Almond Butter Cookies
These soft and chewy Almond Butter Cookies can go straight from mixing bowl to oven, no dough chilling required! This is an easy peanut-free dessert that’s great for anyone with an allergy.
★★★★★
Amanda says –
“I’ve made these many times as the recipe is written and they are perfection every time.”
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Why You’ll Love this Recipe
✔ Tasty Peanut-Free Cookies: This recipe is my take on the popular peanut butter cookies everyone adores, but made peanut-free for my son who has an allergy. (FYI: I’ve given all of my peanut-free ingredient suggestions below!)
✔ Pure Almond Flavor: For a delicious almond taste, you’ll use both almond butter AND ground up almonds. The ground almonds really give the cookies a flavor boost!
✔ Super Soft and Chewy: I love that this recipe uses a mix of brown sugar and granulated sugar because it adds to the flavor and chewiness.
Creating This Recipe for My Family
When my son was just over a year old, we learned that he had a really severe peanut allergy. For years and years, we didn’t keep any peanuts or anything processed/potentially contaminated with peanuts in the house.
Once I finally discovered the peanut-free products that work for my family (recommendations all listed in detail below!), I made a batch of these cookies as an alternative to the peanut butter ones everyone makes around the holidays. And in the 10 years since I first posted this recipe, we’ve made these cookies countless times!
I have to say, I think I actually like these almond nut butter cookies better than peanut butter cookies! They have that classic nut butter taste — without the allergen!
My Peanut-Free Ingredient Recommendations
This is a super simple recipe for almond butter cookies that uses minimal ingredients. You’ll need a few pantry staples like flour, baking powder and baking soda, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
Plus, you’ll need two almond products to amp up that almond flavor!
Peanut-Free Almond Butter
Make sure you look for an almond butter that doesn’t need to be stirred before measuring. My FAVORITE almond butter for baking cookies is Barney Butter.
Barney Butter Almond Butters are made in a peanut-free facility, so you can bake these cookies with peace of mind knowing that they’re allergen-free.
Do you want these cookies to be extra crunchy? Feel free to substitute crunchy almond butter, or to leave a portion of the ground almonds a little coarser for that extra crunch!
Peanut-Free Whole Almonds
Yes, you have to double check the whole almonds as well to confirm that they’re not processed in a facility that also processes peanuts. My go-to almonds for this recipe are Blue Diamond Almonds.
According to their website, their snacking almonds are made in peanut-free facilities.
An Overview of Making Almond Butter Cookies
- Mix the dry ingredients: Combine the flour with the baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Mix the wet ingredients: Using a stand or hand mixer, you’ll beat the butter until creamy. Then add the sugars, continuing to beat, and then add the almond butter, eggs, and vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet: Make sure you don’t over beat the cookie dough, just stir in until mixed well.
- Immediately scoop and bake: I like to make 2 tablespoon-sized cookies dough balls and flatten them with a fork to help them spread in the oven!
The above is simply a quick summary of this recipe. Check out the full recipe in the free printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for all the detailed instructions.
Recipe FAQs
Got questions about how to make this recipe? Here are the answers to a few commonly asked questions. Feel free to leave any other questions in the comments on this post and I’ll respond with answers.
Can I use a different nut butter in these cookies?
It depends! Are you allergic to almonds, all nuts, or peanuts? Or do you just not have almond butter on hand? Feel free to substitute other nuts and nut butters, depending on your needs.
If a peanut allergy isn’t a concern, then a no-stir peanut butter and peanuts will deliver the best results.
If all nuts are a problem, I recommend trying sunflower seed butter, but I haven’t tested it myself.
Katie’s Tip: I do not recommend nut spreads, such as Nutella or other Chocolate Hazelnut Spreads in this recipe because they have a much higher sugar content and aren’t as nut concentrated, so the recipe would not turn out the same.
Why does this recipe have you make fork marks on the cookies?
The almond butter cookie dough is pretty dense thanks to the almond butter and ground almonds. The denser dough has a harder time baking through and spreading while baking.
Making the classic criss-cross pattern on the cookie flattens the dough and allows for more even baking. Plus, you get nice crispy edges where the fork pattern was made!
Katie’s Tip: You don’t have to use a fork! You can also use a glass with an interesting pattern on the bottom or a Cookie Stamp.
Freezing Instructions
I have a full tutorial on How to Freeze Cookie Dough, so check that out if you want to freeze the dough to bake off later.
Or, freeze the cookies after they’ve been baked and cooled to room temperature.
- Cool the cookies COMPLETELY! This is super important.
- Transfer the cookies to a freezer storage bag with a zip top (keep them in a single layer, if possible). Label with contents and date.
- Remove as much air as you can without crushing the cookies. I like to zip the bag almost all the way, insert a straw, and suck out the extra air.
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
- To thaw, we like to pop the cookies in the microwave for 15-20 seconds on a napkin.
★★★★★
Teresa says –
“I have used natural almond butter and it turns out great! My kids love these cookies!”
More Almond Desserts to Make
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Almond Butter Cookies Recipe
These Almond Butter Cookies are the tastiest I've tried and make a great addition to your regular cooking baking.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup almond butter
- 2 large eggs
- 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup almonds, ground to resemble coarse breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF, then line baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Beat butter until creamy. Then, add sugars beating until fluffy, approximately 3 minutes. (Scraps the bowl as necessary.)
- Beat in almond butter until incorporated.
- Beat in vanilla and then eggs, one at a time.
- Gently stir in the dry ingredients (I switched to the paddle on my Kitchen Aid mixer).
- Add ground almonds and stir until just incorporated.
- Roll cookies into 2 tablespoon-sized balls. Place on baking sheets and press each ball twice with a fork to make a crisscross design.
- Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. The edges should be slightly browned and the cookies puffed.
- Cool on sheets for 4 minutes before transferring to a cookie cooling rack.
Notes
adapted from Cook's Illustrated
If peanut allergy is a concern: Look for an almond butter labeled "Peanut Free," i.e. Barney Butter. For the ground almonds, I recommend Blue Diamond Brand as a peanut-free option.
Freezing instructions: Make sure you check out my How to Freeze Cookie Dough tutorial for instructions on freezing these tasty cookies. Instructions for freezing the baked cookies can be found in the post above.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 36 Serving Size: 1 cookieAmount Per Serving: Calories: 191Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 24mgSodium: 120mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 1gSugar: 11gProtein: 4g
Debby says
Can I add mini chips?
Katie Kick says
Sure!
Linda Cowie says
I need help! The first 2 times I made these cookies, they came out perfect. This time, the dough is too crumbly and I can’t roll. They break up. I’m hoping for a quick solution so I don’t have to toss the whole thing out… Thank you
Katie Kick says
Hi Linda, Is it possible you accidentally added too much flour / didn’t use the right amount of butter or almond butter? The recipe hasn’t changed, so it sounds like something has caused your dough to be too dry.
Karen says
Can you substitute almond flour for the flour? Need to be gluten free
Katie says
Hi Karen, I haven’t personally tested that swap with this recipe. Typically when I experiment with making a traditional baking recipe gluten-free I will sub half of the all-purpose flour for a gluten-free all purpose baking blend and the other half for almond flour. That is where I would start because I usually have pretty good results that way. Let me know if you have any other questions! Happy to try to troubleshoot with you!
April says
Have you tried soy butter? My youngest son also allergic to peanuts. He likes making peanut butter cookies with soy butter.
I can’t wait to try your almond butter cookie. I will be using all purpose gluten free flour for my daughter is gluten intolerant. I use that flour for most of my recipes.
Katie says
I haven’t tested it with soy butter. Let me know if you do and what you think!
Ren says
Very tasty! I reduced both sugars and added some maple syrup. I also turned them into thumbprint cookies and used red pepper jelly to add a zing.
Amanda says
I’ve made these many times as the recipe is written and they are perfection every time. I’ve always wondered if I should measure the cup of ground almonds before or after they’ve been ground? Thanks!
Katie says
I measure the almonds after they are ground. If you’ve been doing the opposite and are happy with the results, I don’t think there is any reason to change your method (unless of course for your own curiosity).