Best Peanut Butter Cookies

These peanut butter cookies have a deep taste, a delightfully soft texture, a thick center, and a deliciously crumbly edge thanks to the double amount of peanut butter. The finest peanut butter cookie recipe I’ve ever tried!

I’m sure you’ve seen these cookies before. Peanut butter cookies are nothing new in our kitchens, and our’s Baking Addiction is no exception. This cookies, along with oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate chip cookies, are among my favorite recipes.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I have a classics recipe on my website, but is there room for another? Today’s super soft cookies steal the show with 2 cups of peanut butter in the cookie dough. We’re using the same cookie dough as my bakery-style peanut butter chunk cookies, which have become my go-to peanut butter cookie recipe. Today’s cookies are simple to create, bursting with flavor, and topped with a beautifully crumbly criss-cross pattern. They’re fantastic!

This is the recipe for your new favorite peanut butter cookie. 

Less Flour, More Peanut Butter

These cookies are called peanut butter cookies since the recipe contains 2 cups of peanut butter. Because this recipe makes twice as many cookies as my last one and uses less flour, you can be sure that today’s cookies will be flavorful! In terms of peanut butter flavor, they remind me of these peanut butter oatmeal cookies, but they lack the chewy oat texture.

By the way, did you know that in some recipes, nut butter can be used in place of flour? There are only 5 ingredients in these flourless almond butter biscuits. There’s no need for flour because almond butter gives enough structure and stability. Use that recipe and swap out the almond butter for peanut butter if you want a gluten-free peanut butter cookie.

Here’s What You’ll Love

• Crumbly Edges
• Packed with flavor
• Extra soft
• Sugarcoating with a crunch
• The recipe is simple and straightforward.

My first bit of advice is to create a double batch so that the cookie dough may be frozen. There’s no need to thaw; simply bake for a minute or two longer. You never know when a cookie disaster will strike. Although you may not have time to prepare cookies from scratch, you will have frozen peanut butter cookie dough on hand. That’s a godsend! 

How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies

In about 10 minutes, the cookie dough comes together.

• Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt are required.
• Combine the butter and sugars in a mixing bowl. Make sure the butter isn’t too hot or melted when you touch it. This is what room temperature butter looks like. Brown sugar should be replaced with granulated sugar. I always use more brown sugar than white sugar while preparing chocolate chip cookies because it makes the cookies smoother. Peanut butter cookies, on the other hand, are already mushy due to the peanut butter. More brown sugar made them extremely soft, causing them to crumble. It’s possible to have too much of a good thing.
• The cookie dough should be chilled. because it is thick, it does not require hours in the refrigerator. A brief chilling period of 1 hour will prevent the cookies from spreading too much.
• Coat with sugar and roll into balls. Each dough ball should be around 1.5 Tablespoons in size. For an additional glittering crunch, roll each in granulated sugar.
• For that traditional peanut butter crises cross cookie, indent fork marks on top.
• Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the edges are firm.

Best Peanut Butter for Cookies

Using the wrong type of peanut butter is the most common mistake people make while making peanut butter cookies. A processed creamy peanut butter, such as Jif or Skippy, is the best peanut butter for cookies. (Those are the brands I favor for baking.) Although I like natural-style peanut butter for eating, it does not make the same type of cookie as its processed cousin.

Natural peanut butter gives the cookies a dry, crumbly texture. For my peanut butter flowers and peanut butter jam thumbprints, I recommend using processed peanut butter. Use Jif or Skippy crunchy if you prefer peanut pieces. See the recipe note for more information.

Do you want to amp up the peanut flavor? Take a chance! In a mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup chopped peanuts or peanut butter chips with the cookie batter.

I’ve tried hundreds of cookie recipes and can confidently say that these are the best traditional peanut butter cookies I’ve ever tasted. And I’m confident you’ll agree!

Description

These peanut butter cookies have a deep taste, a delightfully soft texture, a thick center, and a deliciously crumbly edge thanks to the double amount of peanut butter. To prevent excessive spreading, chill the cookie dough for at least 1 hour.

Ingredients

1. 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
2. Baking powder 1 teaspoon
3. Baking soda 1 teaspoon 
4. Salt 1/2 teaspoon 
5. Unsalted butter, 1 cup (230g; 2 sticks), softened to room temperature
6. Granulated sugar 1 cup (200g) 
7. Brown sugar 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark 
8. At room temperature 2 large eggs
9. Peanut butter* 2 cups (500g) creamy
10. Pure vanilla extract 1 and 1/2 teaspoons 
11. Granulated sugar 1/2 cup (100g)  for rolling
12. Optional: 1/2 cup (65g) finely chopped peanuts

Instructions

• In a medium mixing basin, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Remove from the equation.
• Cream the butter and both sugars together on medium speed with a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until creamy, about 1-2 minutes. Add the eggs and beat on high for 1 minute, or until fully blended. Scrape down the bowl’s edges and bottom as needed. Combine the peanut butter and vanilla in a high-powered mixer and beat until smooth.
• Mix on low until the dry ingredients are incorporated with the wet components. If used, add the peanuts to the mixer while it is running at low speed. The dough will be soft and thick.
• Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour after covering it (and up to 2-3 days). If chilling for more than a few hours, allow at least 30 minutes for the dough to come to room temperature before rolling and baking, since it will be extremely hard.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius). Use parchment paper or silicone baking mats to line 2-3 large baking sheets. (This is always a good idea for cookies.) Remove from the equation.
• Roll cookie dough into balls (about 1.5 Tablespoons each cookie) and roll in granulated sugar. Make a crisscross indent on the top of each with a fork. Bake each batch for 10-12 minutes, or until the sides are gently browned. The centers will have an extremely delicate appearance.
• Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking pans before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
• Cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to a week if kept covered.

Notes

• Make-Ahead Instructions: You may make the cookie dough ahead of time and chill it for up to 2-3 days in the refrigerator. Allow cooling to room temperature before proceeding to step 5. Baked cookies can be frozen for up to three months.

Cookie dough balls that haven’t been cooked and haven’t been sugared freeze well for up to three months. Allow frozen cookie dough balls to set for 30 minutes on the counter before rolling in sugar and indenting a crisscross pattern with a fork. Bake for an additional minute. There’s no need to thaw entirely.

• Peanut Butter: A processed peanut butter such as Jif creamy or Skippy creamy is excellent. I don’t recommend using greasy, natural peanut butter. Peanut pieces and a more crumbly texture are added by crunchy peanut butter. In this dish, I prefer to use creamy.