The best peanut butter oatmeal cookies are soft, chewy, and of course, easy! These gluten-free cookies have the classic peanut butter flavor and the perfect melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Except for Sugar Cookies at Christmas and Pumpkin Cookies in the fall, we haven’t been baking cookies in our house very often. At least not with traditional cookie recipes.
The two main reasons? Sugar, which we’ve been working on quitting, and gluten, which my daughter is sensitive to, although we’ve found an alternative that works well for us.
So, I’ve been making some of our former favorite cookies into versions that are gluten-free and have less sugar. We’ve got Shortbread Cookies, Healthy Thumbprint Cookies, and of course, the classic Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies.
And now, thanks to this great peanut butter oatmeal cookie recipe, we can enjoy another healthy treat that is gluten-free AND very low in sugar!
PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL COOKIES
These cookies are everything a peanut butter cookie should be:
- Rich peanut butter flavor
- Soft and chewy
- Slightly sandy (thanks to the peanut butter) but without crumbling in your hands
- SUPER easy to make
- Incredibly addicting
- Plus, they’re naturally gluten-free (be sure to use certified gluten-free oats for gluten sensitivity)
In fact, my husband said that these are the best peanut butter oatmeal cookies he’s ever had in his life, EVER!
INGREDIENTS LIST FOR COOKIES PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL
The ingredients you need are simple, everyday items you have in your pantry.
- Butter. You want your unsalted butter to be at room temperature for easy mixing.
- Sugar. I used Turbinado sugar, but white sugar will work. I would not recommend brown sugar.
- Healthy Peanut Butter. Natural peanut butter should just be peanuts and salt. Creamy peanut butter is the way to go!
- Egg + Egg Yolk. The extra egg yolk is what gives the cookie some structure.
- Vanilla Extract. Vanilla tricks your palate into thinking something is sweeter than it actually is. (Here’s how to make your own!)
- Cornstarch. Adding cornstarch to cookies creates a softer dough and a more tender cookie.
- Oat Flour. We’re taking old fashioned oats and whizzing them in the blender to make Homemade Oat Flour. Quick cooking oats will work too if that’s what you have on hand.
HOW TO MAKE PEANUT BUTTER OAT COOKIES
Step 1: Measure the sugar into a blender and blend to make powdered sugar.
Step 2: Pour the sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large bowl if you’re using an electric mixer. Add butter, salt, and soft peanut butter and mix until everything is super creamy.
Step 3: Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla into the bowl and stir to combine.
Step 4: Measure the oats into a blender and process. Scrape everything into the mixing bowl. Add the cornstarch and mix until combined.
Step 5: Chill in the refrigerator for 1 full hour. You cannot skip this step.
Step 6: When the hour is nearly up, preheat the oven to 350F.
Step 7: Using a cookie scoop, measure 2 Tablespoons of dough per cookie onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Leaving 2″ of space between cookies, fill up your baking sheet with dough and make crisscross marks on each cookie with a fork.
Step 8: Bake for 8-11 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are JUST lightly browned.
Step 9: Let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes. Gently remove to a cooling wire rack and allow the peanut butter oat cookies to cool completely before storing them in an airtight container or freezer bag.
TIPS FOR COOKIES OATMEAL PEANUT BUTTER
This batter isn’t like most cookie batters – it will seem crumbly and dry due to the peanut butter. But DON’T WORRY. Make this recipe exactly as written AND use the following tips. Then you’ll have the most amazing peanut butter oatmeal cookies in no time!
- Chill the dough. As tempting as it is, don’t skip this step by baking at room temperature. Chilling the dough helps the dough scoop evenly and prevents the cookies from spreading in the oven. Unless you want one big flat super crunchy cookie? I didn’t think so.
- Use a cookie scoop. I feel like a broken record with my cookie scoop. I use it for everything from our favorite chocolate chip cookies to 15-minute Italian meatballs to freezing yogurt. This is the one I have and I LOVE it. Using a cookie scoop really helps with the cookie-shaping process. They’re all the same size, they bake evenly, and the kids don’t argue over who gets the bigger cookies.
- Use a Silpat mat. This handy thing makes clean up simple AND it helps the cookies bake evenly without getting too crispy too soon. This is the set I have and use ALL the time, including any time I have to knead bread dough. It helps to keep the counters clean!
- Use a wet fork to make a crisscross. It’s SO much easier to make those cute fork marks using a wet fork versus a dry fork. You can mark about 4 cookies before needing to re-wet the fork, so you don’t have to worry about spending a ton of time going back and forth.
- Let the cookies cool. Peanut butter cookies tend to be crumbly, again, thanks to the peanut butter. I know it’s hard to not eat them straight out of the oven, but if you let them cool for at least 10 minutes on a cooling rack (this is the set I have), they won’t fall apart on you!
CAN YOU FREEZE OAT AND PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES?
Yes! My husband couldn’t stop eating these oat and peanut butter cookies and asked me to put the rest in the freezer so he wouldn’t ruin his dinner!
You can store cookies in the freezer BEFORE you bake them, or after.
- If you freeze the raw cookie dough balls, I recommend portioning out the dough on cookie trays and making the crisscross marks before freezing. That way you can pull out the frozen cookies and put them on a cookie tray and you’re ready to bake!
- If you freeze baked cookies, make sure you double-wrap them so that they don’t get freezer-burned and start to dry out on you. I recommend freezing in small freezer bags, and then again in gallon-size freezer bags. Remember that you can use plastic bags more than once to keep your waste down.
This recipe makes 30-35 cookies when you use two tablespoons of dough per cookie (that’s two small scoops).
You’ll have plenty to freeze if you make a single batch. A double batch will keep you stocked for quite some time!
PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL COOKIES FAQS
Why do my peanut butter cookies fall apart after baking?
Make sure to let the peanut butter oatmeal cookies cool for at least 10 minutes before moving them off the baking sheet. This helps them get a bit sturdier and they’re less likely to fall apart.
Does it matter what kind of oatmeal you use for cookies?
You can use either old-fashioned oats or quick oats to make the oat flour for these peanut butter oat cookies. I would not recommend using steel-cut oats.
Why do you make a crisscross on peanut butter oatmeal cookies?
Peanut butter oat cookie dough is fairly dense. By flattening each cookie, they bake more evenly, and the tops of the crisscross pattern get slightly crispy while the rest of the cookie stays soft and chewy.
MORE FAVORITE COOKIE RECIPES
If you like chocolate chips in your peanut butter cookies, you’ll definitely want to try this peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe!
- Healthier Sugar Cookies
- Dark Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
- No-Bake Brownie Bites
- Healthier Candy Cane Cookies
- Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies
- Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
The best peanut butter oatmeal cookies are soft, chewy, and of course, easy! These gluten-free cookies have the classic peanut butter flavor and the perfect melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 23 minutes
- Yield: 30–35 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- ½ cup granulated sugar (I use Turbinado)
- 2 sticks of butter (1 cup), room temperature
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅔ cup smooth peanut butter
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 2 tsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Measure ½ cup sugar into a blender and process for one minute, until the sugar looks like powdered sugar.
- Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large bowl if you’re using a hand-held mixer. (There’s no need to wash out the blender yet.) Add 2 sticks butter + ½ tsp salt + ⅔ cup peanut butter and mix until everything is super creamy.
- Add 1 egg + 1 egg yolk + 2 tsp vanilla and combine.
- Measure 3 cups rolled oats into a blender and process for one minute. Use a spatula to scrape everything into the mixing bowl.
- Add 2 tsp cornstarch and mix until you can no longer see dry portions of oat flour, about 2-4 minutes.
- Chill in the refrigerator for 1 full hour. You cannot skip this step.
- When the one hour is nearly up, preheat the oven to 350F and line your baking sheets with either parchment paper or a Silpat mat.
- Using a cookie scoop, measure 2 Tbsp of dough per cookie (this is 2 scoops for my cookie scoop).
- Leaving 2″ of space between cookies, fill up your cookie sheet with dough.
- Place remaining dough in the fridge if you are baking in batches.
- Use a wet fork to make the criss-cross pattern on the top of the cookies, if desired.
- Bake for 8-11 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are JUST lightly browned.
- Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes.
- Gently remove to a cooling wire rack and allow the cookies to cool completely before storing. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.
Notes
- If you freeze the raw cookie dough balls, I recommend portioning out the dough on cookie trays and making the crisscross marks before freezing. That way you can pull out the frozen cookies and put them on a cookie tray and you’re ready to bake!
- If you freeze baked cookies, make sure you double-wrap them so that they don’t get freezer-burned and start to dry out on you. I recommend freezing in small freezer bags, and then again in gallon-size freezer bags. Remember that you can use plastic bags more than once to keep your waste down.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 147
How many cookies does this recipe make?
Hello Wally,
This peanut butter oatmeal cookie recipe yields 30- 35 cookies.
They were yum! I just used regular sugar and they turned out fine. Also added a few chic chips at my sons request.
Thank you for sharing, Rebecca! Your variation sounds great!
This is my favorite peanut butter cookie, hands down. Any way we can get nutrition macros on these? My son is cutting and wants to eat some but doesn’t want to mess up his loss.
This recipe is peanut butter cookie perfection! I followed Tiffany’s instructions to the letter and they are perfect. My complaint with traditional pb cookies has been that they’re too sweet and not peanut buttery enough. Well, complain no more!
Also, they’re filling; I could only eat one at a time. Thanks for the time you put in to perfect this cookie!
You’re most welcome Lorrie! Thanks for the review. 🙂
We figured these macros with his app. For 1 cookie out of a batch of 30:
137 calories
10.1g fat
10.2 carbs
2.8g protein
I think if I try to make these I will add chocolate chips. 🙂
Could you use solid oconut oil instead of butter here to make it vegan?
I haven’t tried that with this recipe, Jules, but I tested that with a different cookie (healthy chocolate chip) and I didn’t like how the cookie spread so much when it baked. If you’re okay with that, then go for it!
What are your thoughts on coconut sugar? I just bought some for another recipe and was thinking about using it for this.
Definitely go for it! We’re gradually switching to coconut sugar and I’ve found it works great in every recipe I’ve tested so far, including cookies!
Can I use powdered suger iifwe are new to changing over and don’t have turbino yet?
You can, but I would cut back a little bit. Try using 1/4 cup and tasting the dough. It should be “just sweet enough.” You could go up to 1/3 cup, but I think a full 1/2 cup of powdered sugar would be a pretty sweet cookie (in my opinion!).
Are you supposed to empty the blender between steps 3 &4 above? Seems like that’s the intention but unclear. Thanks!
Hi Stephanie! The blender gets emptied into a large bowl or stand mixer in step 2. That way it’s empty for oats in step 4. Does that help clarify?
AH! Steps 2-3 happen in the mixer, not the blender, right? I was taking that as empty the blender, then add the next things to the blender…. Think I follow now. Thanks!
Substituting a few tablespoons of corn starch for flour is making ordinary flour into cake flour, with a nicer crumb to the cake. Same principle as using it for these cookies, I guess.