These vegan peanut butter blossom cookies are soft, sweet, and full of peanut butter flavor and a rich chocolate center! They’re made with just 6 ingredients, gluten free, and naturally sweet.
Who else had peanut butter blossoms at Christmas time growing up? I know I’m not the only one. You know, those thick, pillowy, peanut butter cookies with a sweet chocolate kiss right in the center. Sooo good.
Those cookies give me all the Christmas feels, because my mom only made them during the holidays. I knew I needed to make a vegan version of those gems, so today we’re making vegan peanut butter blossom cookies, and I hope you’re as excited as I am!
Ingredients for vegan peanut butter blossom cookies
- Almond flour: almond flour keeps the cookies really soft and gives a great chewy texture.
- Date sugar: date sugar is simply dried dates that have been ground up, and it gives the cookies natural sweetness all from fruit.
- Peanut butter: peanut butter gives the cookies rich flavor and texture. Make sure to get oil-free, unsweetened peanut butter to avoid a lot of junk that’s added to store-bought nut butters.
- Applesauce: unsweetened applesauce helps the cookies maintain a soft, moist texture.
- Vanilla extract: vanilla helps flavor the cookie dough.
- Vegan chocolate chips or yogurt to decorate: I like the PASCHA unsweetened or Lily’s stevia-sweetened chips, but use any vegan chocolate chips you like.
Tips for making vegan peanut butter blossoms
- Mix the dry ingredients first. Depending on the almond flour and date sugar you use, there may be lumps to work out with a fork before mixing in the other ingredients to make sure everything in the cookie dough is incorporated.
- Roll the cookies in date sugar before baking. You’ll roll out the cookie dough balls and roll them into date sugar, before pressing them down into cookie shapes on the baking sheet. This gives a great crisp, sweet exterior after baking.
- Make an indentation in the center before baking. After rolling in the sugar and pressing out on the sheet, you’ll use the back of a tablespoon (or your thumb!) to carefully make a little indentation in the center. This is where you’ll put the chocolate chips when the cookies are done baking.
- Add the chocolate immediately after baking. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, drop a few chocolate chips in the center of each one. Be sure to do this when the cookies are still hot, so that their warmth melts the chips slightly and everything sticks together nicely.
- Let the cookies cool completely. Make sure to let the cookies cool completely so that the chocolate in the center can set up. If you’re feeling extra fancy, you can drizzle a bit of melted chocolate on them, too!
After these sweet Christmas sugar cookies, I couldn’t wait to keep recreating my old favorite Christmas cookies, and I’m SO happy I now have a healthy, vegan version of peanut butter blossoms. These are a total necessity for Christmas baking! Soft, gooey peanut butter cookies with that rich, dark chocolate surprise in the center.
My husband Joe is my number one taste tester, and I can always tell how good a recipe is by how long it lasts at our house. These literally didn’t even make it 48 hours, and he couldn’t stop talking about them. They also got glowing reviews from his co-workers and my non-vegan friends, too. DO NOT skip these this Christmas season!
Xo,
Sara
Vegan Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 3/4 cup date sugar
- 1/4 cup oil-free, unsweetened peanut butter
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup date sugar to roll the cookie dough balls in before baking
- Vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, mix the almond flour and date sugar. Use a fork to break up any lumps in the almond flour or date sugar before measuring.
- Add the peanut butter, applesauce, and vanilla and stir to combine into a thick dough.
- Measure about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per cookie, roll it into a ball, then roll it in the date sugar before pressing it down into a cookie shape on the baking sheet. Repeat for all 12 cookies.
- Once all the cookies are on the baking sheet, use the back of the tablespoon to gently make an indentation in the center of each cookie – this is where the chocolate chips go when they're done baking.
- Bake the cookies for 20 minutes.
- As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, drop a few chocolate chips into the middle of each cookie. The warmth of the cookies will melt the chips, so make sure to do it while they're hot!
- Allow the cookies to cool completely so that the chocolate can set.
- Store in a tupperware in the refrigerator or at room temperature. Due to the moisture and natural oil in the cookies, they will soften a bit when stored.
