Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Cookies

With 8 grams of protein, 12 grams of carbs, and 7 grams of fat, these chocolate chip protein cookies are one of most nutritionally balanced protein cookies you’ll come across. If you’re unfamiliar with the landscape, most protein cookies contain 20-plus grams of fat and over 200 calories per cookie. With those macros, I think I’d rather eat real cookies, ya know?

Speaking of real cookies, that’s what I feel I’ve achieved with this recipe. What started out as Butterfinger protein cookies evolved into the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies you’re looking at here. After testing six different batches, these came out on top.

But have no fear, I’ll keep working on the Butterfinger cookies. 

Update July 2020: If you want real deal protein cookies, check out more recent recipes like my DoubleTree protein cookies or chocolate chip protein cookies.

How to Make These Chocolate Chip Protein Cookies

Like nearly every recipe on my blog, these protein cookies are super easy to make. They’re as easy as mixing a handful of ingredients together, forming a few cookies from the dough, and baking.

Here’s a quick rundown of the primary ingredients:

• Protein Powder (I used PEScience whey and casein blend)
• PB2 or Powdered Peanut Butter
• All Purpose Flour
• Granular Sweetener (I used my fave, Swerve)

I’ll cover ingredient modifications and replacement ideas in the ingredient notes section below.

To hydrate the protein cookie dough, the recipe calls for a mix of light butter and canned pumpkin. If you’re not a fan of pumpkin, don’t worry, it’s a tiny amount you’ll never know is there. And I’ll leave a note on going all butter in the notes section. 

Once you mix everything together and form your protein cookie dough, it’s as easy as splitting up the dough and forming cookies before baking. You can almost see in the image below that I formed 12 smaller cookies instead of 8 like the recipe calls for. You can go either route, and I’ll include macros for a batch of 12 in the notes section.

Easy enough, right? If you’d like to see them in action, watch the video below.

 

Ingredient Modifications and Notes

Let’s run through a few potential questions about ingredient swaps.

Protein Powder

I used PEScience Whey and Casein Protein Blend for these peanut butter chocolate chip protein cookies. If you’re familiar with my recipes, you know I typically use Dymatize 100% Whey. I highly recommend both of these products and like to say I’m not affiliated with either company, I just love the products.

That said, feel free to use any protein powder you’d like. Though different types of protein may cook a bit differently. If you’re using a plant-based protein powder, for example, you may need to add a bit more butter or pumpkin to hydrate the protein cookie dough.

All Purpose Flour

The recipe only calls for a fourth cup but if you need a non-wheat alternative, you could try using 1-2 tablespoons of coconut flour. Start with one and add as needed since coconut flour is so absorbent.

PB2 or Powdered Peanut Butter

Since I mentioned the Butterfinger trials above, I can say that using 3 tablespoons of sugar free butterscotch pudding mix in place of powdered peanut butter works fine. You could also use real peanut butter and omit some of the butter or pumpkin.

I’ve used sugar free pudding mix in other protein cookie recipes like my coconut cheesecake chocolate chip protein cookies.

Swerve or Granular Sweetener

I can also say from the Butterfinger trials that a sweetener isn’t needed with 2 tablespoons of pudding mix and 1 tablespoon of powdered peanut butter.

If you’re using another sweetener like stevia, you may want to start with 1 tablespoon and taste the dough to make sure it’s not too sweet.

Butter and Pumpkin

My usual recommendation for butter and pumpkin is to swap gram for gram but if you add an extra 60 grams of butter, you may throw the macros way off. Remember, we don’t wanna be like other protein cookies out there. So if you don’t like pumpkin, try using 3 tablespoons or 45 grams of unsweetened apple sauce. Or a bit more butter and a splash of unsweetened almond milk to hydrate the dough.

But I promise, you won’t know the pumpkin is there.

You’re Ready to Rock

If you make these chocolate chip protein cookies, I wanna see them. Take a pic and tag me on Instagram @mason_woodruff.