The classic peanut butter cookies you crave are now sugar free! Sweet and satisfying, these are a perfect dessert option for anyone cutting back on their sugar intake. With just 3 ingredients, you can make these easy Sugar Free Peanut Butter Cookies recipe in minutes.
Remember these popular 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies?
Like all of you, my family can’t seem to get enough of them.
Today’s recipe is another take on the 3 ingredient criss-cross cookie concept–only this time it’s SUGAR FREE!
These 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies are Day 7 of our 12 Days of Cookies
Be sure to check out all of the other days for more goodies!
Day 1 – Fluffernutter Cookies
Day 2 – Toffee Coconut Oatmeal Bars
Day 3 – Double Chocolate M&M Christmas Cookies
Day 4 – Lace Cookies
Day 5 – Whipped Shortbread
Day 6 – Chocolate Spritz Cookies
Day 7 – You’re on it!
Day 8 – Wasabi Chocolate Crinkles
Day 9 – Christmas Sprinkle Cookies
Day 10 – Stained Glass Cookies
Day 11 – Cream Cheese Meltaways
Day 12 – Peppermint Sugar Cookie Cups
SAVE THIS 3 INGREDIENT COOKIE RECIPE TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!
Every batch of peanut butter cookies I make disappears almost as fast as you can say “cookie jar.” I can’t seem to resist “just one more” of those perfect treats.
Unfortunately, my blood sugar doesn’t always love sugary cookies as much as my taste buds do. Sure, I could just stop eating cookies to avoid the afternoon sugar crash.
But what kind of life is a life without COOKIES?
No life at all.
So, I dusted off my cookie crumb covered fingers and got to work. By swapping the sugar in the original 3 ingredient recipe for sugar substitute, I was able to get the same amazingly tasty results!
No complicated ingredients or methods. Just delicious, nutty and sweet peanut butter cookies–that won’t wreak havoc on your blood sugar.
Ingredients for Sugar Free Peanut Butter Cookies
- all natural peanut butter
- egg
- granulated sugar substitute (see below for my favorites)
THAT’S IT! I love not having to set out a zillion ingredients to make a batch of cookies. Always keep these ingredients stocked and you’re just minutes away from homemade cookies.
Steps for making Peanut Butter Cookies without sugar
Making these cookies is easy as can be.
STEP 1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
STEP 2. Mix together the peanut butter, egg and sugar substitute in a mixing bowl.
STEP 3. Roll the cookie dough into 1 inch balls and arrange in rows on the baking sheet. Flatten the cookies with the back of a form, making a criss-cross shape on top of each cookie.
STEP 4. Bake cookies for about 12 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
The hardest part is waiting for the sugar free peanut butter cookies to cool! The sweet peanut-y aroma as these cookies bake is almost impossible to resist.
TIP: The cookies will be soft when you first take them out of the oven. They continue hardening the longer they cool. Be careful not to over bake!
Sugar Substitute Suggestion
Choosing the right swap for your sugar makes all the difference in this peanut butter cookie recipe. The sugar substitute should be granulated, like regular white sugar. Do not use liquid or powdered sweeteners!
- Stevia – it’s what I used
- Granulated Monk Fruit – I haven’t yet tested this recipe with it, but plan on doing so in the future.
If you use it to make this recipe, I’d love to hear what you think, so leave me a comment below.
These natural sugar free sweeteners mimic the texture and chemical make up of real sugar remarkably well. Unlike artificial sweeteners, they also tend to leave less of a “chalky” or “chemical” aftertaste.
That said, if you love baking with sweeteners like Splenda (sucralose), they are a great option for these 3 ingredient sugar free cookies!
What kind of peanut butter is best for cookies?
To make this recipe truly sugar free, use a creamy natural peanut butter with no added sugars. They will be a bit more crumbly than peanut butter cookies made with shelf-stable peanut butter.
If you’re not totally avoiding sugar, you can also make these cookies with a standard shelf creamy peanut butter (like Jif). It won’t be totally sugar free, but it’ll still have WAY less sugar than your average cookie!
Are these cookies gluten free?
Yes, they are! These easy sugar free cookies are also low carb, keto friendly and dairy free. Hip hip hooray!
Note: If you are baking for someone with celiac disease, make sure you check the label on your peanut butter to ensure cross contamination with gluten products.
Peanut Butter Recipes
After you fall in love with 3 ingredient sugar free peanut butter cookies, give these other delicious peanut butter desserts a try!
- Peanut Butter Crinkle Cookies
- Frosted Peanut Butter Cookie Cups
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Treats
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints
- Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Dream Bars
- No Bake Peanut Butter S’Mores Cookies
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Looking for more sugar free peanut butter dessert ideas? This Sugar Free Peanut Butter Fudge created by my friend Aimee is a must-try!
3 Ingredient Sugar Free Peanut Butter Cookies
Equipment
- mixing bowl
- parchment paper
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar substitute I use stevia
- 1 cup all natural creamy peanut butter
- 1 large egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment or with a silicone baking mat.
- In a medium bowl, mix the stevia, peanut butter and egg together until well incorporated.
- Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheet. Using the back of a fork, make a criss-cross pattern on each cookie.
- Bake for 12 minutes.
- Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack.
Comments & Reviews
These are so good, it is dry and crumbly, but very good. Even my husband and daughter liked them.
Thank you, Evelyn!
I made these so I could have a treat while every one else was eating theirs. I feel like these are super sweet. I used Swever Sweetener. I couldn’t even eat a whole one.
Sharla,
some people have commented that the recipe for the 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies made with sugar is too sweet as well, so they have reduced the amount the use to either a 1/2 or 3/4 cup. Perhaps you could do the same with the Swerve and see how that tastes? I’d love to hear your feedback as others might be feeling the same! Thanks!
That helps a lot might make
You used a cup of Stevia? I only ask.because when I have subbed Stevia for sugar it is far less in quantity ie: a tablespoon of Stevia to a cup or more of sugar. Want to make these today….yum! Thank you.
Cindy, I did! I was curious about the amount as well, but the package of Stevia that I had said to use 1 cup of Stevia for 1 cup of sugar, so I went with it as I’m unfamiliar with using sugar substitutes. If you have more experience with them and use a different amount I’d love to hear about your results!
These are lovely I used monkfruit sweetener 1:1 with Adams natural chunky peanutbutter and added just a pinch of salt it worked wonderfully. Thank you !
Katlyn, you are most welcome! I’m so glad you loved them, that’s so wonderful to hear, thank you so much! I’ve never used monkfruit sweetener, but I know this will help quite a few others who do.
I read other reviews about the sweetness and decided to cut back on the stevia. I used 1/3 cup stevia and 1/3 cup truvia brown sugar. My husband has the sweet tooth and he said they were really good. One review said they were dry, but we didn’t think they were. Maybe that person baked them too long. Thank you for the recipe.
Cookies were to dry and to sweet will use less sweetner but not sure how to make them more moist
Lynda, yes, they are a drier cookie. Perhaps adding a second egg will help with the moisture though I haven’t tried it.
Great idea, I agree they were a little dry I will definitely try the extra egg next time.
I did not think cookies were moist.
I love these peanut butter cookies. Delicious. To me all cookies are a little dry not suppose to be moist.
You are crazy. These are horrible. The worst garbage I ever ate. And yes, I followed the directions exactly.
Can I use Monkfruit instead of Stevia?
I haven’t baked with a monkfruit sweetener, so I’m not completely sure. If you’ve used it previously to make cookies, it would probably work in this recipe.
I’m curious about the nutrition info is it really based on serving size as 1gram?
Sorry about that, Lisa! I forgot to set the serving to “cookies” and it automatically defaults to grams if nothing is filled in.
The nutritional info has been corrected. Thanks so much for bringing that to my attention.
I used the granulated monk fruit and it’s amazing, I’m making this recipe for a friend who is a diabetic. I hope he loves them just as much as I do!
These are horrible. The worst garbage I ever ate. And yes, I followed the directions exactly. I would never ever recommend these to anyone.
Russ, I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t like them, and I appreciate that you let me know. I hope these cookies didn’t deter you from trying some other recipes here on the site.
Your comments are not constructive. If you didn’t care for them, that’s fine, but tell us what was wrong with them. Were they too sweet as others have said? Or perhaps they were too dry as other reviewers have noted. But to sit there and say they were garbage that you’re not gonna make them anymore doesn’t help anybody.
True :~))
I agree I even tried an extra egg they are too dry and taste horrible
Made these for a treat while I have to go by gestational diabetes diet, used regular peanut butter & stevia. They taste great
How much stevia did you use? One cup? I’m trying it with stevia tonight since I have diabetes. I have been using real sugar and while it doesn’t make my sugar go up due to the protein in the peanut butter, my body craves the sugar too much in the cookies and I want too many of them at once. Haha. Did they turn out dryer with the stevia? Did you add any vanilla? Thank you.
These are NOT sugar free. If you use peanut butter (regular). There is nothing on here that says to use all natural peanut butter. If you are going to post a “sugar free” recipe make sure it’s actually sugar free… or edit this.
Hey Jessica, the post actually does say to use natural peanut butter under the heading, ‘What kind of peanut butter is best for cookies?’, but I had neglected to say that in the recipe, so thank you for bringing that to my attention. I also edited the ingredient list section of the post to reflect that as well.
Also, when I reentered the ingredients, adding all of the nutritional information as was on the jar of peanut butter that I used, and recalculated to get more accurate values. The calculation is done through a system and not sure if it’s 100% accurate, but I did all I can do on my part to enter the correct information. Just FYI, there are 2g sugar in every serving of this peanut butter (I used Teddie All Natural), and they say that one serving equals two tablespoons.
I just made this cookie recipe and it’s delicious but I used Splenda instead and I would use less than a cup but it’s all good I love this recipe. I had saved it on my phone so I can make it again soon.
Thanks so much, Sam. I’m so very glad you enjoyed them!
Hi, I have made these many, many times over the years *from the original recipe* which also calls for one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. Why is the vanilla extract omitted in this recipe? Just curious.
Joni, the vanilla can definitely be added to the cookies as you’ve done. I was given the recipe from a friend and they didn’t include it, so that’s what I went with. I’ll definitely have to try it with some vanilla next time though!
Anyway, hubby’s diabetic so i have to use sugar substitute… i used stevia powder. My hubby said they taste like sawdust. I agree, yuk 😝 still looking. I’d rather eat 2 cookies that taste good than 6 that don’t.
Ooops! Scratch that post, wrong site, wrong recipe. Sooorrry 😔
Heidi, 😂 that’s so good to hear! Thanks so much for returning and letting us know that it wasn’t this recipe. 😉
Love this recipe. Been making it for awhile now. Next batch I’m going to add sugarfree chocolate morsels, since I love chocolate and peanut butter together.
That’s so awesome to hear, Arlene. Thank you!
I love the idea of adding the chocolate since chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favorite flavor combinations.
Enjoy them!
Made it with 7 tbsp stevia and added 6 Lily’s chocolate chips to each. Quite tasty!
Very fast & easy recipe! Actually tastes very much like the real thing! Texture is different, dense.
Hello, would it be possible to make this recipe without sugar or sweetener? I see that you use a sugar/sweetener substitute but I was wondering if I could just make it with peanut butter and the egg by itself or do I absolutely have to have sweetener to go with it?
Jean, I’m not sure how that would work out since I haven’t tried it. You can certainly decrease the amount of sugar by perhaps a 1/3 of a cup, but I’m not sure you could omit it completely from this recipe.
I’m preparing this for a diabetic friend, and the granules monk fruit worked wonderfully. Maybe he’ll come to appreciate them as much as I do.
I would like to say that hubby & I do love these cookies and that there’s just the 3 ingredients! I would also like to share my first baking experience too as I just made a batch a bit earlier.
I do think that this batter will easily make a double batch (instead of the 18 cookies and also not be so dry) if you instead form 1/2 inch balls before forking them. I also followed another review given about reducing the sugar & used 1/3 cup of each (brown sugar & Truvia).
Delicious and thank you Lynne! 🙂
Susan!!! I am so very happy to hear your feedback on this recipe and even happier to hear that you and your husband enjoyed them so!! Fantastic!!
Thank you very much for letting me know. ❤️
🥰
My diabetic husband loves these! I make them quite often, especially when attending an event where sugary desserts will be served. That way my honey always has a sugar-free dessert. These are so easy to make and freeze in small servings.
Deb, thank you so much for your review and taking the time to let me know. I really appreciate it!
I’m so happy you and your husband liked them and what a great idea to take them to an event so there’s a sugar-free dessert option. GENIUS!!
❤️
Hello again Lynne! 🙂
I did make a comment here last night and not sure why it’s not here now.
Hubby & I are right now eating the rest of these awesome cookies I made last night and (truthfully) later I’m gonna make a double batch!
Thanks again for this wonderful recipe and I do love your website too! 🥰
Susan, thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate it. I have to approve all of the comments since I receive many that aren’t family-friendly and need to be reviewed before they’re automatically posted.
I’m so glad you both have enjoyed the cookies, and I’m excited you’re going to make more!
Thank you for your support!❤️
Right on Lynne! I was looking around more at your website here the other day and it’s just awesome all you do here and to help so many improve their cooking skills, etc. Thanks again and keep up the great work!
This recipe has a lot of potential! I did add a splash of vanilla. And I think next go-round I’ll use a second egg. And maybe monkfruit. Thank you for the inspiration!
Thanks so much for your comment, Dee! I love you ideas and will have to give them a try the next time I make them.
Made these for my diabetic co-workers and they absolutly loved them! thanks for the recipe
Eric, I’m so happy everyone enjoyed them so!! I was hoping that would happen when I created the recipe. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment and let me know! ❤️
I bet you scored big points with them and they were asking when you were going to make them next, too! 😂🙌
A very nice recipe for those looking for a quick and easy sugar free treat. I used natural peanut butter and doubled the recipe. The cookies came out great!
Know what would make this the perfect recipe? Posting the amounts of ingredients.
Astrid, it IS the perfect recipe because all of the amounts for the three ingredients ARE listed in the recipe card which is at the bottom of the post. So, since you scrolled down to leave a comment, I’m confused that you missed it. You can always click the ‘Jump to Recipe’ at the top of the post, and it will take you to it or you can scroll all the way down the page. Enjoy them!
I made the recipe with monk fruit sugar and they were horribly sweet, Crystally and hard. It doesn’t melt like regular sugar does. I’m going to try making them with sucralose and see how they turn out if they don’t turn out good I give up.
Sucralose was a lot better tasting than monk fruit but they were still dry and Chalky. I added half a banana and they were a little too moist and it took away from the peanut butter flavor. I might try one more time with just a fourth of a banana.
If you like eating chalk then go for it
Very good, easy to prepare. The family loves them, usually make a batch every weekend.
James, that’s awesome to hear. Thanks so much for the review and taking the time to let me know!
I made the 3 ingredient peanut butter cookie recipe and it is delicious. I took some to church to my group and everyone couldn’t believe they had just 3 ingredients. They do not make my sugar go up with diabetes even with the real sugar, due to the peanut butter. The only problem is that I crave them really bad with the real sugar die to being on a new way of eating. Tonight I’m going to try them with stevia because it’s the only thing I keep as a little dessert to snack on. They are so easy and bake up so well!!! Thank you!! Just make sure you let them cool before transferring to a plate because they will fall apart. Once set they are perfect!!!!
You don’t say how up to use
Marcielle, I don’t think you scrolled down the page far enough to see the recipe. But scroll all the way down the page, or use the ‘Jump to Recipe’ at the top of the post, and that will take you all the way down where you can see all ingredient amounts and instructions.
Just made these and I’m a fan!! Absolutely hit the mark. I used 3/4 cup Stevia and the taste is sweet enough to me. Not dry at all as someone else complained. And definitely not garbage as that whiner stated. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Paula, I am thrilled to hear that, thank you so much! I appreciate that you took the time to leave the comment and great review!
Worst peanut butter cookie I ever made.
Used 1/2 sugar and 1/2 monk. They never got done, and when I baked longer they burned and still weren’t done or crunchy. Terrible! And I’m a big cookie baker, so it wasn’t for lack of experience. Very disappointed. 🙁
Louise, I’m sorry to hear that, but I thank you for letting me know. I have never used anything but the Stevia in this recipe, but others who have used Monk Fruit say that they loved them.
I’m not familiar with how a sugar substitute would work when it’s combined with actual granulated sugar. Also, if you’re making Sugar Free Cookies, using half sugar and combining it with a sugar substitute will not produce a sugar free cookie.
According to Etymology online, a recipe is: 1580s, “medical prescription, a formula for the composing of a remedy written by a physician,” from French récipé (15c.), from Latin recipe “take!”
I may have overlooked it, but I assume a serving is one cookie? Just making sure. Thanks!
Sharon, yes. For every cookie recipe here on my site, the nutritional information is calculated for just a single cookie.