These Peanut Butter Collagen Cookies are soft, chewy, and delicious! They are so easy to make with simple ingredients. And even easier to eat! This cookie favorite is always a hit.
A few weeks ago I had a dream that I was creating a recipe for peanut butter cookies…so obviously I woke up craving peanut butter cookies!
8 attempts later, and the most DELICIOUS peanut butter cookies that I’ve ever tasted were created.
Back when I ate strict paleo for a couple years (it’s what I needed to heal my gut), I’d eliminated peanut butter from my diet, as it’s not considered “paleo.”
It’s taken A LOT of self-experimentation to find what makes my body feel amazing, but it’s truly been one of the best things that I’ve ever done. Turns out, I do just fine with peanut butter these days.
My beliefs about food have changed so much over the years, and while I still think that paleo can be a great place to start (if it’s what you need), it’s not where most end up – including me!
I started out by basing this recipe off of my 5-ingredient chocolate chip cookies, as I’m very often asked for a substitute for the cashew butter in the recipe. While using peanut butter in this, resulted in a good cookie – I wanted to make it even better.
I also set out to create a healthier, yet still just-as-delicious cookie, which included one of my favorite gut-healing proteins, collagen peptides. You can read more about why I use collagen HERE.
Given that we’re living in a very unique time, and we’re still in shelter-in-place in California, I also set out to give you different ways to make these cookies, based on what you have on hand.
Substitutions & FAQ for these Peanut Butter Collagen Cookies:
Peanut butter:
- It’s most important that peanuts are the ONLY ingredient in the peanut butter that you use, or else the texture of these cookies will completely change. If your peanut butter contains salt, then simply omit the extra salt from the recipe.
- Since I first created this recipe, a reader reached out who made these using almond butter, and she said that they turned out great, so you can easily sub that as well. Just be sure that almonds are the only ingredient.
- If peanut butter isn’t something that you tolerate, then I’d highly recommend making my 5-ingredient chocolate chip cookies or my Double Chocolate Chip Power Cookies recipe – both are so good!
Coconut sugar:
- While I haven’t tried it myself just yet, you can typically substitute any dry sugar for the equal amount of another dry sugar. Maple sugar, date sugar or white sugar would be the best options, in my opinion.
- Readers have also mentioned that they’ve cut down on the coconut sugar, using 1/2 cup (or even 1/4 cup), and that these cookies still turned out great. I tried a batch myself using 1/2 cup coconut sugar, and the flavor was still amazing. Feel free to do whatever works best for you!
Collagen Peptides:
- This is what gives the cookies their slight chewiness, plus a boost of healthy protein! I love collagen for it’s gut-healing benefits, as well as how it helps to keep my hair and nails healthy and strong. It’s also amazing for joint health – Vital Proteins is my go-to brand.
- If you choose to leave this ingredient out, then simply add an additional ¼ cup of coconut sugar – the texture will change, but the cookies will still be delicious!
- I haven’t had a chance to try different protein powders out for myself for this recipe, but if you do happen to use another protein in these, I’d love to hear how they turn out!
Eggs:
- I discovered a really helpful article all about egg substitutions on The Kitchn, and so I whipped up a batch of these using the water/baking powder/oil sub, which was one of their highest rated, and the cookies turned out really good! If you do happen to try these using a different egg sub, I’d love to hear how they turn out.
Vanilla extract:
- You can simply leave this out, if needed – the cookies will still turn out great.
Sea salt:
- Iodized salt is much saltier than sea salt, so if you’re using this as a substitute, then I’d recommend using half the amount. (this goes for any recipes that call for sea salt)
- These peanut butter cookies would also be amazing with chocolate chips added in & a glass of your favorite milk. Enjoy!
Peanut Butter Collagen Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter make sure that peanuts are the only ingredient
- ¾ cup coconut sugar
- ¼ cup collagen peptides
- 1 egg, whisked *see the note above for using an egg substitute
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the coconut sugar, collagen peptides, and sea salt, and stir together to combine. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir really well, using a rubber spatula. The batter will be sticky at first, just keep stirring until it thickens and turns into a dough.
- Using your hands, roll the dough into 12 balls and place them onto the baking sheet.
- Press each cookie with the back of a fork, and then press again from the opposite direction, to form a criss-cross pattern on top.
- Bake for 11-12 minutes, just until the bottoms of the cookies begin to brown. Place the cookies onto a cookie rack to cool & ENJOY!