Classic Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe - Top Recipes (2024)

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Calling all peanut butter cookie lovers! This recipe is for you. Imagine a cookie, soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside, that melts in your mouth while you’re eating it.

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This peanut butter cookie recipe will always be the only recipe you’ll use. These cookies, which you can prepare very easily with few ingredients and will be ready to eat in just 8 minutes, will become your new favorite.

Ingredients you’ll need:

You can make these easy peanut butter cookies in minutes with very simple ingredients that we all have at home.

  • Peanut Butter: It is the indispensable ingredient of peanut butter cookies. I used JIF’s creamy peanut butter in this recipe.
  • Butter: I prefer to use unsalted butter. Remember to pay attention to the amount of fat, as peanut butter is also high in fat. Make sure the butter is at room temperature but not melted.
  • Brown Sugar: I used brown sugar to make the inside of the cookie fluffy and chewy.
  • Flour: I used all-purpose flour for this recipe. The amount of flour is important for making the best peanut butter cookies.
  • Egg: It will help hold your dough and add softness. Make sure it is at room temperature.
  • Milk: Makes for a soft-textured cookie.
  • Baking soda: It will help your cookies to rise and they will be chewy.
  • Salt: Every recipe needs salt. This will enhance the flavor of the cookies.

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How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies From Scratch?

As I mentioned before, preparing this old-fashioned, easy, and best-ever cookie recipe will only take you a few minutes. Just follow these easy steps:

  1. Preheat your oven to 375 F (190 C). Place the butter, peanut butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl, and with the help of a handheld or stand mixer, mix everything until well combined.
  2. Add the egg and continue mixing. Then, add flour, salt, and baking soda and continue beating at low speed just until combined.
  3. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop dough balls and roll them in the palm of your hand. Arrange them evenly on the baking tray. Crisscross the top with a fork and bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes.
  4. Take them out of the oven and let them cool down for 2 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool down completely.

What Kind of Peanut Butter Should I Use?

Which peanut butter you use for making this recipe depends on your preference, but of course, the result will also differ.

I preferred to use JIF’s Creamy Peanut Butter for a smoother and softer result. You can also use natural peanut butter, but it will have a slightly drier and crumbly texture. Also if using natural peanut butter, don’t forget to mix it before adding it to the dough.

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Tips For the Best Peanut Butter Cookies:

  • Do not overcook: Cookies can overcook easily and become dry and discolored, so keep an eye on them, Don’t forget that the cookies that come out of the oven continue to bake for a while, so it’s best to take them out of the oven when they are still slightly undercooked.
  • Do not overmix: As in every recipe, overmixing destroys the structure of the product, so be careful not to overmix your dough. It may become too soft because of the butter in it.
  • Measure the flour properly: If you want to get soft and chewy cookies, you should pay attention to the amount of flour. If you add too much flour, your cookies will not come together and will fall apart like crumbs. Even if you put less, you will have runny dough and you will have difficulty shaping them, and they will spread too much while baking. That’s why it’s important to measure your flour properly at this step.
  • Scoop the Dough: It is important that all cookies are baked evenly while baking. We don’t want one to cook more or less than the other. Here, I recommend you use the ice cream scoop to make all cookies the same size, which will help them bake evenly.
  • Chill the Dough: Many people say that the dough should not be refrigerated, but in my experience, I think keeping it in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes will help you work more easily with it and it will not spread much while baking. If you want large spread cookies, put them in the oven without keeping them in the fridge.

Can I Make The Dough In Advance?

These classic peanut butter cookies are very easy to prepare and your dough is ready in just 5 minutes. But if you want to prepare the dough in advance, you definitely can.

After preparing the dough, wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. take them out, shape them, press them with a fork and bake them.

Freeze Peanut Butter Cookies:

After cooking and cooling the peanut butter cookies, you can store them in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days in a sealed container. If you wish, you can freeze them for up to 2 months in an airtight container.

Place wax paper between each cookie for easy removal. When ready to serve, let them thaw and come to room temperature.

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Classic Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe

Yield: 20 Cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Rest time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 33 minutes

Calling all peanut butter cookie lovers! This recipe is for you. Imagine a cookie, soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside, that melts in your mouth while you’re eating it.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup Jif® Creamy Peanut Butter
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC).
  2. In a large mixing bowl, add the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla extract.

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  3. Mix them at medium speed with an electric mixer until well combined.

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  4. Add the egg and continue to mix until combined.

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  5. Combine the dry ingredients with the creamed mixture and mix at low speed. Just until everything is well incorporated.

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  6. Scoop the dough with an ice cream scoop and roll it in the palm of your hand. Arrange them evenly on the baking tray.

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  7. Crisscross the top of the cookies with a fork.

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  8. Bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes until the color starts to turn golden brown.

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  9. Let them cool for 2 minutes. Then, transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

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  10. ENJOY

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe - Top Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What are all the ingredients for peanut butter cookies? ›

Is it better to use butter or shortening in peanut butter cookies? ›

Yes, shortening yields chewier cookies than butter does, because butter contains water and shortening doesn't. But you can easily make up for butter's crisping tendencies by using crucial ingredient No. 3… Brown sugar instead of white sugar.

What is the best peanut butter for baking cookies? ›

Cook's Illustrated recommends baking peanut butter cookies with products from traditionally creamy brands like, you guessed it, Skippy or Jif. Such butters have smooth, consistent textures that easily combine with any cookie dough.

Why do you put fork marks on peanut butter cookies? ›

So it looks like that there are utilitarian reasons for the cross-hatching—to allow for even cooking—but it might have been passed along for nearly a hundred years for primarily aesthetic reasons, where the cross-hatching is more to identify the cookies as peanut butter ones, rather than to cook them well.

Why are my peanut butter cookies always hard? ›

If your peanut butter cookies are hard, you likely cooked them for too long. They should not be baked for more than 8 or 9 minutes.

Why do you smash peanut butter cookies? ›

It's been the “mark” of this classic treat for more than eighty years, and for good reason: by flattening this dense cookie dough, it ensures that each cookie bakes evenly.

What happens if I use butter instead of shortening in cookies? ›

Which One Should I Use in Cookies? Basically, cookies made with butter spread more and are flatter and crisper if baked long enough. However, they are more flavorful than cookies made with shortening. Cookies made with shortening bake up taller and are more tender, but aren't as flavorful.

Why do my peanut butter cookies not taste like peanut butter? ›

The most common mistake with peanut butter cookies is using the wrong type of peanut butter. The BEST peanut butter for today's cookies is a processed creamy peanut butter, preferably Jif or Skippy.

Why do peanut butter cookies not need flour? ›

As you can see, the peanut butter replaces the flour and butter. Why is this? Peanut butter is basically ground peanut flour mixed with peanut oils.

Should you refrigerate peanut butter cookie dough before baking? ›

Chill your cookie dough! The dough is extremely soft due to the creamy peanut butter, eggs, and butter and if it's not cold going into the oven, the cookies will spread all over your baking sheet. I chilled this cookie dough for 24 hours and my cookies were soft, thick perfection.

What happens if you don't flatten peanut butter cookies? ›

If you don't flatten the cookies first, then the fork does double duty – it performs both functions. One very subtle result of creating the pattern is that the little tips of dough bake up crisper than the rest of the cookie, giving you both a bit of additional texture and deeper taste where the dough is more baked.

Why are my peanut butter cookies crumbling and falling apart? ›

If you overmix the dough, the cookies will be dry and crumbly. The best way to fix this is to add more liquid to the dough. This can be done by adding milk, water, or even melted butter. You may also need to add more flour to the dough if it is too wet.

What are the ingredients in most peanut butter? ›

Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Contains 2% Or Less Of: Molasses, Fully Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (rapeseed And Soybean), Mono And Diglycerides, Salt.

What are the 4 main ingredient in baking cookies? ›

While there may be countless variations, each cookie at the core has four ingredients – butter, sugar, flour & eggs. The proportions of ingredients and the methods of mixing are what define our cookies. Dough spreads – Inside the hot oven, the butter starts to melt and the dough gradually starts to spread out.

What are the ingredients in Girl Scout peanut butter cookies? ›

INGREDIENTS: ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, VITAMIN B1 [THIAMIN MONONITRATE],VITAMIN B2 [RIBOFLAVIN], FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, WHOLE GRAIN OATS, SOYBEAN AND PALM OIL, PEANUT BUTTER (PEANUTS, HYDROGENATED PALM OIL), DEXTROSE, INVERT SUGAR, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF WHEY, SALT, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, ...

What are the ingredients in Lance peanut butter cookies? ›

Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Sugar, Peanut Butter (Roasted Peanuts), Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following: Soybean Oil, Palm Oil, Canola Oil), Dextrose, Corn Syrup, Salt, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Ammonium Bicarbonate), Soy ...

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