Peanut-allergies are such a bummer. We have someone in our family who has a serious allergy, and we have never had peanuts or peanut butter in our home.
But we do usually keep Sunbutter as an alternative. It’s great for sandwiches and sauces, and an excellent replacement for peanut butter in this cookie recipe.
Reminds Us Of Those Classic Peanut Butter Cookies
This recipe imitates the classic peanut butter cookies you remember grandma making, with one difference – they are pillowy soft and crumbly! Sunbutter is one of the closest alternatives we’ve found for peanut butter, making these cookies taste similar to the original, without the allergen!
Alternating Oven Rack Position Ensures Even Cooking
When making these cookies, I had better luck starting out the baking sheet on a lower oven rack, keeping the tops of the cookies farther from the direct heat for the majority of the cook time. Then, by moving them up to a higher rack for the last couple minutes, you get that gentle browning on top, but keep the whole cookie soft.
Allow For Cooling Time Before Moving
The texture of these cookies is rather crumbly when they are first fresh out of the oven. Allowing them the time to cool first on the baking sheet, and then moving to the wire rack gives them some extra time to set up.
Alternative Methods And Accommodations
If you like the sugared outer texture of some traditional peanut butter or snickerdoodle cookies, you can roll the balls of cookie dough in some granulated sugar before placing them on the baking sheet and pressing with a fork.
If you aren’t a chocolate fan, you can make these cookies omitting the chocolate chips. We’ve also made them only putting a couple regular sized chocolate chips atop the fork-pressed cookies before oven baking, rather than adding a full half cup of the mini chocolate chips to the dough.
In our experience, this recipe turns out a bit different if gluten-free flour is used – the flavor is still incredible, but the texture is a bit more dense and less pillowy.
Servings Depend On Dough Ball Size
If you use a tool like a mini ice cream scooper or a melon baller to scoop up the dough for your cookies, then you may end up with more even sized cookie dough balls at about 1 inch. If you scoop the ball with a spoon and roll into a bit larger sized balls, you may end up with less cookies, but they will likely be a bit larger.
So, let’s get cooking! If you try this recipe and enjoy it, please leave a rating and comment!
Sunbutter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
Ingredients
- ½ cup Sunbutter
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar
- ½ cup Brown Sugar
- ½ cup Softened Butter We use salted, but feel free to use your choice of butter).
- 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1+¼ cup All-Purpose Flour
- ½ tsp Fine Sea Salt
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- ½ cup Mini Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375℉.
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, mix the softened butter, Sunbutter, sugars, and vanilla to combine.
- Add in the salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flour. Mix well.
- Using a spoon, stir in the chocolate chips.
- Now, using a teaspoon or mini ice-cream scooper, scoop out enough to roll by hand into about 1 inch balls.
- Place on a lined baking sheet and press each ball down gently with a fork.
- Place the baking sheet on a lower oven rack and bake for 8 minutes.
- Move the baking sheet to a higher rack for an additional 2 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool slightly on the baking sheet before attempting to move to a wire rack to cool. BE CAREFUL - They are super soft and delicately crumbly!