Almond Butter Cookies are a simple recipe perfect for on-the-go snacks, healthy breakfasts, holiday baking, and everything in between! Made with simple ingredients, they’re completely gluten free, and vegan-friendly, too. The perfect tasty alternative for those with peanut allergies!
Let’s Get Nutty!
Remember when store-bought gluten free cookies were….well, pretty dang bad? Yeah, us too, and that’s exactly why these almond butter cookies were originally born! Inspired by the simplicity of peanut butter cookies, they’ve undergone several transformations since their creation to make them perfect for you.
However, their original intent remains – to offer an easy-to-make gluten free cookie recipe that’s not only simple but full of nourishing ingredients and incredibly tasty. Sounds crazy, right? But it’s not! We’ve cracked the code, creating an allergy-friendly treat that’s sweet enough to serve for dessert yet healthy enough to eat for breakfast. One bite, and you’ll never go back to the dry, bland, store-bought options again!
Gluten Free Ingredients You’ll Need
As mentioned, the allergy-friendly ingredients needed for these almond butter cookies are simple and minimal, making them great for lunch boxes, work, and more.
- Almond Butter – For easy mixing and to ensure your cookies hold together, we recommend using creamy almond butter over chunky varieties.
- Coconut Sugar or Brown Sugar – This helps sweeten the cookies while keeping them moist. If preferred, you could swap it out for a brown sugar substitute like this one instead.
- Tapioca or Arrowroot Starch – Types of sweet flours, these help thicken the dough.
- Egg – Crucial to provide structure to the almond butter cookies. If needed, swap it out for a chia or flax egg instead.
- Honey – Used to help sweeten these cookies while also helping them stick together. For a vegan option, swap it out with maple syrup.
- Almonds – Mixed in for a bit of extra crunch and a boost of healthy fats.
- Baking Essentials: To achieve a fluffy texture, soft chewy cookies, and bold flavor you’ll also need baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract.
Foodie Swap: Feel free to swap out the almond butter for any other seed or nut butters you prefer! For instance, cashew butter, sunflower butter, or peanut butter, all taste great.
Optional Mix-Ins
Personally, we love the simplicity of this almond butter cookie recipe. However, if you’re of the mindset that more is always better, try mixing in an extra ingredient or two! For example, some of our favorites include:
- Gluten Free Quick Oats
- Dairy Free Dark Chocolate Chips
- Dried Cranberries
- Unsweetened Shredded Coconut Flakes
- A Drizzle of Chocolate on Top
How to Make Gluten Free Almond Butter Cookies
From start to finish, the total time needed for this almond butter cookie recipe is just 20 minutes or less. Plus, they taste better than anything you’ll find in the store!
- Prepare. To begin, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick silicone baking mat.
- Combine the Ingredients. Stir all of the ingredients except for the almonds together in a large mixing bowl. Once smooth, fold in the almonds and any extra mix-ins.
- Chill the Dough. Place the combined batter in the fridge.
- Bake Cookies. Use a cookie scoop to portion out the dough, and bake until the cookies are fragrant and just turning golden brown. Immediately (and gently) press the bottom of a glass on top of the warm cookies to flatten them.
Cool. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Baking Tip: For crispier almond butter cookies, leave them in the oven for another minute or two. Just be careful not to let them burn!
How to Store
These almond butter cookies make for a great meal prep option! To keep them fresh, transfer them to an airtight container, and keep them at room temperature for up to 7 days. Or, store them in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks!
For a longer-lasting option, feel free to freeze them instead! Both the baked cookies and cookie dough will stay fresh in the freezer for up to 3 months. To freeze the dough, portion the cookies out as normal, and transfer the baking sheet to the freezer. Once the dough is solid, transfer the balls to a freezer-safe container or sealable bag, and place them back in the freezer until you’re ready to bake.
To enjoy, let your cookies thaw in the fridge overnight. Or, bake the dough straight from the freezer! Just add an extra minute or two as needed if you do.
More of Our Favorite
More Easy Gluten Free Cookie Recipes
Looking for more allergy-friendly cookie recipes? We’ve got you covered with plenty of great options below!
Almond Butter Cookies (Gluten Free)
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 12–15 cookies 1x
Description
This almond butter cookie recipe is easy to make and requires few ingredients! A perfectly nutty snack, holiday cookie recipe, or breakfast!
Ingredients
- ¾ cup natural almond butter (creamy)
- ⅔ cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon tapioca or arrowroot starch (optional for softer cookies)
- 1 large egg (see notes for vegan option)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Pinch kosher salt
- (Optional) 1 Tablespoon raw honey or molasses
- ¼ cup slivered almonds
- Mix-Ins – ¼ to ⅓ cup quick oats, dark chocolate chips or dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, combine the almond butter, sugar, baking soda, tapioca starch (if using), egg, vanilla, and salt.
- Fold in the almonds and mix-ins of choice. If the almond butter is not creamy enough, add 1 teaspoon of oil or milk to the batter.
- Chill the batter in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
- Using a small cookie dough scoop, spoon 1 Tablespoon of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake cookies for 8-9 minutes.
- Remove cookies from the oven and immediately press the cookies (gently!) with a flat bottomed glass to flatten. The cookies might crack on edges and that’s ok! For crispier cookies, bake for 10-11 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes then remove parchment paper from the baking sheet to cool the cookies completely. Store leftover cookies in an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 7 days or the fridge for 14 days.
Notes
Substitutes – For vegan option, substitute 1 large egg for chia egg or flax egg. Combine 1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed or ground chia seeds with 2 Tablespoons of water. Set mixture aside for 15-20 minutes until it thickens and becomes gelatinous like an egg. This post has more egg replacer options.
Storage Tips– Portion raw cookie dough into balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes or until firm. Transfer frozen dough balls to an airtight container or ziplock bag and return to the freezer. Both frozen cookie dough and frozen baked cookies can be stored for up to 3 months.
- Prep Time: 10
- Chill Time: 10-15
- Cook Time: 8-11
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 132
- Sugar: 8.4 g
- Sodium: 95.4 mg
- Fat: 8.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 11.6 g
- Fiber: 1.7 g
- Protein: 3.7 g
- Cholesterol: 12.4 mg
Keywords: easy snack, dessert, cookie recipe, almond butter, gluten free holiday cookies, nut butter, peanut butter cookies, vegan dessert
Do you have questions, feedback, or tips about this recipe? Leave a comment below with any questions or feedback you’d like to share!
No additions, I didn’t chill the dough and didn’t use parchment. I baked on two airbake cookie sheets. Rolled the balls, put on sheet and baked. They came out lovely wrinkly perfect rounds. This will be a keeper for my gluten free and peanut adverse guests. Thank you!
★★★★★
That is so good to hear, Kathleen! We love these cookies too. Thanks for sharing your recipe experience with us. Happy baking!
Made these cookies. They tasted good but were not at all like yours. They flattened out during baking. They were dark in color and thin and chewy. Almost looked like a praline. I kept going over and over the recipe to see if I missed an ingredient, like flour. Nothing! My add in was oats. Everything else was the same. Wish I knew what went wrong.
★★★
Hi randi! So sorry to hear about the flat cookies. Few things could factor into that. Over mixing, expiries baking soda, or too much fat due to too oily almond butter. What type of almond butter did you use?
they sound amazing only trouble is I’m diabetic, so trying to go keto and drop a few pounds ,have you any low carb swaps so I can make some PLEASe
Hi Helen! Great question! We suggest you substitute a brown sugar monk fruit sweetener https://amzn.to/3kqo6He for the brown sugar and omit the mix-ins (oatmeal, chocolate chips or dried cranberries) or use sugar free Lily’s chocolate chips https://amzn.to/3Hc45Ni. Happy baking!
Love this recipe! So tasty, simple, and clean! Subbed in sunflower seed butter and pumpkin seeds for the almonds. Will be making on repeat!!
★★★★★
Love using sunflower too! Great tips. Thanks for sharing Dani!
Recipe sound awesome! Could you tell me which brand of banana chips you use? Looks like the ones I found are deep fried crisp.
I buy the ones in bulk section at whole foods. But I also like these! http://amzn.to/2kcfMLQ
You can use regular banana too, just might need to add in a 1 tbsp of coconut flour.
Thank you. Would that’s be 1 cup of fresh banana purée?
I believe there is an International Cookie Day. LOL. Love this recipe. Adding the banana chips is a great idea.
oh good! let’s celebrate!
Looks like my kids will love this recipe. Thabks for a lovely cookies?
yes, kid friendly for sure! keep me posted Sherly
So I really want to make these, especially since they involve my beloved banana chips. The problem with being pregnant though is you want all the tasty foods, yet have no energy to actually make them. Sigh. I even bought the ingredients to make your lemon pistachio bites last week and have done nothing to create them, other than dream.
I wish i could come cook and bake for you. All you’d have to do is pour me a glass of wine. does that sound like a good trade?
Deal! I will give you all the wine.
Glad I took today off work! Now I have plenty of time to make these!! 😀
yea! keep me posted!
YUM!!!! These sound right up might alley 🙂 pinning them for sure!! If I can get my hands on some banana chips I’ll make them this weekend 😀 Thanks for the awesome recipes as always <3 BTW, picked up that 21 Day elimination diet book you mentioned, LOVE it!!
So glad!! I think you’ll it. Keep me posted
love the story. amazing photographer, as always.
I just love you!
Congrats on your new partnership!! And I totally think almond butter COOKIE DAY should be a thing! Who do we talk to about this?
This cookies look extremely delicious and dunkable! I can’t wait to give them a try!
★★★★★
Let’s be the official cookie day makers! Haha
You’ve said it there Lindsay.
“Simple real food fuel” that’s definitely what I’m looking for.
These look amazing! 🙂
★★★★★
yea! i knew you could relate. p.s. did i just see you SPIRALIZE a recipe? WOOHOO!
Banana chips is cookies are pure genius if you ask me! Plus almond butter and I’m seriously dying to try these asap…I know my kids will love these too. My daughter Diana who’s in second grade says now all her friends talk about gluten free food, interesting!
pretty sure when I was 2nd grade I was talking about twinkies. LOL!
Oh my goodness these look too good – I’d eat the whole batch.
ya, it was hard to restrain. I brought a lot to the gym for coworkers. LOL!
Drooooooooooooollllllllll! I need a batch of these STAT! <3
wish i could deliver. might be a bit of travel though. haha
These sound too easy NOT to make. …..and now I’m craving cookies for dinner. Not mad.
exactly! it’s like you can’t NOT make them. 😉 A good problem.
Oh, wow. These look incredible — whether you’re gluten-free or not! And they’re OBVIOUSLY better than a Coke for a triathlete! 🙂 I want to run off and bake a batch right now!!
I know. Ack, coke. He was addicted too. Sadly. But now we have REAL food and drink to replenish. PHEW!
OMG Lindsay!!! Friggin YUM!!! Your pics again are getting better & better!!!! Congrats on the new collaboration too! Exciting!!!!!
thank you friend. I truly appreciate your support! <3 cookie for you!
Come to momma!!! These look killer! Do you think you could sub raw honey for the coconut sugar? I would devour these as a post-workout snack!
I tried that and raw honey works but you might want to be careful with cooking times. They burn a little faster and stick to cookie sheet. so use lots of parchment paper. haha. Keep me posted!
Apparently it is National Cookie Week though. My sister forwarded me an email about it today. Sooooo I guess I will be eating cookies all week long. Unfortunately, I already missed out on a couple of days!
haha it is? well I timed that right. And at least you have plenty of almond butter to make these,right?
10 years ago I was in high school, so I definitely knew nothing about how to fuel properly for when I did exercise! I think the most I knew then was Gatorade and even then was I adverse to it. Love these cookies, especially the touch of molasses – yum!
yep, that and powerbar. Like the old power bar kind. EEK! glad they redid their recipe.
There’s a day for basically anything, so why NOT these cookies? I’ll second the motion. Can I have these breakfast?
yes! i agree. let’s make a national kombucha day next.
i have been dreaming of these!!
haha yea! your dreams can come true!!
well these sound unbelievably amazing!
10 years ago… college.. oh dear.. JUNK! LOL! Can I seriously move next door and be your official taste tester? Or, you can just move in with me and I’ll hire you to just cook for me. Deal?
yes! moving now!
Totally believed you when you said it was national almond butter cookie day 😛 I would not have been surprised! Hahahaha!
They look so yummy!!!!
I totally use either bites or cookies for my pre or post workout fuel actually!
I’m sure it’s a real day, right? Now we just need to find out when. LOL!
I LOVE that you used banana chips for these! SO cool!
Ok for a second there I seriously thought it WAS National Almond Butter Cookie Day, and then I was going to cry because I didn’t know about it 😆 I feel like PB gets all the love, and all us AB folk get left out. We need to make it happen. We’ll bribe people in high places with these cookies 😀
I so thought of you! i think we shall name this day AB day! <3 you
Every day should be National Almond Butter Cookie Day, ha! This recipe is just brilliance…I could see these being a staple in my home, as I always have all the ingredients on-hand. I, too, used to fuel myself on HFCS, and couldn’t understand my mood and energy swings…if only I had known the fine art of baking gluten-free and refined sugar-free back in my college days…my papers would have practically writ themselves, ha! LOVE these, need them ASAP!
I agree! lets start it!
seriously! i wish i would have known earlier too!
OMERGAWSH – you got me all excited that it might have been “national almond butter COOKIE DAY” – I even googled it and no bueno! I found National PB Cookie day but no National AB cookie day! 🙁
But – I gotta agree – real food is good food indeed! And these flourless banana chip AB cookies are really really good food!
ha i love you more that you googled it. Let’s make today the official day, k?!
Amen! Everything is bio-individual!
I had to laugh when you said it was National Almond Butter Cookie Day. Man, allergy friendliness has comes so far !
Nice. I just love paleo. It’s the best diet I have ever tried. I lost weight, and feel so much better and healthier. And the meals don’t suck,
like in most diets.
I’m using the paleo grub cookbook, you can check it out at http://lookingupstuff.com/paleo/reviews/paleo-grubs-cookbook/