turned out wonderfully.

The peanut butter flavor is intense in these, much more so than traditional peanut butter cookies made with flour.  The texture is different than a flour cookie as well, but I loved it.  These are moist and perfect with a glass of milk.

My “short and sweet” post is getting longer than I intended, so I’ll get right to the recipe.

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Gluten and dairy-free, these healthy flourless cookies use less sugar than traditional cookies, but deliver intense peanut butter flavor.

• Author: Happy Healthy Mama
• Prep Time: 10 + chilling time
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: -25846247.916667 minute
• Yield: 15 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup Sucanat (or brown sugar)
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup chocolate chunks (chips will work, too)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients except for the chocolate chunks until combined.  Stir in the chocolate chunks.  Refrigerate the dough for 15-30 minutes, optional.*
3. Measure the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  The dough will seem a little fall-y apart-y, but that’s how it should be.  Just make the balls and carry on.
4.  Place the dough balls on your cookies sheet a few inches apart.  You should get about 15 cookies, more or less depending on the size of your balls.  I didn’t press the balls down at all, but if you want a less round cookie, go ahead and press them down.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.  They will seem a little soft coming right out of the oven, but transfer them to a wire rack to let them cool and they will harden as they cool.  Enjoy!

Notes

*This step is optional.  I did this because I have read that it helps flourless cookies have more body, and I didn’t want flat cookies.  You can skip it if you are in a hurry!

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 cookie
• Calories: 154
• Sugar: 9 grams
• Fat: 10 grams
• Carbohydrates: 12.3 grams
• Fiber: 1.2 grams
• Protein: 4.5 grams

If you make this recipe, I would love to see it! Snap a picture and share it on the Happy Healthy Mama Facebook page, or on your own Instagram page and tag me @happyhealthymama. 🙂

Would you like to save this recipe for later? Here’s an image to save to your Pinterest recipe board!

If you love healthy cookies as much as I do, here are more of my favorites!

Salted Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies (gluten-free, vegan)

Healthy Chocolate No Bake Trail Mix Cookies (gluten-free, vegan)

No Added Sugar Banana Peanut Butter Cookies (gluten-free, vegan)