These little no-bake peanut butter cookies are too good to be true. Dense yet melt-in-your-mouth, these hearts of heaven are blessed with the sweetness of dates and the richness of natural peanut butter. AND, just for good measure, we snuck some protein powder, almond flour, and flax meal in there, too.
This recipe was the result of hours spent online clicking on recipes for fudge–everything from homemade truffles to keto Reece’s. After nixing the powdered sugar (because crazy energy!) and the erythritol (because farts!) I found a way to make the recipe with dates. In fact the recipe’s more like date halva than anything else.
And just for my friends with dietary restrictions, allow me to clarify:
- No wheat!
- No gluten!
- No added sugar!
- No eggs!
- No-bake!
To make them vegan, you could even replace the protein powder with more almond flour. Plant protein powder? Personally, I wouldn’t go there. I love it in smoothies. I just can’t imagine eating it in a cookie.
The best thing about these cookies is that they’re totally kid-friendly! You can roll them out and cut them just like sugar cookie dough. It’s so fun for all ages really. Not to mention little pieces of this no-bake dough make for the perfect snack as you’re making them. My sister calls that the “cookie tax.” Although she taxes like Florida. I tax like New York or California…
How to Make No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
Mix all the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. That is, ⅔ cup peanut butter (the natural, stir kind), ½ cup vanilla whey protein isolate, ¼ cup almond flour, 10 dates (pitted and finely chopped), 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1-2 drops almond extract.
(Don’t go overboard on that almond extract. Your cookies could be pretty bitter if you do!)
Transfer the dough to your counter, lined with parchment paper.
Roll out your dough and cut out little cookies with your favorite cookie cutter. Mine was a HEART (duh)!
That’s about it. Enjoy!
These are the perfect cookies to tie up in a little bag as Valentines for your kids to offer their class on Valentine’s Day. Alternately, you could freeze these cookies and eat them for a mid-day snack when you’re hungry. We did this and it successfully slowed our pace of consumption from prestissimo to adagio.
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Magically Disappearing No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
Description
Featuring peanut butter and sweetened with dates, these no-bake cookies are the perfect whole-ingredient substitute for OG peanut butter cookies. Plus, they taste better. 😉
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup peanut butter
- ½ cup whey protein isolate
- ¼ cup almond flour
- 10 dates, pitted and finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons flax seed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1–2 drops almond extract
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients into a medium bowl. If the dough is extra sticky, add more almond flour. If the dough is extra dry, add some more peanut butter.
- Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper and roll out to ⅛-inch thick.
- Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Since the dough can be crumbly, use a thin spatula to lift the cookies up off of the parchment.
- That’s it! You can decorate the cookies simply with a dusting of powdered sugar or Demerara sugar.
- Or, you could dip half of the cookies in melted dark chocolate.
- OR, add a layer of jam to one cookie, cut a window out of the middle of another cookie, put them together like a sandwich, and there you have it: a PB&J linzer cookie.
Notes
If you don’t want to use whey protein powder, you could use more almond flour or some powdered milk.
Keywords: cookies, no-bake, vegetarian, almost vegan, peanut butter cookies, peanut butter, desserts, healthyish, healthy, sweets, peanut butter dessert recipes, truffles, PB&J Linzer cookies
