Peanut Butter Cookies

Michael Eisenwasser

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A flourless 3-ingredient peanut butter cookie with peanut butter, sugar, and an egg.

Prep 10 min

Cook 12 min

Serves 14

Gluten-freeDairy-free

Ingredients

• 1 cup (260 g) natural peanut butter (peanuts and salt only, no honey or added fiber)
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated white or packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional)
• Pinch of fine salt (skip if the peanut butter is salted)

Makes about 14 cookies. One serving is 1 cookie.

Instructions

Mix the Dough

1. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment.
2. Stir the peanut butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and salt in a medium bowl with a spatula until the dough is smooth. It will look oily at first and then pull together into a thick, glossy paste.

Shape and Bake

1. Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough (about 37 g each, a small cookie scoop) and roll into balls. Place them 2 inches apart on the prepared sheets.
2. Press each ball flat with a fork in one direction, then again crosswise to make the classic crosshatch. Flatten to about 1/2 inch thick.
3. Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack for 11 to 13 minutes, rotating halfway. The edges should be set and the tops just dry to the touch; the centers will still feel soft.
4. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 10 minutes before moving them. They are fragile while warm and firm up as they cool.

Tips & Substitutions

• Check the peanut butter label. Look for peanut butter with just peanuts and salt. Skip anything with honey, agave, high-fructose corn syrup, inulin, chicory root fiber, or "added prebiotic fiber" blends. Smooth natural peanut butter (stirred well) mixes in the easiest; chunky works if you want texture.
• Add dark chocolate chips. Fold 1/2 cup (85 g) of regular dark chocolate chips into the dough before scooping. A 1/2-cup bag split across 14 cookies keeps each well under the 30 g dark chocolate serve. Avoid any "sugar-free" or keto chip sweetened with xylitol, sorbitol, maltitol, or isomalt.
• Chewier vs. crispier. Pull the cookies at 11 minutes for a softer, chewier center. Bake 13 to 14 minutes for firmer, crispier edges. They continue to set on the hot pan, so err on the underdone side if you want chew.
• Smaller cookies, more servings. Scoop by teaspoon (about 17 g) instead of heaping tablespoon and bake 8 to 9 minutes. You get about 30 small cookies, which stretches the batch into more low-FODMAP portions.
• Brown vs. white sugar. White sugar makes crisper cookies with a clean peanut flavor. Light brown sugar adds a touch of molasses and keeps the center softer. Either works at the same 1-cup amount.

Why This Works

No flour, no flour FODMAPs. The dough is held together by the peanut butter and egg, so there's no wheat flour and nothing to swap. The cookies are gluten-free by design, not by substitution.

Peanut butter stays under the serve. Monash tests peanut butter as low-FODMAP at 2 tablespoons (50 g). One cup of peanut butter split across 14 cookies is about 18 g per cookie, well below the serve.

Sugar isn't a FODMAP. White and brown sugar are sucrose, which the small intestine absorbs fully. There's no FODMAP load from the sugar itself at normal baking amounts.

Egg is free. Whole eggs have no FODMAPs at any serve, so the binder costs you nothing on the load.

Storage

Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days, or in the fridge for up to a week. For longer storage, freeze the baked cookies in a zip-top bag for up to 3 months and thaw at room temperature for 15 minutes. The unbaked dough balls also freeze well; bake from frozen at 350°F (175°C) for 13 to 14 minutes.

Not sure about an ingredient? FODMAP Tracker includes a database of 1,000+ foods with FODMAP ratings to help you cook with confidence.