Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
One bowl, no flour, about 30 minutes: peanut butter, brown sugar and an egg with a few chocolate chips, flattened, baked 8 to 10 minutes and pulled while the tops just crinkle.
George Washington Carver's Tuskegee bulletin "How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing It for Human Consumption" included three peanut cookie recipes, but they used crushed or chopped peanuts, not peanut butter; peanut butter shows up in cookies in the early 1930s (Wikipedia: the bulletin's date is given as both 1916 and 1925). The crisscross fork marks first appear in print in June 1932, in a syndicated "Household Hints" column by Mary Morton in the Camden Courier-Post, and on July 1, 1932, the Schenectady Gazette told cooks to press each ball one way and then the other "so they look like squares on waffles" (Wikipedia). Pillsbury's 1933 "Balanced Recipes" spread the fork press nationwide (Wikipedia). The flourless version is the fastest cookie in this hub: one bowl and about 30 minutes, start to finish.
🇺🇸 This one is American
One bowl, no flour, about 30 minutes: peanut butter, brown sugar and an egg with a few chocolate chips, flattened, baked 8 to 10 minutes and pulled while the tops just crinkle.
🇩🇪 The original
Europe's holiday cookies came first: Nuremberg's spiced nut Lebkuchen, Scottish shortbread and Tuscan cantucci, recipes that German, Scottish and Italian immigrants carried to America. See the Nuremberg Elisenlebkuchen recipe.
📖 Origin story: Was the Chocolate Chip Cookie an Accident? Ruth Wakefield's Story →
Why it works the kitchen science
Peanut butter is the flour
Its ground peanut solids and fat do the job flour and butter usually share, and the egg binds it into a cookie.
Pull early
With no flour to set, these firm up as they cool, so a slightly underdone look at 8 to 10 minutes gives soft, fudgy centers.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Step 2
In one bowl, beat the peanut butter, brown sugar, baking soda and salt on medium speed (or by hand) until well blended, about 1 minute.
- Step 3
Add the egg and vanilla and mix on low until incorporated, then stir in the chips.
- Step 4
Scoop tablespoon-sized portions onto the sheet, 2 inches apart. Flatten each gently with a fork, then press again at a right angle for the crosshatch.
- Step 5
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the tops look slightly crinkled. Pull them before the edges brown.
- Step 6
Cool on the pan about 10 minutes; they are too soft to move while hot.
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
Serves 9 (2 cookies each) · 18 cookies · 30 min total
Dough
- 1 cup (270 g) creamy peanut butter (regular, not natural)
- 3/4 cup (161 g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- A pinch of salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Mix-in
- 1/2 cup (85 g) chocolate chips or mini chips (optional)
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
- In one bowl, beat the peanut butter, brown sugar, baking soda and salt on medium speed (or by hand) until well blended, about 1 minute.
- Add the egg and vanilla and mix on low until incorporated, then stir in the chips.
- Scoop tablespoon-sized portions onto the sheet, 2 inches apart. Flatten each gently with a fork, then press again at a right angle for the crosshatch.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the tops look slightly crinkled. Pull them before the edges brown.
- Cool on the pan about 10 minutes; they are too soft to move while hot.
Adapted from King Arthur Baking, "Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies" by Amy Trage (updated March 17, 2026), as written for 18. The fork crosshatch is our addition, from the history above; King Arthur simply flattens the tops. King Arthur Baking. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- King Arthur says natural peanut butter makes a drier, more crumbly cookie; use a regular stirred-in-oil style.
- No chips? Leave them out; the cookies are still complete.
- These are naturally gluten-free if your chips and vanilla are.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- George Washington Carver invented the peanut butter cookie. Folklore: his bulletin had peanut cookies, but with chopped peanuts, not peanut butter (Wikipedia).
- Carver's bulletin is from 1916. Disputed: Wikipedia's text says 1925 while its reference list says 1916; other sources give 1917.
- The fork marks started in Schenectady in 1932. Disputed: long credited to the Schenectady Gazette (July 1, 1932), but Wikipedia now cites an earlier June 13, 1932, syndicated column in the Camden Courier-Post.
- Fork marks are there so the dense dough bakes evenly. Disputed: Wikipedia gives flattening as the reason; a 1979 New York Times answer (via search summaries) said it was to tell them apart from other cookies in the jar.
Every other cookie
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Cantucci (Biscotti di Prato)
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