These Vegan Date Sweetened Peanut Butter Cookies are insanely easy to make, perfectly chewy and tender on the inside. Made with just 5 wholesome ingredients, this recipe is naturally gluten free, oil free and refined sugar free!
Friends, they’re HERE!
I dug up an old old recipe that was stored on my hard drive from my university days and just had to share.
If you have been looking for a Peanut Butter Cookie that is:
- healthy
- date sweetened
- vegan (dairy free, eggless)
- gluten free and flourless
- oil free
- refined sugar free
- fuss free
- perfectly soft and chewy
- peanut buttery
- and insanely easyyy….
Your search is finally over.
These healthy date cookies check off cookie woes you might have had. If you’re allergic to peanut butter or nuts, fear not because there is an alternative… keep on reading.
What You Need
These vegan peanut butter cookies only require 5 simple ingredients:
- Dates: SOFT!! dates here ya’ll- I always use Khadrawy dates.
- Non-dairy milk
- Peanut Butter: or any nut/seed butter of your choice.
- Oats: blended into a flour or you can use oat flour if you have it on hand.
- Baking Powder
I bet you grinned looking at these ingredients cause you know you already have them stocked in your pantry 😉
How to Make Date Sweetened Peanut Butter Cookies
- Add the peanut butter, dates, dairy free milk and blend until it becomes something like date paste.
- Add in the oat flour and baking powder and blend until a dough forms.
- Form them into balls and flatten them with a back of a fork. Bake for 20 minutes.
Yes, it’s really that easy!
And you could totally add in some chocolate to make them chocolate chip cookies. I haven’t tried using the oats as is, but I’m thinking they could successfully turn out as date sweetened oatmeal cookies! If you try this out, let me know!
I’ve tried to capture the texture of these cookies: soft, tender and chewy. I hope I’ve succeeded!
I hope I’ve also convinced you just how easy it is to make these (highly) addicting peanut butter cookies.
Go, go make these now! You will not regret it.
More Healthy Vegan Cookies to Love!
- Healthy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Salted Pretzel Chickpea Cookies
- Air Fryer Tahini Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies
- Almond Flour Sugar Cookies
If you recreate this Date Sweetened Peanut Butter Cookies recipe let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment and rating below or by tagging me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!
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Date Sweetened Peanut Butter Cookies
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 8 cookies
Description
These Vegan Date Sweetened Peanut Butter Cookies are insanely easy to make, perfectly chewy and tender on the inside. Made with just 5 wholesome ingredients, this recipe is naturally gluten free, oil free and refined sugar free!
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup soft dates, pitted (120g // I like to use Khadrawy dates)
- 3 tbsp non-dairy milk (45g)
- 1/3 cup peanut butter (65g)
- 1/2 tsp salt, optional
- 1 tsp vanilla, optional
- 2/3 cup gluten free rolled oats, blended into flour (80g // or 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp oat flour)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- melted dark chocolate (for garnish), optional
- flaky sea salt (for garnish), optional
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F (180 C)
- Add dates, non-dairy milk, peanut butter, salt and vanilla into a food processor and blend until smooth.
- Add in the blended oats and baking powder and blend until a dough forms. Scrape down the sides of the food processor as needed.
- Scoop out 1 heaping tbsp (around 40g per each) and roll them into balls. Flatten them with a back of the fork. Bake for 15 minutes.
Notes
- Nutritional Information Disclaimer: Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated on an online tool excluding the optional ingredients (Cronometer).
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Sweets
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: gluten free, Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 131
- Sugar: 10.8g
- Sodium: 65mg
- Fat: 4.9g
- Saturated Fat: 1g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3g
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 20.2g
- Fiber: 2.4g
- Protein: 3.4g
- Cholesterol: 0
SAVE IT FOR LATER! ↓
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Just finished baking a batch of these cookies.
I was out of nut butter except for tahini/sesame butter, so I used that. Soaked the dates in warmed milk to soften. I chose the following options: 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla. My dough was too moist to roll into balls so I made little mounds of dough and used a small flat-bottomed container to flatten each cookie after dipping the bottom of the container in sesame seeds.
Only took about 10 minutes to bake.
Unlike other experiences with date-sweetened baked-goods, these did not over brown.
Delicious!
Just tried this recipe with an extremely picky 5yr old and it’s a hit. I did soak the prunes first so I could blend them into oblivion (no texture fans here), and refrigerated the dough before rolling, and they turned out great!
Lisa, amazing recipe. I added chia and flax plus all DF/GF substitutes. Did the drizzle and also varied with chocolate chipits in batter at end. Love both. Thx so much for awesome creation!
Love love love this recipe, it’s been a go-to in our health conscious household with kids. QUESTION though as I’m currently
On whole30 and can’t have oats. Should I just go without? Or is there another substitute like almond flour?
Hi Elisa,
So glad you enjoyed, thanks so much! I haven’t tried it with oats but you could try to substitute it with a combination of almond flour and another flour.
How should we store these cookies and what is the shelf life ok these cookies.
Store at room temp for 2-3 days or freeze in a air tight bag or container!
I made these and they were delicious but I don’t think my dates were soft enough. I had to add a lot more oat milk and I added mini semisweet chocolate chips. Will definitely make again!
I am a vegan and I love trying new vegan recipes
These were amazing and so simple to make. I was craving something sweet and I had everything on hand so it was perfect. Thank you!
Excellent recipe!
Very good !! I aded cinnamon and cloves and they tasted just like gingerbread , the texture very similar . I sure will make them again .
Very tasty, I used 0 fat cow milk and it tastes amazing
Made these for my 2 y.o granddaughter who is allergic to dairy, eggs and tree nuts. She loved them. Healthy too! Easy to make. Don’t need food processor. I used my stick blender chopper. First the oats. Put them in a bowl. Then the dates with the milk. Added them to the oats. Added rest of ingredients and blended by hand.. worked well.
These are amazing! I needed to use prunes and almond butter instead of dates and peanut butter. Even my hubby raved about them!
thanks for sharing! What a fun cookie to make with kids!
This looks so so good! What a great way to still enjoy a treat while sticking to the good stuff!
Are these crunchy? If not, is there a way to make the crunchy?
I made these the other day because I am currently not consuming added sugars, and they were a TREAT!!! I’m seriously going to make these over ‘regular’ cookies in the future, they were so amazing and easy. Thank you so much for brightening my sad dessert-less life lol!
May I use date syrup in place of the dates? If yes, what would be the ratio?
Hi Chiara,
I haven’t tried so I can’t say, but I would start with 1/2 the amount and add as needed because it is more liquid-y. As always please use your best judgement and good luck!
I love this recipe so much. I made this a few days ago and I have another batch in the oven right now. Thank you!!
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
You can freeze them! 🙂
This looks so good! Do you use dates to sweeten any other kinds of cookies?
Right now I only have these cookies that are sweetened with dates 🙂
I was really pumped about this recipe. I usually buy all natural peanut butter > creamy peanut butter spread and so the flavor is very healthy which I was slightly disappointed in. The dates are awesome and I love how simple and quick the recipe is.
These were delicious and so easy to make 🙂
Delicious!
These were super tasty! I popped a dark choc melt on top of each one and they were awesome – loved the texture too although we basically ate all of them while they were warm!! I think I’ll double or triple batch next time – thanks!
Tried these as the base for an icecream sandwich and it was delicious!
Incredibly delicious! Will definitely be a healthy staple!
Omg these are so good! I’m absolutely obsessed with peanut butter and I always use dates in places of other sweeteners for baked goods. I have been making a different pb cookie recipe w dates for like 8 years but lately I haven’t been happy with it (equal parts date page, pb, almond flour and unsweetened shredded coconut plus some vanilla). Anyway, these blow those out of the water. I never leave comments on recipes. I think this is actually the first time, but I just had to comment on this one. These are amazing—sweet and salty and peanut buttery and fluffy and soft. So good!
These are really good! I love how simple the ingredients are. I had some trouble blending the oats up well enough when I added them to my food processor whole alongside the other ingredients, so to get a smoother texture, I’m planning to make the oat flour beforehand and add that in at the end next time I make these. Even so, the cookies were delicious, just not as pretty. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thank you so much for this recipe! These cookies brought me so much joy. Even my diabetic mum can have some when I reduce the half the dates. She’s very happy. Thanks! 🙂
Wondering about substituting date sugar for the dates? Has anyone tried this? Measurement ratios?
The dates give moisture so I wouldn’t substitute it but you could try other dried fruit!
I don’t bake much – can I use regular cow milk for this?
Yes!
Looking forward to making these cookies. Your recently dates recipes as the sweetener in cookies, would it work with your flourless peanut butter cookies in place of the honey? Substitute the same amount? Those have always been my favorite. Thanks for all your recipes!
Hi! Which cookie recipe are you referring to? 🙂
I can’t wait to try these! I’m looking for ways to add dates to my diet (for pregnancy) and this sounds perfect !
I hope you enjoy Jamie!
This batter is so sticky on my fingers when I try to lay the balls on the tray, anyone has this?!
If that happens you can stick the dough in the freezer to firm up 🙂 I usually just use a wet spoon and scrape it into ‘balls’
We doubled the mixture and split into 3 to make plain, chocolate (added 1 tbs of cocoa) and ginger (we added about 1tbs of fresh ginger). The fresh ginger really brought out the date taste. We made 20g balls so we didn’t feel bad eating so many 😉
So happy to hear you enjoyed! And YUM I gotta try adding in ginger.
OMG! These cookies are delicious! Instead of peanut butter, I used almond butter and it worked just as well! Very subtly sweet and a healthy alternative to other treats! 10/10!
Yes!! Almond butter is so tasty in these as well so glad you enjoyed 🙂
Can you make this if u don’t have a food processor? I have a magic bullet but I don’t think it will blend the ingredients because there is not Enough liquid in the recipe.
You could try and blend the dates in the magic bullet and then mix the rest of the batter by hand! I haven’t tried in a blender or magic bullet so I can’t say for sure but let me know how it works out! 🙂
If you use date paste by weight of the dates the recipe works fine, too.
Both baking powder and baking soda is mentioned in the recipe! I just want to clarify, you mean baking soda yes?
Hi Kylie!
Yes baking powder is correct 🙂
I can t wait to make this, I have been making the classic 3 ingredient PB cookies for years(1 egg, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup peanut butter) and love them, but this is such a great option! It s hard for me to find time to bake lately, and I m definitely a chewy-underbaked cookie person. Plus, no wait time, no processed sugar, and extra protein and fiber! Thank you so much
Hi Hunna,
I hope you enjoy!
So delicious!
Hi Anya! Glad you hear you enjoyed it!
Just made these minutes ago – delicious when warm! I’m sure they’ll be delicious room temperature too, but that’s only if I can stop eating them. I don’t have a food processor and used my Vitamix, which is a little harder because there’s only a small amount in the bottom to mix, but it all still worked out.
Hi Audrey!
Glad it worked out in the blender and that you enjoyed them 🙂
I’m so glad you shared your experience. I was thinking of using my BlendTec. Now I know it’s straight to the food processor.