I’ve been testing out dairy-free custard recipes (coming soon!), which left me with a little stockpile of egg whites. I was looking up ideas to use them, and stumbled across an old favorite 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies. Honestly, I’d never thought to make them with egg whites, instead of whole eggs, but they turn out nicely. They bake up with a slightly lighter crisp and less chew than their whole egg counterparts.
Peanut Butter Cookies with Just 3 Ingredients that use Egg Whites
Each small batch uses up 2 egg whites, and you can double it if you have more on hand, or half it if you only have one egg white to use up. It’s a handy little recipe that’s quick, easy, and quite versatile. I’ve includes several options for customizing to taste.
My favorite option was the chocolate dip. It isn’t shown in my photos (they were a little melty in the humid weather we’re having right now!), but a thin dark chocolate coat went so well with the thick but gently crisp peanut butter cookies.
Special Diet Notes: 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, gluten-free, grain-free, tree nut-free, soy-free, oil-free, and vegetarian. I’ve included an egg-free and vegan option.
- 2 large egg whites
- 1 cup peanut butter (add ⅓ teaspoon salt if using unsalted peanut butter)
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
- Preheat your oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until soft or medium peaks form.
- In another medium bowl, stir or beat together the peanut butter and sugar until combined. Fold in the egg whites.
- Scoop the batter by the tablespoon, and place on your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly while making crisscross lines with a fork.
- Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes, or until set and to your desired doneness.
- Remove the cookies to wire racks to cool. They will firm up as they cool.
Brown Sugar Option: Substitute all or part of the sugar with brown sugar. If using all packed brown sugar, reduce to ¾ cup.
Vanilla Option: If you want more of a mellow peanut butter-vanilla flavor, add ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract.
Egg-Free Option: You can substitute ¼ cup aquafaba for the egg whites.
For More Easy Everyday Recipes, Get Go Dairy Free!
7 Comments
what are 2 large egg whites in tablespoons or cups?
Roughly 1/4 cup.
If I omit the additional sugar as my peanut butter has it, would I still need to beat it? Can I just fold in the egg whites to the peanut butter?
You still need to beat the egg whites, and omitting the sugar will affect the results dramatically. Peanut butter that is sweetened has a very small amount of sugar, not nearly what is called for. If you skip the sugar, the cookies will not be sweet and will be dry and crumbly.
i used 3 whole eggs not egg whites hoping it turn out delicious with 3 eggs just made this but it turn out like omelette not cookies i wished seen this recipe carefully not using 3 eggs sorry Thanks Ramya
I made these cookies with slight variations. They were delicious. I used a 1/4 cup of light brown sugar with 2 tablespoons of white sugar. I also added 1/4 cup of plain quick cook oatmeal. I added 3 medium egg whites also. I beat sugars, Skippy natural peanut butter, and oats by hand. I beat the eggs until very white and frothy. Maybe a few minutes. I added the peanut butter mixture to egg whites and mixed by hand about 30 seconds. Then I blended with a blender another 40 or 50 seconds. Sprayed pan with canola oil and rubbed it all around. The dough wasn’t as stiff as traditional cookie dough, but turned out perfect. I wet my fingers rubbed them together and shaped cookies better after I spooned them on my pan with a teaspoon. I ended up with 16 cookies. They were delicious. Thanks for this recipe!!
Thank you for sharing your variation Jeanette, and for being so specific. It gives a great option for people to try!