Our creamy cashew butter cookies were inspired by a recipe from Justin’s mom. She is famous for her peanut butter cookies, and I know Justin misses them from time to time, so I set out to make a paleo friendly version. Our paleo friendly version has all the thick, velvety goodness of peanut butter, but without the refined sugar and legumes.
With only 3 ingredients (plus one optional ingredient), these cookies are quick to mix up and require minimal effort and clean up. If you haven’t familiarized yourself with cashew butter yet, we highly recommend it! I asked Justin for what words he’d use to describe peanut butter, so I could describe the similarities between peanut butter and cashew butter. His response was, “Other than the favorite snack for a fat kid?!” I laughed, out loud. Justin might have been a fat kid once, and peanut butter was his favorite, so when I made these while he was away working on our remodel project in Bend, he was a little eager to get home and taste test. We LOVE cashew butter and find it is the most like peanut butter in flavor and texture. It is creamy, nutty, salty and heavenly. It is great for dipping vegetables in, especially carrots and celery. We might even dip plantain chips in it from time to time as well, and more recently I decided to try them as the base for these creamy cashew butter cookies. It was a good move.
You have the option to use honey, coconut sugar or maple sugar. The cookies come out slightly different with the various sweeteners. With the honey, they have a lighter consistency and texture and come out of the oven more golden looking. The honey definitely shines through in appearance and flavor.
You can see the the cookie above on the left is lighter and made with honey, while the one on the right was made with coconut sugar. The cookie with the coconut sugar is a little more dense and crumbly; it is also a little less sweet than the honey sweetened cookie. The cashew butter flavor comes through more definitively when paired with the coconut sugar.
Get your cashew butter out of the pantry, or head on over to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods to pick some up. Then, make a batch of these creamy cashew butter cookies and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below. Take a picture and tag it on Instagram @realsimplegood so we can check it out!
Creamy Cashew Butter Cookies (Paleo + Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1 cup cashew butter
- 1 cup coconut or maple sugar, (OR 1/4 cup raw local honey not vegan though)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Optional: If you're a fan of chunky peanut butter cookies add a 1/2 cup of roughly chopped roasted cashews (you can pulse them in a food processor until they are roughly chopped if you have one)
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit, and line a baking sheet with a silicone liner or parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl, add all of the ingredients to your bowl and mix with a spoon until all of the ingredients are mixed together and smooth in texture (except for the chopped cashews if you used them).
- Next, scoop out tablespoon sized balls and place them on the silicone or parchment lined baking sheet. You'll want to give them al little space between cookies, but they won't expand a ton while they bake. You should be able to fit all of the cookies on one sheet.
- Place the sheet in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges start to brown and the center firms up. It will continue to solidify as it cools on the rack.
- Remove from the oven and let your cookies cool for 2-3 minutes. Then, use a fork to make indentions on the cookies. Do the first marking and then make the next set perpendicular to the first one...like you've done with peanut butter cookies in the past.
- Once the cookies have cooled all the way, eat these creamy cashew butter cookies up! Enjoy!
I made these with coconut sugar. Super simple and delicious!
Fantastic! So glad you enjoyed them! Have you tried the new peanut butter cookies we posted recently? I bet you’d enjoy those as well!
I will try those next! Thanks for the heads up! 🤗
Made this tonight but with a few changes and they are delicious. Made with almond butter, honey, vanilla, an egg and a little almond flour. Chewy, crumbly goodness.
Sounds delicious!
A few changes! You made a whole different cookie! Ha
This blog has been amazing for food recipes but this cookie recipe did not turn out and I followed it exactly. The cookies are very crumbly as there is nothing to hold them together and they don’t look anything like the photos above. Coconut sugar has a strong flavor and taking a bite of a cookie is basically like eating straight sugar, as that’s half of what it is. I would not make these again. I wanted to enjoy them.
Sorry to hear these didn’t turn out for you.
I’m just wondering how they turned out SO differently. They don’t look anything like your photos or taste anything like your description. It just tasted like baked strong sugar. I can’t imagine the honey version being sweeter. Even my husband (the BIGGEST sweet tooth) had a hard time eating them, but he still did like them! I am wondering if there is an ingredient that got left out of the description or if the ratio is off? I feel like regular peanut butter cookies are healthier and less sugary than this.
I LOVE your blog and have been following the whole30 meal plan so I very much appreciate your recipes in general.
There are a number of things can affect how they turn out…the brand of cashew butter, if it’s a freshly opened jar or the bottom the jar (more oily or more dried out), what type and brand of oven they’re cooked in can affect cooking time, how old your oven is can affect cooking time, your altitude, the brand of coconut sugar, etc…For the version with coconut sugar, you can definitely play with using less coconut sugar or you might just prefer honey and perhaps cooking them for a shorter time. I’ve made them with half the coconut sugar before and liked that version myself. The honey version sticks together better since the coconut sugar is really what makes them crumbly. You can also try using one egg if you tolerate them. Just whisk the egg first and then go about the rest of the recipe. Baking without eggs is definitely a challenge and you typically give up something on the texture when you omit them. Hope you find some other recipes to love on our site. 🙂
I made mine with monk fruit sweetener. So simple and so good!
Amazing! Love that! Thanks so much for trying our recipe and taking the time to come back and leave your comment! Hope to see you again soon! 🙂
Just FYI it’s not vegan if honey is used, since honey is an animal product, not that it’s any less delicious.
Thanks for comment. Agreed, honey is not vegan. That’s why the recipe says coconut/maple sugar or honey. I made a note in the recipe that honey isn’t vegan though just to be more clear. Thanks for taking the time to visit and leave a comment!