Originally published November 27, 2018, updated October 2, 2019.

Soft and chewy peanut butter blossoms with a healthy twist that make for the perfect treat at a cookie exchange! These easy peanut butter cookies are naturally gluten free, vegan, and low in sugar! They make for the perfect dessert, sweet snack, holiday bake sale, or cookie exchange!

If you want to know the way to my heart, it’s easily through peanut butter and chocolate. I mean, in my eyes, there’s just no better combo.

Forget peanut butter and bananas (can I say that even though this is The Banana Diaries!?), I don’t even want to think about apple pie and ice cream (although my apple pie *is* the best apple pie, if I may be so bold 😉 ).

It’s peanut butter and chocolate, people. So naturally I had to make my favorite cookie growing up: the oh so classic peanut butter blossom, but with a few twists (did you expect anything less?).

These chewy, deliciously soft peanut butter cookies with kisses are going to be the star of any cookie exchange or holiday party, you can bet on that 😉 What’s more, these chewy blossoms happen to be naturally vegan, dairy free, gluten free, and low in sugar…oh, and I even teach you how to make the Hershey kisses on top!

Because homemade Hershey kisses are SO much fun! Also a great activity for the kiddos 🙂

Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting The Banana Diaries!

Why these chewy peanut butter blossoms are the best:

I mean, if you couldn’t tell, I have a thing for peanut butter and chocolate. We go wayyyyy back.

But on the topic of these deliciously healthy peanut butter blossoms, they’re soft, chewy, and just the right amount of sweet.

You won’t be overwhelmed by the level of sweetness in these cookies, so I will say, it does make them easier to eat…again…and again…and again haha! But the cool thing is that there really isn’t much sugar that goes into them, yet you’d never know!

So what goes into these naturally gluten free and vegan peanut butter blossoms?

Peanut butter
Cassava flour (or gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour or all-purpose flour if you’re not gluten free)
Coconut sugar (or granulated sugar)
Unsweetened applesauce
Coconut oil
Homemade Hershey’s kisses (I like to use either Lily’s Sweets chocolate chips, which are low in sugar and vegan, or Pascha 100% baking chocolate chips, with are no sugar and Paleo/vegan!)

Simple right? Not a lot of ingredients for the most perfect holiday cookie 🙂

How to make homemade Hershey’s kisses:

You can’t have peanut butter blossoms without the kisses! Now, you don’t need to make your own Hershey’s kisses, but it’s certainly a fun activity for kids!

To do so, I purchased these Hershey’s kiss molds and a pouch of one of my favorite chocolate chips, Pascha 100% Chocolate Chips. First, I melted the chocolate chips over the stovetop (you can also microwave them- about 45 seconds, stir, then another 20 seconds, and stir).

Then, I spooned about 1 tablespoon of chocolate into each mold and froze them for about 15 minutes. I kept these in the freezer while the cookies were cooling too, and then as soon as they were plopped onto the cookies, I stuck them right back into the freezer! Easy peezy!

Tips & Tricks for these easy peanut butter

Do I have to chill the dough? Well, it really depends! They certainly spread much easier when you don’t, but sometimes we overwork our dough. This makes for a very warm dough that will yield very flat cookies. If your dough is more room temperature than cool, you probably don’t need to chill it. Then you would just skip the flattening out part of the recipe!
How should I store these vegan peanut butter blossoms? Well the cool thing is that since these blossoms are naturally vegan and dairy free, they’re pretty good to stay at room temperature for the day. However, if the cookies are being used for an exchange a few days ahead, I recommend keeping them in the fridge, or even the freezer!
What if I don’t want to make my own Hershey’s kisses? Not a problem! It’s easier to purchase them and just one less thing to make, I get that! You can easily purchase dairy free chocolate drops to place onto the cookies in place of the homemade vegan chocolate kisses!
Do I need to use cassava flour? Not if you don’t want to! I personally love cassava flour, but if you don’t have easy access to it, not a problem! You can also swap in your favorite gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour, or if you’re not gluten free, just use all-purpose flour!
I have a cookie exchange to go to; what should I do? Well, my dear, double the recipe! People loveeeee peanut butter blossoms, so the more you have on hand, the better! Plus they then make a good trade for another one of my favorite cookies…snickerdoodle cookies!

I hope you love these peanut butter blossoms as much as I do! They’re such a great cookie to bring to a cookie exchange (or leave out for Santa 😉 ).

If you end up giving them a go, let me know in the comments below! And as always, I love to see your beautiful recreations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!

Happy Baking and Cookie Eating!

More healthy cookie recipes:

The Best VEGAN Chocolate Chip Cookies

Healthy Snickerdoodle Cookies

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Paleo Chocolate Brownie Cookies

S’mores Stuffed Cookies

Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!

pinterest pin for gluten free peanut butter blossoms

IF YOU MAKE SOMETHING FROM THE BANANA DIARIES, I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR CREATIONS! DON’T FORGET TO RATE THIS RECIPE AND LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW! ALSO, FOLLOW ALONG WITH ME ON INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, YouTube, AND FACEBOOK FOR MORE RECIPE INSPIRATION AND A GLIMPSE INTO EVERYDAY LIFE!