Healthier, 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies are a great thing to stock in your freezer! They make a great sweet treat and serve as an energizing boost on busy days. These are sugar free, so perfect for people following a low carb or keto diet.
Easy 3-Ingredient Cookies! Keto & Low Carb Friendly
Homemade cookies are awesome — homemade cookies that require only 3 ingredients, and clock in at 2 net carbs per cookie — are next level awesome!
If you’ve never made 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies before, they are magic! They are basically just sweetened nut butter, with some egg. The nut butter “seizes” when it’s mixed with the water in the egg, creating a thick peanut butter cookie dough.
Flattened and baked for just 9 minutes, these flourless peanut butter cookies come out crisp around the edges, and chewy in the centers!
We love this easy peanut butter cookie recipe with a bit of dark chocolate added. Either sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top, or dip the edges of these babies in melted dark chocolate.
Keep them on hand for snack emergencies!
What You’ll Need
- Natural Peanut Butter (Creamy peanut butter or crunchy peanut butter work! Almond butter or sunflower seed butter also work! However, do not use a nut butter than has oil or sugar added.)
- Large Egg
- Sweetener (monk fruit sweetener with erythritol works the best here!)
- Optional: Add a pinch of sea salt if your nut butter doesn’t have it.
- Optional: Add mini chocolate chips, or dip the cookies in melted dark chocolate. Use a very dark chocolate or a sugar free chocolate to keep these low carb and keto friendly!
- Optional: 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
How to Make 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
Preheat oven to 350º F prior to starting.
Step 1: Add room temperature nut butter (cold nut butter will be difficult to stir into a dough), egg, and sweetener to a large bowl. If your nut butter does not have salt, add about 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt into the mixture. Stir until a dough forms. The mixture will be runny at first, but continue stirring for 2-3 minutes until your dough is thick enough to form cookie dough balls (this happens as the liquid in the egg causes the nut butter to “seize”).
Step 2: Form 1-tablespoon cookie dough balls and place them on a cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.
Step 3: Use the back of a fork to press cookies down in a criss-cross pattern. These cookies will not spread very much, so be sure they are about the thickness you prefer. If adding chocolate chips, press them in to the tops of the cookies at this stage.
Step 4: Bake the cookies for about 9 minutes, until they are golden brown around the edges. Allow the cookies to fully cool prior to removing from the baking tray. They will firm up as they cool!
How to Store Cookies
These cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
For the best results, store them in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 6 months. The cookies are delicious straight from the freezer and maintain a better crunchy texture this way.
Tips for the Best Keto Peanut Butter Cookies
*Nutritional information does not include optional chocolate chips.
Tip #1: Use a natural nut butter
Whatever nut butter you use — peanut, cashew butter, almond or sunflower seed — be sure to choose a natural kind that doesn’t have added sugars or oils. These are not only an unhealthy addition to your cookie, but the recipe won’t turn out the same if there are other ingredients in the mix.
Tip #2: Lower the Carbs
Almond and sunflower seed butter are both lower in carbs than peanut butter. Make this swap for cookies with 1 net carb per cookie. Be sure your nut butter is not sweetened!
Tip #3: Make these vegan
These cookies also work with vegan egg substitutes. You can use 1 tablespoon of chia seeds or 1 tablespoon of flax seed meal plus 3 tablespoons of water. Allow the seeds and the water to sit mixed together for about 5 minutes so that the seeds “gel” with the water, and then add it in place of the egg. Store bought egg replacements work as well.
Tip #4: Instead of a crunchy cookie, make a soft cookie
This is done simply by lowering the baking time! It also helps to keep the cookies a little thicker when pressed down with the fork. After 9 minutes, these cookies will come out of the oven soft but will crisp up as they cool. Bake these for 6-7 minutes and then remove them from the baking tray as quickly as possible to stop the baking and make a softer cookie.
Tip #5: Want to use real sugar instead of a sweetener? You can! Brown sugar will result in overly soft cookies, so use a white granulated sugar for these.
Other Keto Cookie Recipes
- Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Keto White Chocolate Macadamia Bar Cookies
- Keto Double Chocolate Cookies
- Keto Macaroons
Try this recipe? Be sure to share your cooking with me on Pinterest, Facebook, or Instagram, and tag @BlissfullyLowCarb !
3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter no oils or sugar added (peanuts and salt only), sub almond butter or sunflower seed butter for lower carbs
- 1/2 cup monk fruit sweetener
- 1 egg
- mini chocolate chips or dark chocolate, optional
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt *use if your nut butter doesn't not have salt added
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350º F.
- Line a baking tray with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, add peanut butter, monk fruit sweetener, and egg. Stir the ingredients to combine into a cookie dough. At first, the dough will seem too wet, but continue stirring until a thick batter forms.
- Roll the dough into 2 tablespoon sized balls, and place them out onto the prepared baking tray.
- Flatten the cookies with a fork. The cookies will not spread while baking, so flatten them into the shape you'd like your cookies to be when baked.
- Bake the cookies for 9 minutes. See notes about making a softer cookie.
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