Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies
These soft eggless peanut butter cookies turn out so crave-ably chewy and salty-sweet! Even though recipes for traditional PB cookies depend on eggs, these eggless cookies do NOT disappoint. Crisp around the edges, chewy on the inside, and a rich, peanut-buttery flavor that is oh so comforting. Learn how to make peanut butter cookies without eggs in just 35 minutes!
Many old-fashioned peanut butter cookie recipes use eggs, peanut butter, and sugar—but no flour. (Try my Keto Peanut Butter Cookies for a flourless option!) To make no egg peanut butter cookies instead, flour is required, along with other classic ingredients like butter, leavening agents, and a dash of milk. The result is a soft, sumptuous cookie that’s a bit lighter in color, but loaded with irresistible flavor!
Honestly, it’s hard to go wrong with peanut butter. That salty, nutty, creamy goodness shines through just the same in this egg free peanut butter cookies recipe! If you have an egg allergy or you’re just hungry for easy eggless cookies, this batch is sure to satisfy. See how to make peanut butter cookies without eggs for an egg free option that’s just as tasty as the classic recipe.
How can I substitute eggs in cookies?
Ingredients like yogurt, applesauce, oil + water, and flax eggs (ground flax + water) are common egg substitutes for eggless cookies. These ingredients mimic the role that eggs typically play: they have a thick, viscous consistency that binds the cookies together, and they add moisture for a soft, chewy texture. In this recipe for eggless peanut butter cookies, rather than directly substituting for the eggs, several ingredients work together to fill in for them.
What can I substitute for eggs in peanut butter cookies?
These egg free peanut butter cookies have a lusciously crisp-yet-chewy texture—thanks to a few ingredients replacing the eggs. Butter and peanut butter act as binding agents, with their creamy, fat-rich, viscous consistency. Baking soda and baking powder act as leavening agents for a fluffier bite. And a dash of milk adds some essential moisture—keeping these easy PB cookies soft, chewy, and satisfying!
Ingredients for Soft Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies
- Peanut Butter. We’re nixing the eggs, but we definitely still need peanut butter in this recipe! For the best flavor and texture, use a smooth peanut butter that’s salted. You can also try this recipe using a different nut butter (almond, cashew, etc.), your cookies will just taste different! Before adding it to the recipe, make sure to stir your nut butter well if it’s separated.
- Butter. Let your butter soften at room temperature overnight, or at least for a few hours! This produces the best texture for binding the cookies together, so they maintain their shape. To make these no egg peanut butter cookies vegan, use a plant-based butter instead.
- Sugar. I used all white sugar in this recipe, but feel free to substitute with half brown sugar if preferred.
- All-Purpose Flour. When making peanut butter cookies without eggs, flour is essential for a sturdy structure. All-purpose flour helps maintain the shape of our cookies and keeps them soft and fluffy—in part thanks to the gluten it contains. So, while a whole wheat flour could work in this recipe, a gluten free flour might not hold up as well. I haven’t tested this myself yet, but you’re welcome to experiment on your own!
- Baking Powder & Soda. Leavening agents help cookies rise and fluff up, and they’re particularly important in an eggless cookie recipe.
- Salt. The most subtle yet essential ingredient, a dash of salt enhances and brightens up all the flavors in these salty-sweet cookies!
- Milk of Choice. Dairy and nondairy milks are suitable for this eggless peanut butter cookie recipe. I typically use a 2% or whole dairy milk, but you could also try almond milk, cashew, coconut, soy milk—whatever suits you.
- Optional Mix-Ins. If you want to jazz up your easy PB cookies a bit, add a few tablespoons of tasty mix-ins! Chocolate chips, chopped nuts, shredded coconut—get creative with your favorites.
Can you substitute peanut butter for egg?
In recipes like brownies, pancakes, and cookies, yes—nut butters can substitute for eggs! This includes peanut butter, cashew, almond butter, etc., substituting around 3-4 Tbsp of nut butter for 1 egg. Nut butters are rich in fats and have a thick, creamy, viscous consistency that’s similar to eggs. This is why peanut butter is a great binding agent in this eggless peanut butter cookies recipe, and other recipes!
Can you use oil instead of eggs in cookies? What about milk?
Yes, a possible egg substitute is using a combination of ~1 Tbsp oil + 2 Tbsp water per egg. Oil has the fats and viscous consistency needed for binding ingredients together, while water adds necessary moisture. Instead of oil and water, I chose to make these no egg peanut butter cookies with a similar (but tastier) combo: butter and milk! Butter for binding, and milk for moisture—both dairy and nondairy milks can work.
What are vegan substitutes for eggs?
There are many possible vegan egg substitutes: mashed banana or applesauce, flax eggs, oil + water, aquafaba, and plenty more. But, you don’t actually need to use any of these if you want to make these eggless peanut butter cookies vegan! Since butter and milk work together as an egg substitute here, you can make this recipe vegan simply by using vegan butter and nondairy milk. (Make sure you still let your vegan butter soften before mixing!)
How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies without Eggs
- In a large bowl, cream together peanut butter, softened butter, and sugar with a hand mixer until fluffy and pale in color.
- Separately, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to combine.
- Pour dry mixture into wet mixture, beating with a hand mixer to integrate until soft and crumbly.
- Add milk and continue mixing with a spatula, until the dough holds together when pressed. (If desired, fold in optional mix-ins here.)
- Scoop dough, roll into a ball with hands, and flatten each ball slightly to form small discs. (I used a 1-Tbsp cookie scoop to yield ~30 eggless peanut butter cookies.)
- Transfer to prepared baking sheets, then press down on each cookie with a fork to create the classic crisscross pattern.
- Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 12-15 minutes (less time for softer cookies, longer for crisper cookies).
Can you eat raw cookie dough without eggs?
Due to the slight risk of salmonella contamination from eggs, removing eggs from cookie dough can make it safer to eat. However, eggs aren’t the only risky ingredient—uncooked flour can also contain harmful contaminants. So, even when making peanut butter cookies without eggs, it’s best to limit how much dough you eat. For a completely safe-to-eat option that’s flour free and egg free, try my edible cookie dough recipe instead!
What else can I bake If I don’t have eggs?
For more eggless cookie recipes and egg free baked goods, try some of these treats:
- Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Eggless Sugar Cookies
- Easy Eggless Brownies
- Edible Cookie Dough
- Fluffy Vegan Pancakes
- Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Breakfast Cookies
- Purple Sweet Potato Breakfast Bars
- Homemade Ritz Crackers
Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Cookies No Eggs
- ½ cup smooth salted peanut butter, (128g)
- ⅓ cup butter, softened, (2.6oz) or vegan butter
- ⅔ cup white sugar, (134g) or substitute half brown sugar
- 1⅓ cups all-purpose flour, (160g)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 4 Tbsp milk of choice, dairy or nondairy (60mL)
Optional
- 2 Tbsp mix-ins of choice, (nuts, chocolate chips, etc.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
- In a bowl, cream together peanut butter, butter, and sugar with a hand mixer until fluffy and pale in color, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed.
- Separately, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add dry ingredients into the wet mixture and beat with mixer until combined. (The dough should be soft and crumbly.)
- Add milk and mix with a spatula, pressing dough together. (If dough feels too sticky at this point, refrigerate 15-20 minutes.)
- Optional: Add 2 Tbsp mix-ins of choice and fold into dough.
- Use a 1-Tbsp cookie scoop to portion dough, roll into a ball with hands, and flatten slightly to form a small disc. Transfer to lined and greased baking sheets.
- Press down on each cookie with a fork to create the classic crisscross pattern.
- Bake 12-15 minutes. (12-13 minutes for softer cookies, 14-15 minutes for crispier cookies.)
- Allow to cool 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
- Yields ~30 eggless peanut butter cookies (using 1-Tbsp scoop).
27 Comments on “Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies”
Could I refrigerate or freeze these to bake fresh another day instead of having 30 delicious cookies waiting to be eaten the same day?
Hi Crystal, great question! We’ve only ever made & baked this eggless cookie dough immediately, so we’ve never tried refrigerating it or freezing it to use later. It’s possible that it could work! Although you’d have to test it out yourself to find out.
Since this cookie dough has no eggs (and it’s made with butter & peanut butter as fat sources instead), it’s possible that the dough might firm up or become crumblier after refrigerating or freezing it, which could affect the texture of your baked cookies. If you want to give it a try, I’d recommend storing the dough in the fridge for 2-3 days max (rather than freezing & thawing it). If you do give it a try, we’d love to hear how it turns out 🙂
41 year old just trying to learn how to cook different
Hi Loretta, and welcome! We’re glad to have you here 🙂 If you try out these egg-free peanut butter cookies, we’d love to know how they turn out. And feel free to browse our site for more easy recipes & meal ideas!
Came across this recipe when I was in search of a peanut butter cookie recipe that was eggless, because I didn’t have any eggs on hand. This recipe is amazing! I also used cake flour in place of all purpose because that is what I had. The dough is phenomenal as well. A+++++++++
Yay! Thank you so much for your kind words, Stephanie! We’re so glad these eggless PB cookies turned out well for you 🙂 They’re so good & easy, aren’t they?! It’s great to know the recipe worked with cake flour as well. We appreciate you trying out the recipe & sharing what worked for you!
Hi…if you can give the measurements of all ingredients in grams, it will be very accurate for us to try your recipes. because cups differs in ml. thanks
Hi there, thank you for reaching out about this! We’ve been doing our best to start giving our ingredient measurements in grams as well, although some of our previous recipes are still in the process of being updated – like this one. We’ve now added gram measurements to this recipe & will continue doing so with our other recipes 🙂 We appreciate your feedback & we hope you’ll give these eggless PB cookies a try!
Just made these as I’ve been craving peanut butter cookies! I have an addiction to peanut butter, but anyway; I had all of the ingredients EXCEPT eggs. I found this recipe and thought I’d give it a go. It was surprisingly super easy and the dough stayed together perfectly and tasted even better. THEN after they cooled and I was finally able to taste one, I was completely bummed out because I couldn’t even taste the peanut butter AT ALLI followed the recipe to a T and I don’t have COVID or anything else that would impair my taste buds. As I said, I tasted the batter before cooking and it was devine, so, I don’t know what happened to my wonderfully peanut buttery flavored batter in the baking process that killed my peanut butter cookies, but I’m very sad. Maybe I’ll put a dab of peanut butter atop of the cookies now or try to “frost” them with peanut butter♀️ I’ll try the recipe again soon, maybe with a different brand of peanut butter who knows, but this recipe deserves another shot for sure!
Hi Jean, thank you for trying out our egg-free peanut butter cookies! I’m so sorry to hear they turned out not tasting as peanut buttery as you wanted – that’s so strange. I wonder why! Good to know the batter tasted good beforehand at least. If you try the recipe again & change anything we’d be curious to know how they turn out for you!
I just made them and they are delicious. My son ate half a dozen while they were still warm. Thank you for this easy delicious recipe. Blessings from Newfoundland, Canada.
Hi Julie, thank you for trying out our eggless PB cookies & sharing your kind words with us! These are totally best when warm – your son has the right idea 🙂 We’re so glad you enjoyed the recipe, and we’re happy to have you here. Sending you & your family love from Los Angeles!
Can you use Splenda in these instead of sugar ?
Hi Jaime, we haven’t tried making these egg free peanut butter cookies with splenda, so I can’t say exactly how much you’d need to use in this recipe. The recipe would probably work with splenda instead of sugar, but splenda is much sweeter than sugar, so you’d need to use less splenda than is called for in this recipe. (Otherwise they may taste way too sweet.)
If you’re interested in a low-carb or sugar-free peanut butter cookies recipe, we do also have a keto PB cookie recipe that uses powdered stevia or erythritol 🙂
https://mindovermunch.com/recipes/keto-peanut-butter-cookies/
Just made these with our 3 year old who has an egg allergy. Used little cookie cutters to make holiday shapes and we’re gonna decorate them later. We put the cut dough in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking and they came out perfect! Thanks!
Yay! We’re so glad these egg free peanut butter cookies turned out well for you and your family. Thank you for trying out the recipe – and what a great idea to cut the dough into holiday shapes! We appreciate you sharing what worked for you so others can give it a try as well 🙂
These were delicious but I’d say add a little more sugar if you like sweet cookies! I personally added 1/2 cup in mine ^^
Yay! Thank you for trying our egg free peanut butter cookies recipe! We’re glad to hear you enjoyed them, and great tip about adding more sugar if you prefer sweeter cookies 🙂
They were perfect. Thank you. 🙂
Yay! Thank you for trying our egg free peanut butter cookies, Shelley! We’re so glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Good evening! This was my first time baking cookies. This recipe was everything! Lol! They were amazing! Thank you so much!
Hello Veronica! Thank you for trying our eggless peanut butter cookie recipe 🙂 We’re so happy to hear they turned out well on the first try! They’re so tasty!!
These cookies are easy and delicious!
Hi Paige, thank you for your kind words & for trying out our eggless peanut butter cookie recipe! So glad to hear you enjoyed them 🙂
This recipe worked out beautifully! Dark chocolate chips were the perfect add-in. Thank you!
Delicious! Dark chocolate chips sound truly perfect in these egg free peanut butter cookies! Thanks so much for trying out the recipe and sharing your kind words with us, Christina 🙂
Oh my God they are to die for!
Like butter! ❤️
Thank you!