This recipe is exactly what it is titled, easy 4 ingredient peanut butter cookies. Peanut butter cookies have been around for a while they took off in popularity with the rise of gluten free and grain free diets. Many are quite high in sugar.
How to easily reduce the sugar content of most baking recipes
I have used one of my favourite sugar reducing baking techniques in this recipe, it works for pretty much all recipes. Essentially you can halve or reduce the sugar content of most recipes by two thirds and substitute the sugar with desiccated coconut. So if the traditional recipe calls for one cup of sugar, you can reduce it to either half a cup of sugar and add in half a cup of desiccated coconut or reduce the sugar even further to one-third of a cup while substituting in two-thirds of a cup of desiccated coconut. You get the picture. The original peanut butter cookie recipe I started with was a one cup peanut butter to one cup sugar recipe. But I tested my sugar coconut swap, and the recipe works brilliantly with only one-third of a cup of sugar.
Try my coconut sugar swap in other recipes, it tends to work most of the time. You can also use ground almond as a substitute too. I have two other peanut butter cookie recipes on my site, one which uses almond and one with a yummy low sugar cream filling
Easy 4 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 20 cookies
Easy 4 ingredient peanut butter cookies, a simple recipe that is lower in sugar than most. These cookies are gluten-free, grain-free and dairy-free
Ingredients
- 1 Cup peanut butter
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup desiccated coconut
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix
- Use a teaspoon and the mix into balls. It may be a little sticky, but if you wet your hands it will stop it sticking (you should end up with 20-22 cookies)
- Pop the balls on a baking paper lined tray, gently press the balls with a fork
- Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 12-15 minutes (I would set the timer for 10 minutes though, and then check again at 12 minutes and 15 minutes just to be certain)
Notes
- I have used both crunchy and smooth peanut butter for this recipe, both work
- You can also use other nut butters if you want a peanut free version
Courses Baking
Cuisine modern
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 cookie
Amount Per Serving | ||
|---|---|---|
Calories 102 | ||
% Daily Value | ||
Total Fat 7.6 g | 12% | |
Saturated Fat 2.5 g | 13% | |
Cholesterol 8.5 mg | 3% | |
Total Carbohydrates 6.7 g | 2% | |
Dietary Fiber 0.6 g | 2% | |
Sugars 4 g | ||
Protein 3 g | 6% | |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Hi just wondering if these would freeze well? Or what kind of shelf life would they have. Thanks
Hi yes they freeze really well, I store them in an airtight container for 3-5 days
These were a total hit here! I had 3 little helpers trying to ‘help’ me and these were perfect since it was enough for them to mix the ingredients and press the fork, and took 5 minutes (so I stayed sane) ?? Very tasty too.
Hi, I was wondering if yo have ever tried using honey instead of sugar in this recipe?
Hi there, I haven’t with this recipe, it would work, but you may need to up the dry ingredients as the mix will be a bit wetter.