Our Sunbutter chocolate chip cookies are a delicious peanut free alternative to peanut butter cookies and taste amazing! These are soft and chewy, with options for making these crunchy if you prefer. Our cookies are gluten free, dairy free, and vegan.
It’s been a little while since I made a posted a cookie recipe here, and since I love cookies (they’re in our website name after all!), I wanted to do another variation of one of my favorite cookies: the chocolate chip cookie.
It’s been a plan of mine for quite a while to do a Sunbutter version of my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I finally made them and they’re so good. These cookies are allergy friendly, but you can’t tell they are gluten free, dairy free, and peanut free!
I’m a sucker for soft cookies, so these are right up my alley. They are soft and chewy with a slight crisp on the edges, but I added instructions for making these cookies nice and crunchy if you prefer your cookies that way instead of soft.
Food allergy notes for our cookies:
- Peanut free
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Egg free and vegan
How to make gluten free Sunbutter chocolate chip cookies
These cookies are easy to make and are just like Nestle Toll House cookies with a hint of PB flavor, but without the peanuts.
Here are the steps for making these chocolate chip cookies. This is just an overview, the full recipe card is at the end of the post!
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, cream together the dairy free butter, creamy Sunbutter, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and baking soda.
- Add the gluten free all purpose baking mix and beat together with a hand mixer.
- Add the dairy free milk and the sorghum flour and mix again. The dough will get thick.
- Stir in or mix in the chocolate chips.
- Roll the cookie dough into 1 inch balls and place on a baking sheet about 2 to 3 inches apart. These will spread on their own and don’t need flattened.
- Bake for 11-12 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for about 5-10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
- Once cooled completely, store at room temperature in an airtight container or bag.
- These freeze well once they are baked (I haven’t tried freezing the dough yet).
An important note on GF all purpose flour vs all purpose baking mix: Gluten free all purpose baking mix is sometimes a bit different than gluten free all purpose flour. The King Arthur Flour baking all purpose baking mix I use already has xanthan gum and baking powder in it, some gluten free flours do not have those already in them and some of them do, so make sure to read the label on the flour you choose. Xanthan gum is important for this recipe to hold together since it doesn’t have eggs, so look for a gluten free flour or baking mix that has xanthan gum in it.
How to make these cookies crunchy
Like the variation with our other chocolate chip cookie recipe, using the blend of flours keep these cookies softer. There’s something about adding the sorghum flour that give these cookies the perfect soft cookie texture without the need for eggs.
Even though I like soft cookies, my husband loves crunchy ones, so I usually end up coming up with crunchy options for most of our cookies.
To make these cookies crunchy, swap out the 1 cup of gluten free all purpose baking mix + 3/4 cup fine sorghum flour (or fine brown rice flour) for just 1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon of gluten free all purpose baking mix and bake for 12-13 minutes (I added this to the recipe card notes as well).
So you won’t use the sorghum flour and you’ll bake them just a couple minutes longer. You can also set them out on the cooling rack for a few hours before putting them in a container or bag to keep them more crisp.
Can I swap out the Sunbutter?
We made these cookies with Sunbutter since we like the creamy Sunbutter as a peanut butter alternative and we don’t tend to keep a lot of tree nut butters around our house (my daughter is allergic to some tree nuts).
But if you want to make these without Sunbutter and using a different kind of nut or seed butter, you can just swap the Sunbutter for other butters if you like, such as cashew, almond, or even peanut butter if you can have it.
The only one I wouldn’t personally swap for is pumpkin seed butter since it tends to be rather bitter tasting and I’m not sure it would be great in this recipe. But you can still use it if you like pumpkin seed butter.
If swapping out the Sunbutter, just make sure to look for a replacement that isn’t super oily or runny since this recipe is written with a creamy Sunbutter. Using a runny nut butter may result in the cookies spreading quite a bit.
Check out our other allergy friendly chocolate chip cookie recipes!
- Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies (aka Inside Out Cookies)
- White Chocolate Chip Lemon Cookies
- Strawberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cranberry Orange White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gluten Free Sunbutter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup dairy free/vegan butter, softened (we like the avocado oil or olive oil Country Crock Plant Butter sticks)
- ⅓ cup creamy Sunbutter
- ½ cup unbleached cane sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup gluten free all purpose baking mix* (we used King Arthur Flour gluten free all purpose baking mix)
- ¾ cup fine sorghum flour (I used Authentic Foods superfine sorghum flour)
- ¼ cup rice milk or other dairy free milk
- ½ cup allergy friendly chocolate chips (we use Nestle Simply Delicious semi-sweet chips)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the dairy free butter, creamy Sunbutter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and baking soda until mixed well.
- Add the all purpose gluten free baking mix to the butter sugar mixture and mix.
- Add the sorghum flour and the dairy free milk and mix again.
- Add the chocolate chips to the cookie dough and mix again until evenly distributed, you might have to mix in the chocolate chips by hand.
- Scoop out cookie dough and roll into 1 inch balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet about 2 to 3 inches apart.
- Bake for 11-12 minutes for cookies that are chewy in the middle, or bake for 13 minutes for cookies that are more crispy/crunchy.
- Allow to cool on the pan for about 5 to 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days (if they last that long!). These cookies freeze well once baked, I haven't tested out freezing the unbaked cookie dough yet.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and healthy living blogger based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist