Healthier homemade gluten-free cookie butter is ultra creamy, smooth, sticky, and tastes like delightful toasted, spiced cookies. I’m sharing two different methods to making it (the first with healthy store-bought cookies and the second with ingredients you have at home!). Cookie butter is so easy to make, customize, and you can use it as a spread or in desserts!
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Most store-bought cookie butters are packed with butter, added sugars, and preservatives. This homemade cookie butter is made without butter, sugar, and is equally (if not more) delicious!
- Two methods to make it!
- Wholesome: Made with nourishing ingredients and no refined sugar, this homemade recipe is much healthier than store-bought options and doesn’t contain any preservatives or additives.
- Fits dietary needs: This homemade cookie butter is vegan, gluten-free, and refined sugar-free!
- No bake: No oven or fancy equipment is needed to make this cookie butter! Just a food processor and a few minutes!
Homemade gluten-free cookie butter recipe video
Is cookie butter healthy?
Making cookie butter at home is a much healthier option to store-bought varieties. Most store-bought cookie butters contain wheat, butter, seed oils, added sugar, and preservatives. Let’s take a look at the ingredients:
Lotus Biscoff Cookie Butter: Biscoff cookies (Wheat flour, Sugar, Vegetable oils [contains one or more of soybean oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, palm oil], Brown sugar syrup, Sodium bicarbonate [leavening], Soy flour, Salt, Cinnamon], Canola oil, Sugar, Soy lecithin, Citric acid. Does not contain nuts.
When you make cookie butter at home, you have control over the ingredients and can even customize it to your personal preferences! You can definitely make cookie butter using healthier cookies like Simple Mills toasted pecan cookies, or you can make it totally from scratch without cookies. For this recipe, coconut sugar is used to sweeten the cookie butter and it can be made dairy-free and gluten-free! Here are the ingredients I use in my homemade recipe:
Dani’s homemade cookie butter: raw cashews, spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, sea salt), coconut oil or grass-fed butter, molasses, coconut sugar, vanilla extract
How to make homemade gluten-free cookie butter
Note: Full recipe is in the recipe card at the bottom of this post! You can make healthier homemade cookie butter with two different methods that i’ll share below!
Equipment
- Small pan
- Food processor
- Storage jar
Method one: Store-bought Simple Mills Cookies
Simple Mills makes paleo-friendly, vegan, and gluten-free cookies that are formulated with amazing ingredients and are absolutely delicious. This is a more time-efficient recipe than the second option, but both are equally delicious!
Ingredients:
- Simple Mills Toasted Pecan Cookies
- Plant-based milk, of choice
- Coconut oil
- Vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, sea salt
Steps:
- Add the cookies to a food processor & process until a fine texture is obtained. Then, add the milk, coconut oil, cinnamon, & vanilla extract. Blend again until smooth.
- Store in an air-tight container or jar in the fridge.
Method two: pantry ingredients
If you don’t want to run to the store to buy cookies or don’t have a healthier cookie option near you, you can easily make it at home with pantry ingredients! Let’s take an ingredient deep dive:
Ingredients:
- Raw cashews or cashew butter (see tips & notes)
- Coconut sugar: You can use brown sugar if not refined sugar-free.
- Maple syrup
- Almond or cashew butter
- Refined coconut oil, grass fed butter, or vegan butter: Refined coconut oil is the best option as virgin coconut oil will have a strong coconut flavor! You can also use grass-fed butter or vegan butter for a more authentic cookie butter flavor.
- Blackstrap molasses: this is optional but adds to the spiced cookie flavor!
- Vanilla extract
- Spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger cloves, sea salt
Steps:
- You’ll start by roasting the cashews for 10 minutes. After, you’ll add them to your food processor and process for a few minutes until they become a paste. This can take awhile, so be patient!
- Then add the remaining ingredients and continue blending for a few minutes until it becomes a drippy, runny nut butter texture.
- Transfer the cookie butter to an air-tight container or jar. Store in the fridge or a dark, cool place.
Expert tips
- If you want your butter smoother, I recommend using a blender, but I like some crunchy texture in mine so I just use my food processor!
- Shortcut: You can substitute store-bought cashew butter for the raw cashews to save some time!
- Keto/Low sugar cookie butter: Opt for golden monk fruit sweetener for a sugar-free option!
How to use homemade cookie butter
- Dip apples in cookie butter.
- Top Snickers banana bread with homemade cookie butter or spread it over toast!
- Drizzle over oatmeal.
- Stir into greek yogurt or coconut yogurt and top with berries and granola for a yogurt parfait. It would be amazing in my Strawberry cheesecake parfaits!
- Use in your favorite desserts like cookies and cakes.
- Use as a frosting.
- Add a tablespoon or two into your smoothie.
More healthy recipes to try
- Pumpkin spice infused maple syrup
- Easy whipped honey
- Strawberry whipped honey
- Blender banana coffee cake muffins
- The best gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free pancakes
- Blueberry chia pudding with lemon cashew cream
- Strawberry chia overnight oats
- Snickers banana bread
- Strawberry cheesecake parfaits
Homemade Gluten-Free Cookie Butter
Ingredients
Cashew Cookie butter from scratch
- 2 cups raw cashews
- 1 tbsp refined coconut oil, grass-fed butter or ghee, or vegan butter
- 1 tbsp light molasses or maple syrup
- 3 tbsp coconut sugar (I used 3 tbsp monk fruit for lower sugar)
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- tiny pinch of cardamom (optional)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Using store-bought cookies
- 1 box toasted pecan simple mills cookies
- 1/4 cup plant-based or regular milk
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp softened refined coconut oil
Instructions
From scratch cookie butter
- Roast the cashews: spread in a single layer on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and place in the oven for 10 minutes at 350F. Let cool for a few minutes.
- Add the nuts to a food processor and blend for a few minutes, stopping to scrape the sides, until it turns into a paste. This can take several minutes – be patient!
- When the cashews start to form a ball, stop the food processor and add the remaining ingredients. Process for a few more minutes until it reaches a drippy, creamy, nut butter consistency.
- Store in an air-tight container or jar in the fridge or in a cool place.
Boxed cookie butter
- Add the cookies into your food processor, processing until a fine texture is obtained. Then add the milk, coconut oil, spices, & vanilla extract. Blend until smooth.
- If you are looking for a runnier butter, add a little more milk or coconut oil. Store in the fridge in an airtight container.
