PB & J Thumbprint Cookies are an irresistibly nutty twist on your classic Jam Thumbprints with protein-packed peanut butter in the dough! A must-try for PB&J fanatics. Super easy, 7 ingredients, gluten-free option, nut-free option, no Added oil
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time11 minutesmins
Chilling15 minutesmins
Total Time36 minutesmins
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: peanut butter cookies recipe, thumbprint cookies recipe, vegan peanut butter cookies
Servings: 20
Author: Vegan Richa
Ingredients
1/2cupsmooth peanut butter( use almond butter or cashew butter for peanut free) see notes for nutfree
1/3cupmaple syrup
2tbspwarmed non dairy milksuch as almond, soy, oat or coconut
1/2tspvanilla extractoptional
3/4 to 1cupflourI use a mix of 3/4 all purpose and 1/4 wheat. Use oat flour or gf blend for glutenfree
1/4tspbaking soda
1/3tspsalt
3-4tbspfruit preservesRaspberry, strawberry, cherry etc as needed
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
In a bowl mix the peanut butter, warmed (to almost hot) milk, maple syrup and vanilla extract until well combined and smooth. It will take about a minute to fully come together.
Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in another bowl, then add 3/4 cup of the dry mix to the wet and make a soft sticky dough. Depending on your peanut butter and flour you might need to add a bit more flour. The dough will be soft but shouldn’t be too runny/sticky. It will get more handleable on chilling. Refrigerate the cookie dough for 15 mins. If still too sticky then add more flour.
Shape the dough into about an inch wide balls. Place the dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheetz Make dents using a Measuring spoon or end of a spatula. Warm the preserves and mix with a spoon so they are not lumpy. fill the dents with warmed preserves or jam. (Warming the preserves makes it easy to fill the cookies cleanly).
Bake the cookies for 11 mins.
Cool completely before storing. Store on the counter for up to five days Or refrigerate for up to two weeks.
Video
Notes
You could use vegan lemon curd, dulce de leche or chocolate hazelnut spread to fill the center. It would not be a pb&j cookie anymore, but still pretty dang delish.
Warming the preserves up a bit makes it easier to fill the thumbprint cookies without making a mess.
The bigger the indent, the more jam you can fit in. The cookies by themselves are mildly sweet and more is good! Now, no such thing as too much jam, right? do not overfill these or you’ll have a mess.
Nutfree: . Use wow butter or sunflower seed butter.Add 1 teaspoon lemon juice to the milk before using. Sun butter can bake up green because of reacting with baking soda and the lemon juice helps reduce that chance of reaction. They are edible even when colored.