I may be dating myself here, but growing up, one of my absolute favorite lunchbox snacks was those peanut butter & jelly graham cracker sandwiches.
If you were born in the 2000s, you may have missed the boat on those.
This isn’t just some nonsensical millennial rant- there’s a reason I’m bringing these sandwiches up.
In creating these peanut butter & jelly cookies, I realized that they taste a lot like these sandwiches I miss so much.
I know how that sounds. Too many creators out there claim that their healthier/high-protein recipe tastes “as good as the real thing.” But in this case, I promise you I am not being hyperbolic: these cookies capture every bit of nostalgia you could ask for.
The peanut butter cookies are soft and chewy, and the jelly creates an explosion of flavor when you bite into them.
It’s just an added bonus that the nutrition facts for these cookies happen to be insane.
Each cookie contains just 130 calories and an impressive 11 grams of protein. That means that you can eat two of these cookies for 260 calories and 22 grams of protein… that’s right on par with most protein bars, but tastes way better.
How To Make PB&J Protein Cookies
The process for these peanut butter & jelly cookies is pretty straightforward, but let’s quickly walk through the steps for forming these cookies to make things easy for you.
First and foremost, we’re going to chill the dough for an hour to allow it to firm up. If you absolutely have to skip this step, you can, but as I’ve learned with my 6oz Chocolate Chip Protein Cookie, chilling the dough helps the cookies to not spread too thin. Plus, if your dough is sticky, the chill time helps to eliminate that.
One chilled, we’re going to break the peanut butter cookie dough into 12 total pieces. This recipe makes 6 cookies, but since we’re stuffing them, we need to prep twice as many.
Once you have 12 pieces of cookie dough, you’ll flatten each one down into a disc.
All these peanut butter & jelly cookies require is a small spoonful of jelly, but if you want an extra hit of flavor and gooeyness, add a little bit of peanut butter into the center, too.
Add jelly to the center of half of the cookies, then place another piece of cookie dough on top before pinching down the edges to seal the jelly in.
Even with cracks in these cookies, the jelly won’t ooze out, so you’ll be perfectly okay.
Bake these peanut butter and jelly protein cookies at 325 degrees for about 8 minutes. This dough is perfectly safe to eat raw, so you can underbake them as well if you want extra-gooey cookies.
When you remove these cookies from the oven, they’ll likely be too soft to pick them up. Allow them to cool for about 15 minutes to allow the inside to firm up and the cookie to flatten out a bit.
Once the cookie sets, the exterior will develop a slight crisp, and the interior will remain nice and gooey.
Ingredients Needed for PB&J Cookies
If you follow the recipe as written, I promise you’ll love this one. But I know it’s not always realistic for everyone to have access to the same exact ingredients, so let’s break it down.
Let’s break down some of the key ingredients for this one…
Whey/Casein Blend Protein Powder
There are hundreds (more likely thousands) of protein powder options out there to choose from, so I don’t expect you to always use the same protein powder I use.
If you DO want to use the same protein I have, I can’t recommend PEScience enough, which is a whey/casein protein blend.
The addition of casein, rather than using 100% whey protein, tends to work better in cookie recipes. Whey protein alone can dry out quickly, so the addition of casein leads to a final product with more moisture (and I much prefer my cookies to be soft).
Plus, the peanut butter flavor works so well in the recipe. The protein powder tastes very similar to powdered peanut butter, which seamlessly blends into this recipe.
Peanut Butter
Peanut butter is a pivotal ingredient here for obvious reasons.
We not only want these cookies to actually taste like peanut butter & jelly, but the peanut butter is also our fat source for these cookies, which is essential.
You can choose crunchy or creamy peanut butter for this recipe, although I recommend using creamy. When it comes to mixing, it’s just easier to mix when you’re working with creamy peanut butter.
Do not substitute the peanut butter for powdered peanut butter.
We’re going to use powdered PB as well for some extra flavor and structure, but we need the peanut butter here to create a cookie that isn’t extremely dry. Without the fat that peanut butter provides, these cookies would end up very dry and crumbly.
If you want a lower-calorie peanut butter cookie option, try my Powdered Peanut Butter Cookies.
Jelly Filling
Just like the peanut butter, you can use any jelly or preserves that you enjoy for this recipe.
I used to eat sugar-free jelly to save some calories, but the difference in flavor is night and day. The jelly (technically fruit spread) I prefer to use isn’t insanely high sugar, and the flavor is significantly better than any sugar-free options you’ll find.
You can use anything you want here since this is only for the filling, and thus will be very forgiving, but make sure you choose a filling that you actually enjoy the taste of.
Measuring Your Filling (A Useful Tip)
There’s a little kitchen scale trick that is too often overlooked, but extremely useful.
For this recipe, I wrote that you’ll need 30g of jelly. Should you measure out 30g in a bowl and then add those to your cookies? No way; that just dirties up a bowl for no reason.
Instead, use the negatives on your kitchen scale:
Put your jar on the scale (without the lid) and zero it out. Then, simply scoop out the jelly and fill all of your cookies.
The weight will drop down into the negatives. Once I filled all my peanut butter & jelly cookies, I was left with approximately -30g, meaning I used 30g total.
I use this technique all the time, and it makes things way easier, so you don’t have to mess with extra dishes!
By the way, this kitchen scale in the photo above is my old kitchen scale (you can tell by how horrible the photo looks). I’ve since “upgraded” to the OXO kitchen scale, which is still very affordable.
I recommend picking up any cheap food scale you can find, but if you want the OXO brand I have (it has a pull-out display which is helpful when dealing with large bowls) you can find it here.
More Recipes for Peanut Butter Lovers
If you love peanut butter as much as I do, here are some more recipes of mine that you’re sure to love:
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients to prevent clumping.
- Add all of the liquid ingredients (except the jelly) and mix until cookie dough forms. Note that you may need to adjust the amount milk slightly if you use a different type of protein powder, so I recommend adding the milk a little bit at a time while mixing.
- Refrigerate the dough for 30-60 minutes to allow it to firm up.
- Once the dough is chilled, preheat your oven to 325° F.
- Take your dough and break it up into 12 roughly equal-sized pieces. Roll them in your hands to create balls and add to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Flatten your dough into discs. Spoon a small amount of jelly onto the center of half of the flattened cookies, leaving enough room around the edges to seal the cookies.
- Take the remaining flattened cookies and place over the top of the jelly, pinching down the edges to seal the cookies.
- Bake the cookies at 325° F for 8 minutes. Since this dough is safe to eat raw, you can lower the bake time for extra gooey cookies if preferred.
- Allow the cookies to cool for about 15 minutes to firm up, then dig in.
Notes
- The use PEScience protein powder, which is a whey/casein blend. I’ve made thousands of protein cookies over the years, and this kind of blend consistently produces the best results. The peanut butter flavor of PEScience protein powder also works very well for this recipe.
- Note that I do not count zero-calorie sugar substitutes in the carb total, but if you are very strict about carbs, you can factor those in.
- If you have a peanut allergy, you can also use almond butter and almond flour in place of peanut butter and powdered peanut butter, if needed. In one of my trials, I used the same amount of almond flour in place of peanut butter powder, and it worked great.
- These peanut butter & jelly cookies keep great as leftovers. You can store them at room temperature for a few days, or store them in the fridge (or freezer) to keep them fresh for even longer.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 6
Serving Size 1 Cookie
Amount Per Serving
Calories 130Total Fat 6gCarbohydrates 8gSugar 4gProtein 10.5g
