Keto Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips
These keto peanut butter cookies are made with just four ingredients: smooth peanut butter, Groovy Keto Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener, one egg and our dark chocolate mini baking chips, with no flour at all. Each cookie has 2.1g net carbs. They take 15 minutes to make and 10 to 12 minutes to bake.
This keto peanut butter cookies recipe is based on the classic three-ingredient peanut butter cookie. Cassie Best's peanut butter cookies on BBC Good Food show how little you need: peanut butter, sugar, an egg and a pinch of salt, pressed flat with a fork, baked until golden at the edges and left on the tray before moving. Katrin Nürnberger's low carb keto peanut butter cookies on Sugar Free Londoner swap the sugar for a granulated erythritol sweetener and use a wet fork for the pattern, and our quantities of peanut butter, sweetener and egg follow hers. Bakers on Reddit's r/ketorecipes say the cookies must cool completely before they hold together. We've put those ideas together with our own sweetener and chocolate chips.
The result is a soft, nutty cookie with crisp edges and pockets of dark chocolate, and it's quite different from our keto chocolate chip cookies, which are buttery cookies made with our cookie mix. These keto cookies have no flour at all. An ordinary chocolate chip cookie of the same weight has about 15.6g carbohydrate; each of these has 2.1g net carbs. If you're searching for sugar free cookies, these have no added sugar: the sweetener is erythritol with monk fruit decoction, the chips are sweetened with erythritol and stevia, and the small amount of sugars comes mainly from the peanut butter. For more on choosing chips, read The complete guide to keto chocolate chips.
What we used: Groovy Keto Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener, a granulated sweetener that takes the place of the sugar in the classic recipe, and Groovy Keto Dark Chocolate Mini Baking Chips, which are small enough to dot through every cookie.
Groovy Keto Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener
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Groovy Keto Dark Chocolate Mini Baking Chips
View productKeto peanut butter cookies vs ordinary cookies
A classic peanut butter cookie uses almost as much sugar as peanut butter, and a shop-bought chocolate chip cookie is mostly flour and sugar. These use peanut butter as the base, with an erythritol sweetener in place of the sugar. Erythritol counts as a polyol, which UK labels list within carbohydrate.
| Per cookie (about 26g) | Carbohydrate | Sugars | Net carbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chocolate chip cookie, same weight | 15.6g | 7.8g | 15.6g |
| This keto peanut butter cookie | 9.1g | 1.1g | 2.1g |
Ordinary cookie figures are worked out for 26g, about the weight of one of our cookies once baked, from UK CoFID 2021 data (food code 11-815, "Biscuits, cookies, chocolate chip, standard": 60.0g carbohydrate and 30.0g sugars per 100g) – McCance and Widdowson's composition of foods. Carbohydrate excludes fibre, as on UK labels. Our carbohydrate figure includes 7.0g polyols from the erythritol, which are taken off to give net carbs.
Tips for the best keto peanut butter cookies
- Stir the jar first. Oil that has separated on top of the peanut butter makes the dough greasy and the cookies spread. Stir it back in, and use the peanut butter at room temperature so it mixes easily.
- Weigh the dough balls. At about 28g each, all 16 cookies bake in the same time. Smaller ones near the edge of the tray brown much faster.
- Use a wet fork. Dipping the fork in cold water between cookies stops the dough sticking, so the criss-cross stays sharp.
- Take them out while the middles look soft. They carry on cooking on the hot tray. If they look done in the oven, they will be dry once cool.
- Be patient with cooling. With no flour, the cookies only hold together once the peanut butter has set. Moving them too soon is the main reason they break.
Keto Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips
- Prep time15 min
- Bake10–12 minutes
- Total time27 minutes, plus cooling
- Makes16 cookies
- Net carbs2.1g per cookie
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 250g smooth peanut butter, preferably 100% peanuts
- 100g Groovy Keto Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener
- 1 large egg
- 40g Groovy Keto Dark Chocolate Mini Baking Chips
You will also need two large baking trays, baking paper, a mixing bowl, a wooden spoon, a fork and a wire rack.
Allergens: contains peanuts and eggs. See the allergen notes under Nutrition for the chocolate chips and sweetener packs.
Method
- Heat the oven. Heat the oven to 180°C, 160°C fan or gas mark 4, and line two large baking trays with baking paper.
- Mix the peanut butter and sweetener. Stir the peanut butter in its jar first so any oil on top is mixed back in. Weigh it into a bowl, add the sweetener and beat with a wooden spoon for about 1 minute until well combined.
- Add the egg. Beat the egg, add it to the bowl and mix until you have a thick, soft dough that comes away from the sides.
- Add the chocolate chips. Stir in 30g of the chocolate chips and keep the other 10g for the tops.
- Shape the cookies. Roll the dough into 16 balls of about 28g each, roughly the size of a walnut, and space them about 5cm apart on the trays.
- Press with a fork. Dip a fork in cold water and press each ball down to about 1cm thick, then press again at right angles to make a criss-cross pattern. Push the rest of the chocolate chips onto the tops.
- Bake. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until golden at the edges but still pale and soft in the middle.
- Cool. Leave the cookies on the trays for 10 minutes, then lift them onto a wire rack with a palette knife and leave them to cool completely. They firm up as they cool.
Ways to change it
- Salted: sprinkle a few flakes of sea salt over the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven, as Sugar Free Londoner suggests if your peanut butter is unsalted. This adds to the salt figure.
- Crunchy: use crunchy peanut butter in the same amount for more bite.
- Cinnamon: stir ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon in with the sweetener.
- Double chocolate: add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder with the sweetener, plus a few extra chips.
- Other nut butters: almond butter works in the same way, though the cookies are a little softer. Almond butter contains tree nuts, so it changes the allergens as well as the nutrition.
Any of these changes will alter the nutrition figures.
How to serve keto peanut butter cookies
- With a cuppa: one or two cookies with a cup of tea or coffee as an afternoon treat.
- Warm: give a cookie 10 seconds in the microwave so the chocolate chips soften again.
- More peanut butter and chocolate: if you like the combination, try our no-bake peanut butter chocolate chip keto fat bombs, and see our tips for baking with keto chocolate chips for more ideas.
Storage
- Airtight tin: keep the cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: freeze baked cookies for up to 3 months, or freeze the shaped dough balls and bake from frozen, adding 1 to 2 minutes.
- Softened cookies: if they soften in the tin, crisp them up in the oven at 160°C fan for 3 to 4 minutes, then let them cool again.
Nutrition
Per serving (1 cookie, makes 16):
| Nutrient | Per cookie |
|---|---|
| Energy | 110 kcal |
| Fat | 9.4g |
| of which saturates | 2.7g |
| Carbohydrate | 9.1g |
| of which sugars | 1.1g |
| of which polyols | 7.0g |
| Net carbs | 2.1g |
| Fibre | 1.5g |
| Protein | 4.2g |
| Salt | 0.15g |
Net carbs are carbohydrate minus polyols. On UK labels, fibre is already listed separately from carbohydrate, so it isn't subtracted again. Figures are calculated from the Groovy Keto Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener and Dark Chocolate Mini Baking Chips pack labels and UK (McCance and Widdowson's CoFID) data for smooth peanut butter (14-892) and a large egg (12-937), and will vary with the brands you use. Excessive consumption of polyols, such as erythritol, may produce laxative effects.
Allergens: this recipe contains peanuts and eggs. The Dark Chocolate Mini Baking Chips pack says they are packed in a facility where there may be traces of nuts, cereals, milk and eggs. The Monk Fruit Decoction & Erythritol Sweetener pack says it is packed in a facility where there may be traces of nuts, cereals and milk. Always check the current pack labels before making these for anyone with an allergy.
FAQ
Is peanut butter keto?
Yes, in sensible amounts. Smooth peanut butter has about 13.1g carbohydrate per 100g in UK CoFID data, so a 15g tablespoon has roughly 2g. Choose one made with just peanuts, or peanuts and salt, as some brands add sugar or palm oil, and weigh it, as it's easy to eat a lot.
Why are my keto cookies flat?
Peanut butter cookies spread when the dough is too soft. Runny, oily peanut butter or a warm kitchen are the usual causes. Stir the oil back into the jar before weighing, and if the dough feels sticky, chill it for 15 minutes before rolling. Press the balls to about 1cm thick, not thinner.
How many carbs are in a keto peanut butter cookie?
Each cookie has 2.1g net carbs, worked out as 9.1g carbohydrate minus 7.0g polyols from the erythritol in the sweetener and chocolate chips. It also has 110 kcal, 1.5g fibre and 4.2g protein. An ordinary chocolate chip cookie of the same weight has about 15.6g carbohydrate.
Why do my peanut butter cookies fall apart?
They are very soft straight from the oven because there's no flour holding them together. Leave them on the tray for 10 minutes, then move them to a wire rack with a palette knife and let them cool completely, as they firm up as the peanut butter sets. Overbaking makes them dry and crumbly.
Can I use crunchy peanut butter?
Yes. Crunchy peanut butter works in the same amount and gives the cookies a nuttier bite, though the dough is a little crumblier, so press each ball together firmly before flattening it. The nutrition figures here use UK CoFID data for smooth peanut butter, so they will change slightly with a different one.
Can you freeze keto peanut butter cookies?
Yes. Freeze the baked, cooled cookies in a sealed container for up to 3 months and thaw them at room temperature for about 30 minutes. You can also freeze the shaped, unbaked dough balls on a tray, then bag them and bake from frozen, adding 1 to 2 minutes to the baking time.
