Enjoy a delicious dairy-free and egg-free version of your favorite childhood treat with these Vegan Peanut Butter Blossoms! With a sugar-coated peanut butter cookie base and a dark chocolate center, these cookies will be gobbled up in no time!
When it comes to Christmas desserts, I always think of cookies as that's what I grew up eating around Christmastime. I have a lot of vegan cookie recipes on the blog, all of which are amazing. My personal favorites are these Chewy Oatmeal Apricot Almond Cookies, Easy Vegan Sugar Cookies and of course Vegan Peanut Butter Blossoms! Pair these vegan blossoms with a mug of cashew milk hot chocolate, and you'll be in the full festive spirit!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe!
- While these vegan peanut butter blossoms don't contain any dairy or eggs, no one will notice the difference!
- Furthermore, so many more people who deal with egg or dairy allergies can still enjoy these blossoms!
- I love that these cookies are make with wholesome ingredients including natural peanut butter, whole wheat flour and maple syrup. Does that mean they're breakfast cookies?!
- I almost always have all of the ingredients needed to make these vegan peanut butter cookies in my pantry. So if I ever need a holiday dessert in short notice, this is my go-to recipe.
Ingredients
- Vegan Butter - I usually use vegan butter from a tub, such as Earth Balance or Nuttelex, and it never fails me!
- Cane Sugar - Unlike white sugar, cane sugar is a coarser, less processed form of sugar. I haven't tested this recipe using white sugar.
- Maple Syrup - I love the combination of cane sugar and maple syrup for sweetened and the maple syrup helps to bind of the dry ingredients together.
- Peanut Butter - I love to use my homemade peanut butter whenever I'm baking, but any peanut butter with only peanuts and salt on the ingredients list should work. I haven't tested this recipe with peanut butter such as JIF.
- Whole Wheat Flour - I love Bob's Red Mill and almost always buy their flour. I'm sure any brand of whole wheat flour will work! If you use white flour, you may need more.
- Dark Chocolate Squares - You can use whatever dark chocolate you like best. If you want to keep these vegan, just make sure your chocolate is dairy free.
See recipe card for full list of ingredients and quantities.
Variations
- Chocolate Blossoms - Around Christmastime, my Mom would make peanut butter and chocolate blossoms for us to enjoy. I haven't tested a recipe for vegan chocolate blossoms, but you could try subbing some of the whole wheat flour for cocoa powder.
- Different Nut Butters - If you can't eat peanut butter or don't prefer the taste, swap the peanut butter out for another nut butter like almond or cashew.
- Different Centers - Get creative with what you place in the middle of these vegan peanut butter blossoms. Another kind of vegan chocolate candy would be delicious. Of if you make the chocolate blossom cookies, try putting a peppermint candy in the middle!
How to Make Vegan Peanut Butter Blossoms
Step 1: In a sauce pan, slowly heat the vegan butter until mostly melted.
Step 2: Remove the butter from the heat and stir in the sugar, maple syrup, peanut butter and vanilla until a smooth mixture forms.
Step 3: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Step 4: Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until a dough forms.
Step 5: Roll the dough into 1 ½ inch balls and roll the balls in extra sugar. Place them 2 inches apart on a lined baking sheet.
Step 6: Bake the vegan peanut butter cookies for 8-10 minutes or until slightly brown around the edges. Remove the cookies from the oven and quickly press one square of chocolate into the center of each cookie.
Storage
Allow the vegan peanut butter blossoms to cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. Then, place the cooled cookies in an airtight container and store them at room temperature, for a softer texture, for up to 5 days. If you want a firmer cookie, feel free to store the cookies in the fridge in an airtight container to make the vegan butter and peanut butter firm up for a harder cookie!
Top Tips
- In order to not waste a lot of extra sugar when rolling the dough in sugar before baking, I just place a small amount of sugar into a bowl and add more as needed.
- Have your chocolate broken into pieces before the cookies come out of the oven. If you wait a while after the cookies are done baking, the cookies will start to cool and harden. When you go to press the chocolate into the center, the cookies will crack and break apart more easily.
Recipe FAQs
Eggs in cookies often help to bind ingredients together, add fat and make cookies fluffy. When baking cookies with out eggs, use vegan butter and nut butters to add fat and help bind all of the ingredients together. To leaven cookies without eggs, baking powder and baking soda do that job.
Peanut butter blossoms are classic Christmas cookies that have a sugar-coated peanut butter cookie base. Then, right after the peanut butter cookies are removed from the oven, a Hershey's kiss is pressed into the middle. The kiss melts slightly, but then hardens again once cooled for a delicious, melt-in-your mouth chocolate center.
Peanut butter blossoms are often served around the holiday's in the United States and many would associate peanut butter blossoms with Christmas. However, the cookie base and the center have been adapted and evolved over the years to include many different flavors and centers to suit different occasions.
Hershey's Kisses are not vegan as they contain dairy. The two non-vegan ingredients in Hershey's Kisses are milk and milk fat.
More Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
📖 Recipe
Vegan Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- extra granulated sugar
- 15 squares dark chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 °F and grease a baking sheet. Set aside the baking sheet aside.
- Break a dairy-free chocolate bar into squares and set aside.
- In a sauce pan, slowly heat the vegan butter until mostly melted.
- Remove the butter from the heat and stir in the sugar, maple syrup, peanut butter and vanilla until a smooth mixture forms.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until a dough forms.
- Roll the dough into 1 ½ inch balls and roll the balls in extra sugar.
- Place the balls on your prepared baking pan and bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly brown around the edges.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and quickly press one square of chocolate into the center of each cookie.
- Allow the cookies to cook for a few minutes before serving.
Notes
- Make sure you have your chocolate squares ready so you can press them into the cookies right when they are done baking!
- These cookies will stick together well after they have cooled completely.
Ry says
These were amazing! I made them for Christmas and they were a favorite!
Sharon says
NOT a vegan recipe
Sugar is not vegan
Faith VanderMolen says
I would disagree. Some sugar is vegan. Thank you for sharing your opinion though!
Sophia says
Thank you for the deliecious recipe!! I can't see any reason to make peanut butter cookies another way in the future!
Faith says
I'm so glad you enjoyed these cookies Sophia! Thanks so much for sharing!
Jennifer Wolf says
My daughter made these cookies- so good and easy to make!!
Faith says
That’s so great to hear Jennifer! Thanks so much for sharing. We gobbled ours up over here and are in need of another batch:)
Emily says
They look so simple. And I love how you associate those warm cookies and hot cocoa with that sweet tradition of finding a tree. 🙂
Faith says
They come together in a flash! And yeah, that memory is one of my favorites!
Deliteful says
Ohh! These look so amazing! Have you tried them with white flour too?
Faith says
They’re delicious! And I have not made them with white flour yet, but I’m sure you wouldn’t have a problem. I hope you can make a batch!
Laura @ Sprint 2 the Table says
These look amazing!!! I'd love one hot out of the oven while the chocolate is all melty... mmmm! Baking is for-sure my favorite holiday tradition.
Faith says
Ah yes! We loved them warm out of the oven. So much gooey, chocolatey goodness. I hope you can enjoy some baking over the next few weeks Laura!