We Just Made Billie Eilish’s Vegan Cookie Recipe. Here’s What Happened. (2024)

Need a solid peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe? Billie Eilish has you covered. The singer-songwriter just posted a super simple cookie tutorial on Instagram, and not only are the cookies vegan, they’re also gluten-free. We were one of the first to watch, and we had to wonder: Was the post an obligatory marketing convoy for the young star’s vegan chocolate bar, or will this recipe live on as our new go-to for potlucks, bake sales, and cozy winter nights in? We had to find out. We made Billie Eilish’s cookies for ourselves, and here’s what we think.

How to make Billie Eilish’s Cookies

Before we get to our verdict, let’s walk through the cookie-making process. The recipe and instructions are not documented in a feed post—by the time you’re reading this, they’ll be lost to the Instagram story archives. Don’t fret—the star captured it in her “little recipes” highlight reel—but it takes a lot of clicking to get to this particular post. If you want to try these cookies out for yourself, here’s exactly what to do.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment (or using a handheld mixer), cream together 1 cup of light brown sugar with 1 cup peanut butter for about 1 minute. Eilish points out that the Kirkland brand is her favorite peanut butter, but we used what we had on hand—a jar of Mumgry’s Smooth Peanut Butter. Note: many cookie recipes say “cream until fluffy,” however, this mixture will not get fluffy, so don’t wait for it. Stop the mixer at 1 minute.
3. Once the peanut butter and brown sugar are fully incorporated, add 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract. Beat for another 30 seconds.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup oat flour (literally just blitzed up oats), 1 teaspoon baking soda, and ⅛ teaspoon salt.
5. Pour the dry mixture into the wet and beat slowly. Once the dry mixture has been incorporated, pour in ¼ cup non-dairy milk (we used vanilla flax milk) while the mixer is on low and beat until a dough comes together. Make sure the dough is not too warm (otherwise the chocolate will melt) and pour in an undefined amount of chocolate chips or chunks (Eilish just says “add chocolate,” so we stirred in a moderate amount of Enjoy Life chips).
6. Using an ice cream scoop (or your hands), scoop balls of dough and roll between your palms, flattening slightly.
7. Place the cookie on the parchment paper and make a cross-hatch with the tinges of a fork. Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing the cookies 1 to 2 inches apart—they will spread. We got 14 big cookies from this single batch.
8. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt (not in Eilish’s original recipe but we couldn’t help ourselves). Bake for 12 minutes. The cookies will be very soft and look underdone, but pull them out—the residual heat will finish them off. Immediately place a single square of chocolate in the center of each cookie (like Eilish’s Happier Than Ever bar). Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes then transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Enjoy immediately or whenever the cookie craving comes.

Baker’s note: we made a second batch of cookies for the sake of experimentation. Instead of transferring the dough directly to the oven, we refrigerated the dough in the mixing bowl for thirty minutes. The mixture was a bit crumbly and slightly more difficult to form into balls, but it was still manageable. Due to this crumbly nature, we left the balls intact in lieu of smashing them down. We kept the baking time consistent and kept them in the oven for 12 minutes. Which batch did we prefer? Keep reading.

Are Billie Eilish’s cookies actually good?

Yes. We were surprisingly thrilled at how these cookies turned out. Not that we don’t trust Eilish, but the recipe seemed a bit too good to be true. How great could a vegan and gluten-free cookie be with only seven pantry ingredients? It turns out, exceptionally great. They’re everything a solid cookie should be—crispy on the outside, chewy toward the inside, and soft in the center; not too sweet, yet bursting with puddles of sea salt-speckled chocolate; and ultimately quite addictive. The oat flour did lend a light oaty taste which provided a new flavor dimension not often found in a straight-up peanut butter cookie.

In regards to refrigerating the dough, while it does require an extra step, we preferred the cooled batch better. The dough that we flattened with a fork and put straight into the oven spread out significantly and created a crispier cookie; the refrigerated, unflattened dough remained in its original dome shape which made for a tender center with a firmer bite on the edges. Eaten warm, these were phenomenal. Of course, the crispier cookies were also excellent when cooled and dunked into a tall glass of almond milk.

How to modify Billie Eilish’s cookies

Have a specific allergy or feeling like getting creative with your cookies? Here are three simple ways to tweak the recipe.

1 Swap out the nut butter

We imagine smooth almond, cashew, or sunflower seed butter would work instead of peanut butter. For our next batch (because there will be many more batches of these fantastic cookies), we’re going to try using chocolate peanut butter!

2 Replace the flour

In theory, regular all-purpose or spelt flour should work in this recipe. We would not suggest almond or coconut flour as you would have to adjust the liquid elements and the dough could turn out too crumbly.

3 Add mix-ins and toppers

The chocolate chips are the obvious choice of mix-in, but we can dream up a few other tasty ideas. Try adding crushed salted pretzels into the dough or topping each cookie with a mini hard pretzel immediately after removing the baking sheet from the oven. Alternatively, you could top each warm cookie with a mini vegan peanut butter cup. For a peanut butter and jelly vibe, nix the chocolate chips, press a thumb gently into each ball of dough, and place a heaping teaspoon of jam in the center before baking.

We advise you to make the recipe as intended first then attempt these modifications for subsequent batches. We also highly recommend you bake these cookies now. You likely have everything you need in your cupboard—afterall, what respectable vegan doesn’t have peanut butter or chocolate chips on-hand at all times (pending allergies, of course). From start to finish, the whole process took us 30 minutes for the unrefrigerated cookies and about an hour when we implemented the chill time. Are these the best peanut butter cookies of all time? No, but they’re pretty darn close and so easy to make whenever the cookie craving comes for you. And yes, the dough is fabulous, too!

For more Billie Eilish news, read:
Billie Eilish Launches New Vegan Milk Chocolate Bar
Billie Eilish Wears Oscar de la Renta Gown to Met Gala, Says Ditch Fur
31 Ways to Celebrate Billie Eilish’s Go-To Fro-Yo Shop

Tanya Flink is a Digital Editor at VegNews as well as a writer and runner living in Orange County, CA.