These peanut butter honey cookies are healthy, gluten-free and have the perfect texture. Not to mention they use just 5 ingredients and taste absolutely amazing!
I find that I'm constantly on the hunt for new cookie flavors. Whether it's reinventing a classic chocolate chip cookie, or creating my own whacky combination like blueberry breakfast cookies, I never stop dreaming up flavor combinations.
One of my favorite things to do is take a classic cookie combo and give it my own healthy twist. Which is exactly what we're doing with these peanut butter honey cookies!
I'm taking the classic peanut butter cookie, and flipping it on its head by using nutritious ingredients.
Ingredients for Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies
When you're making traditional peanut butter cookies, you can one of two ways: 1) the flourless route, 2) the flour(full) route. However, both options use a lot of sugar.
You know the classic 3-ingredient peanut butter cookie recipe? We're talking about upwards of 2 cups of sugar per batch. Which to me just sends the alarms blasting!
So to make our healthy peanut butter cookies, here's what we'll use:
- peanut butter (duh)
- honey (double duh)
- an egg
- oat flour
- baking soda
That's right! Just 5 ingredients, one bowl and probably one of the best peanut butter cookie recipes out there.
How to Make Peanut Butter Honey Cookies
These might just be the easiest cookies you'll ever make. I mean most cookies are easy, but these are made in just one bowl and don't require any chilling.
You'll start by beating together your peanut butter and honey. Once that's combined and smooth, add in your oat flour and baking soda. Scoop them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake!
Why Do You Fork Peanut Butter Cookies?
One thing I like to do before baking – which gives them that classic peanut butter cookie look – is to make a quick little crosshatch pattern on top. The reason you want to fork peanut butter cookies is two-fold: 1) it makes them look pretty and 2) it helps them get a more even bake since you're gently flattening them.
All you need to do for that is shape your cookies into a somewhat even ball, then use the back of a fork to gently press down on the ball. Lift the fork up, then press down again, but this time the prongs go across the lines you just made.
That will create your crosshatch! And since these peanut butter honey cookies have baking soda, they'll puff up nicely and give you that lovely classic look.
Aren't they the cutest!?
How do you Tell if Peanut Butter Cookies are Done?
Peanut butter cookies take no more than 8 – 10 minutes to bake. You're looking for them to have a golden brown top (although that can be hard to see because they're already golden brown), and slightly darker edges. Especially since we're using honey in these cookies, the bottoms are prone to burning.
It might seem a little counterintuitive, but when your peanut butter cookies are done they will still be soft. You don't want them to be crispy out of the oven – they'll turn into rocks once they're cooled.
As they cool they'll firm up and the outsides will get nice a little crispy, while the inside will stay soft and chewy.
And that, my friends, is how you make the ultimate peanut butter honey cookie. They're easy and delish!
More Healthy Cookie Recipes with Peanut Butter:
- Peanut Butter Oat & Quinoa Cookies
- Salted Peanut Butter Breakfast Cookies
- Healthy Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Peanut Butter & Jelly Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
Peanut Butter Honey Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup oat flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together the peanut butter, honey and eggs. Beat in the oat flour and baking soda.
- Scoop the dough into tablespoon-sized scoops and form into balls. Place on a baking sheet and gently flatten. Use a fork to make a cross hatch pattern on the top.
- Bake on the center rack for 8 - 10 minutes until the cookies are lightly golden brown.
- Remove from oven, allow to cool on the pan for at least 15 minutes. This allows the cookies to "set". Slightly reheat in the microwave if desired and enjoy!
Nutrition
Perfect. Easy recipe to make. Used the nutty PB and regular flour instead and it works just fine.
Cookies come out a little cake like. Not bad just different than a traditional peanut butter cookie
My mom taught me to always chill the cookie dough for like 15 minutes and bake on a shiny cookie sheet. I baked a batch of these on parchment paper and a batch on a shiny cookie sheet. The shiny cookie sheet didnt burn on the bottom. Other than that, these are pretty good. The flavor is awesome!
I am a seasoned Baker not professional. I followed your recipe exactly. except for 1 thing, I use kroger peanut butter, not all natural. I found that my batter results were gooey and sticky. I can’t roll in hands, nor press with fork. I added more oat flour and no change…so weird… the timer is going off now I’ll update afterr
Not sure what went wrong but my cookies look nothing like the picture! They’re flat and they are burnt on the bottom with 8 minutes of baking.
Yummy, soft cookie
I used this recipe today, and the bottoms of cookies got real dark. . The oven was set at 350 degrees and trayvwas placed on middle rack. I had to shave off darkened bottoms!
That sounds like it’s either a baking pan problem or poorly lined pan. Temperatures have to be set according to the type of pan.
We made it with almond flour instead of oat flour. Also added a dash of salt and splash of vanilla. Chilled in the fridge, rolled out and did cut out cookies. They taste amazing and kept their shape pretty well too. Thank you for providing a healthier recipe for our Santa cookies!
I followed your lead with almond flour, salt, and a bit of vanilla. I’ll chill the batter next time. Thanks!
Great quick easy delicious recipe
These were gooey and weird; not a cookie but some sort of weird peanut butter ball situation.
Delicious and easy to make!
I replaced the oats flour with all purpose flour and it worked perfectly…
Adding a pinch of salt makes a huge difference (for the better) and refrigerating the dough for 1/2 hour makes it way easier to handle. Other than that… 5/5
Thank you for the recipe.. Will definitely make again.
So hard to find a good gluten free, sugar free recipe that tastes great even to people who can eat/enjoy eating sugar and gluten. These are that unicorn recipe.
Great recipe! I care for a 97 year old lady and she loves her sweets! I feel much better about giving here these than store bought and she really loves them. I sometimes add a Hershey kiss or a few choc chips to add a little extra to them. Today I added half a teaspoon of cinnamon as well. Thank you for this wonderful recipe
Light, delicious, and a healthier option if you’re looking to cut the sugar out. Very easy to make especially when baking with kids. I put a 2nd comment in because I forgot to add my recipe rating
Very easy to make. Light and tastes delicious. It’s definitely a healthier option.
I like sweet, but try to stay away from sugar. Baked up great and I was even able to get a couple before the missus got wind of them.
These are wonderful. I thought the dough was far too soft but they baked up beautifully
Okay so I really love these but I noticed that they are a bit dry…any way I can moisten them up a bit?
I sugguest trying these Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cookies. They are very soft and moist!
Sadly, this is probably the worst peanut butter cookie recipe I’ve ever had in my life. It’s extremely bland due to the lack of vanilla or salt. I would never again make this recipe nor ever recommend it to anyone.
Sorry this recipe didn’t work out for you. If you try it again, you can always adjust the salt and vanilla to your liking.
Can brown sugar, “Swerve”, be substituted for the honey. Thanks
you could try it and see how it turns out but sugar-free maple syrup might be a better substitute 🙂
I made these and they were very good. I replaced the peanut butter with seed butter because I didn’t have any peanut butter but still good. Will be making them again. I also made your tahini cookies which I loved. I’ve made those twice already.
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the cookies! Two of my favorite recipes 🙂 Thanks for the review!
I made your Peanut butter honey cookies using unsweetened almond butter. They turned out yummy but the batter was so gooey I couldn’t do the fork cross hatching. Do you think I didn’t use enough flour? I thought I measured correctly. Any suggestions?
Hmm, I would say maybe try a little more oat flour? And did you beat the flour in after the wet ingredients? Hope the next batch turns out better!
Use water on the fork to cross hatch.
Another reader suggested putting dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Can I use regular flour? I don not have oat flour.
Yes!
Hello, the cookies look delicious. The ingredient list mentions one egg but in the description it says eggs. Please clarify. Thanks a lot.
It’s one egg 🙂
Hi. I tried your peanut butter cookies recipe. The taste is very good. But they are little dry. Dont know where I went wrong. I still have a lot of dough remaining. Any tips on how to fix the dough before I bake anymore
I’m guessing it’s the texture of the peanut butter. Sometimes thicker peanut butter needs a bit more honey 🙂
I found that they were a little dry too but after trial and error of many batches, I have found that if I don’t blend the oats into oat flour and just use rolled oats or plain quick oats they’re more moist! Very delicious.
It must be a peanut butter texture. Thanks for sharing about the oats!
Hi! I’m going to make these today ! Were you saying using the oats whole rather than turning them into a flour often works better? Thanks!!
I use oat flour in these! 🙂
how many cookies for the nutritional facts?
1 cookie!
I’m surprised no one mentioned this before me.. you say to mix sugar in with the ingredients in the instructions.. is there sugar or no ?
Thanks!
I love this recipe because of it’s simplicity and versatility. It worked even though I used extra oat flour, some oat flakes, brown sugar and some ginger syrup I had left over from making candied ginger. Also, I’m a very lazy baker so rather than making cookies I pressed the batter into a large slab, scored it with a knife into bars and baked it for 15 minutes. The result was fabulously chewy bars with crispy edges. I would use this recipe again in a heartbeat. Thank you!
Sounds amazing!!!!
Hi, just made these 5 ingredient peanut butter cookies. I had a very difficult time combining the wet and dry ingredients. The dough was so stiff my husband had to finish incorporating ingredients. I noticed that in ingredient list there is 1 egg and in the instructions you say to mix in eggs. Could it be that I was suppose to add 2 eggs instead of 1? Thank you for all that you do! Laura
Hmm I don’t think so! Was your peanut butter really thick perhaps?
These are a healthier cookie and taste great. I get 2 dozen cookies and bake them for 11 minutes.
I’m so glad!
These are deliciousThese
So glad you enjoyed them!
Can sunbutter be used because of a peanut allergy? Can coconut or quinoa flour be used? I’m allergic to oats and rice flours also.
Yep on the sunbutter no on the coconut. I think you could try quinoa flour though!
Hi, I was wondering if I can replace the PB with PB2 powder? And if yes, how much PB2 would I need? These sound delicious but cant eat regular PB.
Thanks very much & look forward to hearing from you.
Joyce
I haven’t done any cooking or baking with PB2 so I’m not sure. Maybe if you mixed it with water to create a sort of peanut butter consistency? Sorry!