3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter, sugar, eggs. That’s the entire ingredient list for these 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies, and they’re on a cooling rack 20 minutes after you decide to make them. No flour, no butter, no mixer, nothing to soften or chill. They’re also gluten free, which happens by accident rather than design.

There’s no flour in these and no butter either, which raises a reasonable question about what’s actually holding them together.

The answer is the peanut butter. It’s bringing the fat that butter usually brings, plus enough protein and body to give the cookie structure. The egg binds it and the sugar melts and recrystallizes as they cool, which is what firms them up. That’s the whole thing, and it means these behave slightly differently from a normal cookie in ways worth knowing about.

They’re 20 minutes start to finish, which is faster than driving to buy cookies. No mixer needed. No butter to soften. No dough to chill. I’ve made these on nights when the only reason anyone was getting a cookie at all was that the recipe had 3 ingredients in it.

The fork marks aren’t decoration either. There’s a reason for them and it’s below.

A note on the sugar. For years I made these with half the sugar because I prefer them less sweet. I’ve since gone back to the classic ratio, doubled, because it’s what people expect and it gives you a sturdier cookie. Sugar does real structural work in a cookie with no flour in it, so cutting it back makes them more fragile than they need to be.

A normal cookie has flour, which forms gluten and gives you structure. It has butter, which coats the flour and makes things tender. It usually has a leavener. These have none of that.

• The peanut butter is doing the butter’s job and some of the flour’s. It’s roughly half fat, which is the tenderness, and it’s got protein and fiber in it that give the dough body. That’s why 2 cups of it makes a scoopable dough rather than a puddle.
• The egg is the binder. As it sets in the oven it locks everything into place. Without it you’d have sweet peanut butter paste.
• And the sugar is structural, not just sweet. It melts in the oven and recrystallizes as the cookies cool, which is the main reason they go from soft to set. In a cookie with no flour, that recrystallization is a significant part of what holds it all together. Cut the sugar and you get a more fragile cookie, which is exactly what I found out doing it for years.
• Which is also why they’re gluten free, and nobody planned that. No flour, no gluten. Just check your peanut butter label, since some brands add things.

That crisscross is on every peanut butter cookie you’ve ever seen and most people assume it’s tradition. It’s actually functional.

This dough doesn’t spread. There’s no butter to melt and no leavening to push it outward, so a ball of dough that goes into the oven as a ball comes out as a ball, raw in the middle and overcooked outside.

Pressing it flat is how the cookie gets its shape. You’re doing the job the oven would normally do.

Two presses at 90 degrees because one gives you a flat cookie with an uneven edge, and crossing it distributes the pressure more evenly. It also looks right, which counts for something.

Dip the fork in sugar between cookies if it’s sticking, which it will. Water works too but sugar leaves a nice crackly finish on top.

How flat? About half an inch. Flatter gives you a crisper cookie, thicker gives you a chewier one. That’s genuinely the only control you have over texture here, so it’s worth a moment’s thought.

• Creamy peanut butter (2 cups, at room temperature): The whole recipe rests on this, so use one you’d happily eat with a spoon. Regular shelf stable peanut butter like Jif or Skippy is what this is written for and it’s the most reliable choice, because it’s emulsified and consistent. Natural peanut butter works with one caveat, which is below. Chunky works and gives you a more textured cookie. Almond or cashew butter both work if peanuts are a problem.
• Granulated sugar (2 cups): More than you’d think and it’s there for structure as much as sweetness. See the section above. Brown sugar works and gives you a chewier, more caramel flavored cookie, which some people prefer.
• Eggs (2 large): The binder. Room temperature blends more easily into thick peanut butter, though it matters less here than in most baking.

This is the single biggest variable in a 3 ingredient recipe and almost nobody mentions it.

Regular peanut butter like Jif, Skippy, or a store brand has emulsifiers and added oils that keep it stable. It’s thick, consistent, and it behaves the same every time. This recipe is written for it.

Natural peanut butter is peanuts and salt, and the oil separates. That means two things. First, you have to stir it properly, right down to the bottom of the jar, or you’re either scooping oil or scooping dry paste. Second, even well stirred it’s looser than regular peanut butter, so your dough will be softer and the cookies will spread more and be more fragile.

If you’re using natural, stir it thoroughly, and consider chilling the dough for 20 minutes before scooping. That firms it up enough to handle. The cookies will still be excellent, they’ll just be a little more delicate.

What I’d avoid is the very runny natural kinds, the ones that pour. There isn’t enough body in them to hold a cookie together.

You won’t believe how easy these cookies are to whip up; seriously, they’re a game-changer. Let’s get started!

Oven to 350°F, and line two baking sheets with parchment. Parchment matters more here than usual because there’s no flour and nothing to keep these from sticking.

Mix everything in one bowl. Peanut butter, sugar, and eggs, mixed until it comes together into a soft dough you can scoop. A stand mixer with the paddle is easiest, a hand mixer works, and honestly a sturdy wooden spoon and a bit of determination works too. There’s nothing delicate happening here and you can’t overmix it.

Scoop them. About 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie, rolled into balls and placed 2 inches apart. A cookie scoop makes this much faster and keeps them even, which matters since they all bake for the same time.

Press with a fork, twice, at 90 degrees, to about half an inch thick. Dip the fork in sugar if it starts sticking. See above for why this step exists.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges have just turned golden. And here’s the part to pay attention to: they will look underdone when you take them out. Soft in the middle, no firmness at all. That’s correct. They set entirely as they cool, and if you leave them in until they look done you’ll have hard cookies.

Cool them on the sheet. Completely, before you move them anywhere. These are fragile while warm because there’s no flour giving them structure, and lifting one off a hot tray usually ends with half a cookie. 10 minutes on the sheet and they’ll hold together fine.

The most common problem with these, and it’s always one of a few things.

• You moved them too soon. The main one. Warm, these cookies have almost no structure. The sugar hasn’t recrystallized and the egg is still soft. Leave them on the sheet until they’re fully cool and they’re perfectly sturdy.
• Natural peanut butter that wasn’t stirred. If you scooped from the top you got mostly oil, and if you scooped from the bottom you got dry paste. Neither makes a cookie. Stir it all the way down.
• Not enough sugar. I know this from experience. Sugar is structural in a flourless cookie, and cutting it makes them noticeably more crumbly.
• They were too thick going in. A ball pressed to half an inch bakes evenly. A thicker one stays raw in the middle and falls apart when you pick it up.
• And if they’re hard rather than crumbly, you overbaked them. Pull them when the edges are just golden and the middles still look soft.

• Bacon. Yes, bacon. Fold in about 6 slices of crispy fried bacon, chopped small, and the salty smoky bits against all that sweetness are ridiculous in the best way. I’ve got a full Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies recipe if you want the proper version, which uses brown sugar and a bit of baking soda alongside.
• Chocolate chips. A cup, folded in at the end. Strictly this makes it 4 ingredients and nobody has ever objected.
• Sea salt on top. A pinch flaked over each cookie before baking. Salt against all that sweetness is a real improvement and it costs nothing.
• Chocolate dipped. Dip half of each cooled cookie in melted chocolate and set them on parchment.
• Brown sugar. Swap the granulated for brown, or use half and half. Chewier and more caramel flavored.
• Vanilla. A teaspoon stirred into the dough. Again, technically 4 ingredients. Again, worth it.
• Peanut butter blossoms. Press a chocolate kiss into the center the moment they come out of the oven, skipping the fork step.
• Almond or cashew butter. Both work directly in place of peanut butter and make a noticeably different, slightly more delicate cookie.

Room temperature: an airtight container for up to a week. They firm up a little over the first day and then hold.

Dough ahead: mix it and refrigerate for up to 3 days. It’ll be firm from the fridge, so let it sit out for 15 minutes before scooping.

Freezing dough: scoop the balls, freeze them on a tray until solid, then bag them for 3 months. Bake straight from frozen with an extra 2 minutes, no need to press them any harder.

Freezing baked cookies: 3 months. Freeze them in a single layer first so they don’t stick, then transfer to a bag with parchment between the layers, since these are more fragile than most cookies.

Thawing: 20 minutes at room temperature, or 10 seconds in the microwave if you want one warm.