Peanut Butter Cookies: the best-ever recipe for classic, sweet-salty peanut butter cookies

If you’re looking for the best peanut butter cookies, look no further. This is an easy cookie recipe that allows you to quickly whip up a batch of peanut butter cookies if the craving hits you.

These easy peanut butter cookies have just the right balance of sweet and salty. Rich in peanut butter flavor, with a cute cross-hatch pattern. They’re soft, tender, with just the right amount of chewiness on the inside, while they're crunchy on the outside.

To make it, you need your basic baking pantry staples such as flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder and peanut butter. Mix the batter and bake—it’s as easy as that. After you’ve made them once, you’ll see why they’re the best!

Peanut Butter Cookie Origins

In an effort to promote peanut crops in the early 1900s, George Washington Carver (from Alabama's Tuskegee Institute) created a peanut cookbook that featured a peanut butter cookie recipe.

Peanut Butter Cookie Ingredients

Flour – all-purpose flour.

Peanut butter – smooth, natural peanut butter.

Butter – salted or unsalted at room temperature.

Sugars – granulated and light brown sugar.

What Is The Best Peanut Butter To Use? 

Use smooth, natural peanut butter for best results. You can choose a smooth or a crunchy one if you like a few peanut pieces in your cookie.

How To Make Peanut Butter Cookies From Scratch

Start by sifting the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. In another bowl, beat together the butter and peanut butter. Add the sugars to this mixture and whisk again. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.

Add the flour to this mixture and beat until it resembles coarse crumbs. Use a spatula to stir the dough until it’s smooth. Scoop spoonsful of the dough and roll it to form a ball.

Use a fork to make a crisscross pattern on each cookie. Unlike other cookies that spread in the oven, the dough for peanut butter cookies is quite dense. By flattening them with a fork first by making a hash mark, you ensure that they cook evenly. Bake until golden and cooked through.

Can You Make 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies?

Yes! You can make this recipe even easier. For 3-ingredient peanut butter cookies, you simply mix together 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of peanut butter, and one egg. Make balls of dough, and press them down using a fork. Bake for 10 minutes until golden and cooked through.

Can You Make Peanut Butter Cookie Ahead Of Time?

Peanut butter cookies are great for making ahead of time. Leave the freshly baked cookies to cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

Tips For The Best Peanut Butter Cookies

If you find that your cookies aren’t tasting like peanut butter, you’re probably using the wrong peanut butter brand. Use a brand with minimal to no additives, like Jif or Skippy.

If your peanut butter cookies are too hard, you’ve baked them for too long. Check to make sure they don’t overbake.

It’s important to leave the cookies to cool completely after they come out of the oven. If you store them without cooling them properly, they will steam, leaving you with a soggy cookie.

Easy Peanut Butter Cookie Variations

Leave out the egg, and make the cookies vegan by replacing the egg with 1 tbsp cornstarch mixed in 1 tbsp water.

Add chocolate chips (white or bittersweet) to make them chocolatey.

You can use granulated sugar instead of brown sugar, but brown sugar does add more flavor.

For keto peanut butter cookies, you simply mix together 1 cup of Swerve or monk fruit sweetener, 1 cup of peanut butter, and one egg. Make balls of dough, and press them down using a fork. Bake for 10 minutes until golden and cooked through.

How To Store Peanut Butter Cookies

Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to a week.

Can You Freeze Peanut Butter Cookies?

Peanut butter cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months. Be sure to keep them in a sealable freezer-safe bag.

Instructions

Mix flour with baking powder and salt.

Mix butter and peanut butter in a bowl.

Add the sugar and brown sugar and mix again.

Add the egg, vanilla extract and mix again.

Add the flour mixture.

Mix until you get a dough.

Make small balls of 40 g each and place them on a baking sheet.

Use a fork to make a pattern on each one.

Bake for 10 minutes at 180ºC/356ºF. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

The cookies will be very soft when they come out of the oven, so don’t handle them too much before they cool down, as this will cause them to bend.