Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

My vegan peanut butter cookies will knock your socks off! These cookies are soft, chewy, and studded with a mix of rich chocolate chips and peanut butter chunks. Delicious, decadent, and perfect for dunking!

I often say that chocolate is my favorite flavor, but that’s not really true. Chocolate and peanut butter is my favorite flavor. It is a flavor! The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is amazing — better than either component individually. My chocolate peanut butter cupcakes and and vegan peanut butter bars are a couple of my favorite treats. And just recently, when I created my vegan peanut butter pie recipe, I realized I really needed more of this scrumptious combination in my life, so I made these vegan peanut butter cup cookies. OH YES!

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These cookies turned out to be absolutely irresistible! This might just be my new favorite cookie recipe, combining all the delicious elements of my vegan peanut butter cookies, vegan chocolate chip cookies, and vegan peanut butter blossoms. They’re rich, chewy, delicious, and amazing with a big glass of almond milk.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Water.
Ground flaxseeds. You’ll be combining these with the water to make a flax egg, which is one of my favorite vegan egg substitutes for baking. Most stores carry ground flaxseeds in the baking aisle or natural foods aisle.
Flour. I’ve only made this recipe with all-purpose flour, also known as wheat flour or white flour. Use other varieties at your own risk.
Baking soda.
Cornstarch.
Salt.
Vegan butter. You should be able to find this in the refrigerated section of most grocery stores, right near the regular butter.
Creamy peanut butter. This recipe was developed using conventional peanut butter. I don’t recommend using natural peanut butter, which is the type you need to stir. Your cookies might end up spreading too much if you do!
Brown sugar. Use organic brown sugar to keep the recipe vegan. Conventional sugar may have been processed using animal bone char.
Sugar. This also needs to be organic, for the same reason.
Vanilla extract.
Apple cider vinegar. This will add some acidity to the dough, helping our cookies to rise. Need an alternative? Check out my list of apple cider vinegar substitutes.
Vegan chocolate chips. Most chocolate chips contain dairy, so check the ingredients. I used Enjoy Life brand, which are vegan and available at most grocery stores.
Vegan peanut butter cups. I used Reese’s Plant Based Peanut Butter Cups.

How They’re Made

The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!

Step 1: Start by preheating your oven to 350°F and lining a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mixture of ground flaxseed and water in a mixing bowl with a wire whisk.

Step 2: Make your flax egg by whisking water and ground flaxseeds together in a large mixing bowl. Let it sit for a few minutes to gel. You can gather your other ingredients in the meantime.

Dry ingredients for cookie dough in a mixing bowl with a wire whisk.

Step 3: In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Set this mixture aside for a moment.

Wet ingredients for cookie dough in a mixing bowl with electric mixer and spatula.

Step 4: Add the vegan butter, brown sugar, sugar, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar to the bowl with the flax egg. Use an electric mixer to cream the mixture until it becomes light and fluffy.

Cookie dough in a glass bowl with electric mixer and spatula.

Step 5: Begin beating the flour mixture into the butter mixture, adding a bit at a time and beating it in at low speed. You’ll end up with a soft dough.

Tip: Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature before adding them to the recipe. This will mean setting your vegan butter out a few hours in advance, and possibly warming up anything else that’s been in the fridge.

Cookie dough with chocolate chips and chopped peanut butter cups in a mixing bowl.

Step 6: Stir in chopped peanut butter cups and chocolate chips. Reserve about a half cup of the peanut butter cups.

Cookie dough balls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Step 7: Drop the dough in mounds on the prepared baking sheets, using about 2 tablespoons per cookie.

Step 8: Stick the cookie sheets in the oven and bake the cookies until they’ve spread out and darkened a bit around the edges.

Step 9: Place the baking sheets on cooling racks as soon as they come out of the oven, then press the remaining chopped peanut butter cup pieces into the tops.

Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Cookies arranged on a white wooden surface.

Step 10: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, until they’re set, then transfer them directly to the racks to finish cooling.

Shelf-Life & Storage

Your vegan peanut butter cup cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about two weeks, or in the freezer for about three months.

Stack of Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Cookies with a half of a cookie on top.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can this recipe be made gluten-free?

Based on my experience with other cookie recipes, I think an all purpose gluten-free flour blend would work, but I haven’t tried with this recipe, so no promises!

Do I need to chill the cookie dough before baking?

Nope! In fact, I don’t recommend it. Your cookies will not spread enough if you do.

All I have is natural peanut butter. Can I use this instead of conventional peanut butter?

You can, but because natural peanut butter is so runny, your cookies may end up spreading too much. You’ll also need to keep a close eye on them when baking, as the required time might change with natural peanut butter.

Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!

Plate of Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.

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