If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that the other day I may or may not have just spent a fortune on gluten-free vegan candy bars, chocolates, and well, candy online. I take my job seriously and if that means that I have to find you the best candy out there that is without certain allergens well then I guess I must. That is when I came across these mini Peanot Butter Cups (no, that is not a spelling error, they are really called Peanot because they actually do not contain peanuts in their filling). I’m not allergic to peanuts, in fact I have a huge obsession with them, but since I was spending a fine penny on vegan chocolate I thought I would add it to the mix. Why the Halloween not? (P.S. There are other options out there for peanut butter cups if you don’t want to purchase these. Justin’s makes a fine cup, and last I heard, the official PB cup in dark chocolate form is also nondairy).
I knew immediately what I wanted to do with them (mind you, I ordered these candies while I was vacationing in Hawaii and found myself obsessing about what recipes I would make with them). I’m a freak. I knew that I wanted to chop them up, shove them into a fine peanut butter cookie recipe, add more chocolate chips and create the best-tasting vegan Peanut Butter Cup cookie.
Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 24 1x
Description
Have too many peanut butter cups than you know what to do with? Chop them up and put them into these crunchy peanut butter cookies. Tastes like they actually made a peanut butter cup in cookie-form.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 c. Cara’s gluten free flour blend
- 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
Wet ingredients:
- 1/4 c. non-hydrogenated shortening
- 1/3 c. peanut butter (chunky or creamy)
- 1/2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 Tbsp. flaxseed meal + 3 Tbsp. warm water (set for 5 minutes until thick)
- 2 Tbsp. nondairy milk
Add-ins:
- 1/2 c. mini nondairy chocolate chips
- 5 mini nondairy peanut butter cups, chopped up
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, mix the shortening, peanut butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until combined. Add the flaxseed “egg” and mix.
- Pour all of the dry ingredients into the bowl and mix with the electric mixer until just barely combined. Mix in the nondairy milk. Your dough shouldn’t be sticky or crumbly. If sticky, add a tablespoon of gluten-free flour at a time. If your dough is crumbly, it needs a little more liquid. Try adding a teaspoon of nondairy milk at a time. It should be easy to roll into balls at this point.
- Fold in the chopped up peanut butter cups and chocolate chips.
- Take approx. 1 Tbsp. of cookie dough and roll into a ball. Place on the baking sheet and with the back of a fork, gently create a criss-cross pattern on top, slightly flattening it. Repeat until all the dough is used up.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly brown and allow to set on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 100
- Sugar: 5g
- Sodium: 67mg
- Fat: 5.4g
- Saturated Fat: 2g
- Carbohydrates: 11g
- Fiber: 0g
- Protein: 2g
I can’t make a claim like that unless it has been taken into a controlled testing group and so on Sunday, a small gathering over in my front yard occurred with neighbors and I knew it was the perfect moment to test it out. I handed out cookies like it was my life (okay, so it is my life) and everyone commented on how super good they were. One person even said how they don’t like peanut butter cookies all that much but that these cookies were particularly tasty. And that my friends, is where I landed my ninja-kick into the air and told them that they were gluten-free and vegan. A-ha! I felt so proud as if I kept a super secret from them and just surprise-attacked them with great news; like I just revealed that they were on Hidden Camera or something. Mission accomplished.
My suggestion? Buy a crap-ton of these chocolates, all in the name of Halloween of course, but turn your lights off when the big event arrives so no one dares to Trick-Or-Treat at your door. That way, after you have popped your fair share of Peanut Butter Cups into mouth you will have plenty leftover to chop up into small bits and bake them into cookies. That’s what leftover Halloween candy is for anyway, right? I knew you’d agree… 
This post is part of Vegan MoFo 2014 (posting vegan food and goodies all month long). Click here to check out all the other awesome posts and recipes from fellow MoFo’ers.
once at an event my boyfriend won a huge tub of the mini vegan pb cups! of course he shared with me! the idea of pb cup cookies sound so awesome!!!
Man, that would be the GREATEST raffle prize!! Hopefully you still have a few leftover and can make these cookies 🙂
Girl, you know the way to my heart: my favorite, chocolate chip cookies, mixed with dairy-free peanut butter cups. All vegan and gluten-free. I can die now. But not until I’ve eaten a dozen of these.
Well, I do aim to please, Beth. *throwing dozens of cookies onto your grave*
Yum!!! Those sound so good. I’ve been lusting after those Peanots for awhile (and the No-Nos!) but overseas shipping sucks so I haven’t bought them. At some point I’ll probably give in to temptation, though. I like your thinking on hoarding them for Halloween! 😉
Ack, overseas shipping really DOES blow! Have you ever made your own? Then again, there is something comforting about buying them 🙂
Um, why wasn’t I invited?!!!!!! Drool, drool, drool.
You are invited to eat chocolate at any moment’s notice Jane 🙂
PEANUT BUTTER CUP COOKIES? pure brilliance. Can’t wait to try em!!! BRAVO.
I would have totally given you a few except my neighbor came back the next day and took the rest 🙂 haha. I will make sure my hands aren’t empty for you on Monday…
Haha I would love to witness your ninja-kick “surprise! they’re GF/V!” moment. 😉
I can also attest that the Peanot cups are great, as are Justin’s (the best on the market, and I’ve tried them all). Can’t wait to try this recipe, looks soo good!
It was a rather pathetic kick, if I do say so myself (I couldn’t get my leg up too high), but there was gusto and passion behind it that made up for my lack of flexibility 🙂
Love these cookies and the fact that none of your neighbors thought they were vegan, sign of a great cookie.
Never gets old to me!
this is what i dream about at night. or at least now i will be.
haha, These cookies are the new dancing sugarplums 🙂
OMG!!! I so want to be your neighbor! These look fabulous and PB cookies were a favorite of my grandmother’s to make. I will cherish these. Thanks.
Come move! Come move! There is an available unit right next to 🙂
Hey Cara, Its Kar Hi nice to meet you I like your recipe, hope to see more ,off to school.:)
Yay, Kar!! Hi my friend–so happy to hear from you 🙂 Thank you for your sweet comment. Hope you have a great day at school!
Its Elizabeth now, Dropped the kids off at school and I am Back, Your cookies look soooooo good, I love anything Peanut butter Chocolate. I use to let other people use my computer to post comments — wow did that back fire on me, so now only kar and I can use my computer.:) I use to buy extra candy or hide extra and eat it all then I got big.:)
I think Kar is a safe bet for commenting, what a cutie! You two should make a big of batch of cookies now 🙂
I would never think to put candy into the cookies. You wizard!
Call me Harriet Potter 🙂