Vegan Peanut Butter S’mores Cookies

Bring this camping classic right into your kitchen by whipping up a batch of these delicious vegan peanut butter s’mores cookies! They’re oil-free, and because they’re made with oat flour, they’re also gluten-free!

I planned to get this recipe up before the weekend was out, but some cooking and blog projects took hold, we celebrated Mother’s Day, and before I knew it, Monday had arrived. I feel for people who couldn’t be with their moms to celebrate; I’m in the somewhat unique situation of having a longer-than-intended layover at my parents’ since the pandemic postponed my May moving plans, so I actually felt incredibly grateful to be with my mom on Mother’s Day. We had a quiet day; I made my Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers into meatballs and served them on pasta with marinara sauce and cashew parmesan, with a side kale salad. For dessert, I made my Vegan Maple Vanilla Cupcakes which I had honestly forgotten about until my friend Anna made them last week!

Surprisingly, I haven’t been doing a lot of baking or dessert-making during the pandemic, since I’ve been living with my parents and baking is my dad’s purview. He LOVES to bake, and he loves dessert, so I’ve been leaving a lot of that up to him. It gives him something to do, and then I get to focus on developing more savoury recipes. The odd time, I have managed to fit in a dessert recipe development session, and these Vegan Peanut Butter S’mores Cookies are one of the results!

S’mores are such a quintessential campfire recipe, but I have a feeling not too many of us will be going camping this summer. So why not bring s’mores into your kitchen by whipping up a batch of cookies with vegan marshmallows and chocolate mixed in? And while we’re at it, why not use a peanut butter oatmeal cookie base that just so happens to be oil-free, gluten-free, and not that bad for you?

Dandies kindly gifted me a few bags of their phenomenal vegan marshmallows a couple of months ago, so these s’mores cookies are probably the first of several vegan dessert recipes that incorporate them!

To make these Vegan Peanut Butter S’mores Cookies, you’ll:

1. Whisk together a flax egg, smooth peanut butter, coconut sugar, maple syrup, non-dairy milk, and vanilla in a large bowl.
2. One by one, add the baking soda, baking powder, salt, oat flour, chocolate chips, and marshmallows, stirring after each addition.
3. Roll the dough into 16 equal balls and place them on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Lightly flatten with your fingers. (The dough is very sticky, so use wet hands for this step!)
4. Bake for 12 minutes and enjoy! I love serving these with a glass of non-dairy milk, but I’m also thinking that they would be positively marvelous as ice cream sandwiches!

troubleshooting these cookies

A few of you have shared photos of these cookies on Pinterest, and you found that the cookies didn’t spread out much. I’m not too sure why this is, because I make them regularly and they always flatten out to how they look in the photos in this post. The thing that is absolutely ESSENTIAL when making these cookies is to make sure that you roll out the dough with wet hands, because it is stickier than cookie dough made with wheat flour, and to flatten them with wet hands. 

Also, because these are made with all oat flour, they are not going to have the same consistency as cookies made with wheat flour. Oat flour gives them a toothsome texture, which my family and I love, but might not be for everyone. So, if gluten is not an issue for you, use light spelt flour in place of the oat flour for a more traditional cookie. 

Anyways, I hope you love these cookies! As always, if you make them, leave a comment and rating below to let me know how you enjoyed them! And share a photo to Instagram, too- be sure to tag @upbeet.kitchen and #upbeetkitchen so I can feature it in my stories!

Enjoy!