Soft-Baked Peanut Butter Protein Cookies
⏱ 25 min💪 9g protein per cookie🔥 ~195 cal🍽 12 cookies
There is no flour in these at all. Peanut butter and casein do the structural work, which is why they bake in nine minutes and stay soft on day three instead of turning into hockey pucks. The dough should feel like play dough before it goes on the sheet, so add milk until it does.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (256g) natural creamy peanut butter, well stirred
- 1/2 cup (60g) vanilla casein or whey-casein blend protein powder
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup (67g) coconut sugar or light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk, plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/3 cup (60g) dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 325F and line two sheet pans with parchment.
- Beat the peanut butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until glossy and slightly lighter in color, about a minute.
- Stir in the protein powder, baking soda, and salt, then add the milk one tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together like play dough. Casein soaks up liquid fast, so you may need 2 tablespoons more than the recipe says.
- Fold in the chocolate chips, scoop 12 balls of about 2 tablespoons each, and flatten every one to 1/2 inch thick. These do not spread, so the shape you press is the shape you get.
- Bake 9 to 10 minutes, until the edges are just set and the centers still look puffy and underdone.
- Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before moving them, then store airtight at room temperature 4 days, in the fridge 10 days, or freeze up to 3 months.
Tips
- If the dough crumbles when you squeeze it, nothing is wrong with the batch. That is casein pulling water out of the mix. Add milk one tablespoon at a time until a ball holds its shape without cracking at the edges.
- Straight whey makes these squeak against your teeth and go dry by the next morning. Use casein or a blend. If whey is all you have, swap 2 tablespoons of the powder for oat flour and add an extra tablespoon of peanut butter.
- Powdered peanut butter cannot replace more than about a quarter of the jarred peanut butter. The fat is what keeps these tender, and going further gives you a dry, crumbly cookie no matter how much milk you add.
FAQ
- Why are my protein cookies dry?
- They were in the oven too long. Nine minutes looks wrong, but protein cookies finish setting on the hot pan. If the centers look done in the oven, they will be sandy once cooled.
- Can I use whey protein instead of casein?
- You can, but expect a firmer, drier cookie that stales quickly. Reduce the whey to 1/3 cup, add 2 tablespoons of oat flour, and eat them within two days.
- Do I need to chill the dough?
- No. There is no butter or gluten to relax, so chilling only makes the dough harder to flatten. Scoop and bake right away.
- Are these gluten free?
- Yes, as long as your protein powder is certified gluten free. There is no flour or oats in the recipe at all.
