Loaded Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Name: Loaded Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 142 min
Ingredients: ⅔ cup packed brown sugar (light or dark); 1 large egg; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; Pinch of salt; Tiny pinch of instant espresso powder ((optional)); ¾ cup creamy peanut butter ((not natural)); ¼ cup mini chocolate chips (or chopped regular chips); ¼ cup chopped Reese's peanut butter cup pieces

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These flourless peanut butter cookies are loaded with chocolate chips and peanut butter cups for a perfect chocolate and peanut butter pairing. All you need are simple ingredients for this one bowl, smaller batch recipe!

Cooling flourless peanut butter cookies on a wire rack.

If I'm in the mood for "cookies as a snack", I'm making healthy peanut butter cookies. But if I'm hankering for "cookies as dessert dessert"? Then these flourless peanut butter cookies, loaded with fun chocolate mix-ins, are on the menu.

Reasons to Love This Recipe

Flourless peanut butter cookies naturally have very few ingredients at their base. This recipe takes advantage of their simplicity and adds in chocolate to make a classic dessert combination.
It's a one-bowl recipe that is made by hand.
These cookies stay soft for days, but they also freeze well!

Recipe Ingredients

Labeled flourless peanut butter cookie ingredients in separate containers.

Peanut butter: Basic creamy supermarket peanut butter works best for flourless peanut butter cookies as it's less oily at the onset and makes the cookie dough easier to work with. Natural peanut butter varieties would likely be too oily to handle.
Brown sugar: While some recipes use an equal amount of peanut butter and brown sugar, I've found you can pull back on the sugar content while still achieving perfectly sweetened cookies. Dark or light brown sugar is fine.
Chocolate chips: To maintain a cohesive cookie dough, the smaller the mix-in, the better. Mini chocolate chips are my top pick, but you can also roughly chop regular chocolate chips. Semisweet or dark chocolate both work great.
Peanut butter cups: No matter the size of your Reese's, chop them into smaller pieces for the same reasoning as above. Even the unwrapped, mini varieties are a little big to be stirred into the cookie dough as-is.
Espresso powder: This is optional, but boosts the chocolatey flavor without adding a mocha or coffee flavor on its own. Use just a tiny bit, a pinch, to not overwhelm the flavor.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Whisk together the egg, brown sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and espresso powder (if using) in a medium mixing bowl. Add the peanut butter.
Stir the peanut butter into the liquid ingredients for several minutes until a thickened, barely-sticky ball forms.

Liquid ingredients mixed in a bowl with a blob of peanut butter in it (left) and after the peanut butter is worked in (right).

Stir in the chocolate chips and chopped up Reese's peanut butter cups, ensuring that the mix-ins are as evenly dispersed throughout the cookie dough as you can get them.

Chocolate chips and peanut butter cups folded into the cookie dough.

Scoop balls of cookie dough and refrigerate for at least two hours, ideally longer. Using a two-tablespoon capacity scoop will yield you about ten cookies.

Ten rolled cookie dough balls in a parchment-lined dish.

When you're ready to bake, place the balls of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and evenly press down on them with the bottom of a flat glass until they're around a half-inch tall. They don't spread or expand while baking so you don't need to leave a lot of room between each one.

Flattened peanut butter cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are turning golden-brown and the surface is appearing drier. The center of each cookie may still seem soft, but they will firm up as they cool. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Baked flourless peanut butter cookies on a baking sheet.

Recipe Tips and Tricks

Make sure to mix in the peanut butter cup pieces and chips very well. Flourless peanut butter cookies are crinkly by nature, and having uneven pockets of chocolate can lead to more cracks in each cookie.
And speaking of the mix-ins, the smaller the better. Mini chocolate chips are my preference, but you can also roughly chop regular chocolate chips too. This helps form a nice and cohesive cookie dough.
While peanut butter cookies typically feature a cross-hatch design on top, I found doing so with this recipe looked a little sloppy as the chocolate and Reese's in the dough prevent evenly-pressed marks. I prefer to simply flatten them with the flat bottom of a glass.
This dough must chill! Otherwise the oils from the peanut butter will make the dough too soft when warm, leading to flattened cookies that spread too far.

Baked crinkly flourless peanut butter cookies on a sheet.

Recipe FAQs

How can I switch up this recipe?

You can only use chocolate chips or peanut butter cups, or leave them out entirely! Any other small-sized mix-in that would mesh well with the peanut butter flavor would also be a fun variation. A flavored peanut butter (or other nut butter) could also work, so long as it has the consistency of standard peanut butter and isn't too oily/runny.

How do you store these cookies?

Store flourless peanut butter cookies only once they have cooled completely. This prevents condensation from being trapped in the container, which can lead to them going bad faster. They are fine stored at room temperature for several days. You can also freeze them for four to six months or so, after which they might take on a staler flavor.

A hand holding up a cookie cut in half to show the moist and chocolate-y interior.

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