These easy peanut butter cookies have an amazing brownie-like texture: both chewy and soft. The peanut butter flavor is perfectly balanced without being overpowering.
These are truly the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever tried! It’s not only my opinion – everybody around me loves them too and asks for a recipe! I’ve posted about these cookies last year, and here I am writing about them again!
There is just the right amount of peanut butter in these easy peanut butter cookies: not too much and not too little. You can use a regular peanut butter, such as JiF, and you can use natural one too. You can use regular crunchy one and natural crunchy peanut butter. I’ve tried them all, and the recipe works well! If you use natural peanut butter, the cookie will come out just a little bit dryer but the difference is really hardly noticable, if you make sure to sift or aerate your flour (see the note below, under recipe instructions) – it’s very important not to overpack the flour in a measuring cup so that the cookie does not come out dry!
You can definitely taste a peanut butter in this cookie, and yet it’s not like you’re eating overly rich peanut butter cookies. That’s how I like peanut butter cookies, which is why this is the best peanut butter cookie recipe for me!
The seemingly unimportant step of rolling these cookies in granulated sugar right before putting them in the oven is the reason why these cookies look so pretty (almost like sugar cookies), why they are light in color and have beautiful cracks on top. Coating these peanut butter cookies in sugar before baking serves two purposes: 1) The cookies acquire lighter, much more attractive color when sugar coated. If you don’t roll these cookies in sugar, they will come out much darker, almost looking like dark peanut butter. Rolled in sugar, the peanut butte cookies come out looking like sugar cookies! 2) Rolling cookies in sugar gives them a nice soft crunch on the outside of the cookie.
For cookies to have that nicely rounded, puffed up shape, roll them in balls between the palms of your hands and then roll each cookie ball in sugar. If the peanut butter cookie dough is too soft for you to work with, let it chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before rolling.
The result are some of the best peanut butter cookies you’ll ever make! Amazingly yummy cookies that are popular with kids and adults alike! They have a moist, almost brownie-like texture and only get better as the days pass by. Keep them in air-tight container and they will last you for up to 2 weeks – that is, if you’re disciplined enough not to eat them all the first day!
These easy peanut butter cookies have a perfect brownie-like texture: both chewy and soft at the same time. They are not overly rich peanut butter cookies - just perfectly balanced. These are some of the best peanut butter cookies you'll ever make!
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter (can use natural one too)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature (not melted - just let the butter from refrigerator sit on the counter for about an hour or so)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour sifted or aerated (see important note below!)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar for coating
- The proper way to measure flour using measuring cups is to aerate it first. This is done either by sifting flour or aerating it by fluffing it up and whisking it well, then spooning it into the measuring cup, then carefully removing any excess flour with a knife. If you just stick that measuring cup in the bag of flour and scoop some out, you will get a lot more flour than what the recipe calls for. Do aerate the flour, or you will end up with dry dough!
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Using an electric mixer, cream peanut butter and butter in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add an egg and vanilla, and continue beating until creamy.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder. Gradually add dry ingredients from step 2 to wet ingredients in step 1, beating on low speed.
- Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or lightly greased aluminum foil. Place granulated sugar on a plate. Roll spoonfuls of cookie dough into balls, rolling each ball between your hands. Roll balls in sugar to coat them completely.
- Place cookie balls 2 inches apart on a prepared baking sheet. Bake until cookies begin to puff up slightly, about 12 minutes, until cookies just brown around the edges and crackle on top. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool at least 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring cookies to rack to cool completely.
Recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart.
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Is there anyway to make this Vegan?
Can you put peanut butter chips in them
Yes, you can.
It was absolutely the best peanut butter cookies ever! Now I am making this again and I wonder if I could replace to white sugar instead of brown sugar since I am out of it.
Thank you, Jennifer! So glad you liked the cookies. You can use white sugar instead of brown sugar if you don’t have it. It might change the texture of the cookie, but the recipe will still work!
I am making these for a fundraising my son is doing
Enjoy!
I thought these were delicious. I like how there isn’t a ton of sugar and flour!
Thank you! That’s what I like about these cookies too. 🙂 Just a balanced cookie.
Yeah…… they would have come out much better if i chilled dough in refrigerator first. Whoops. My cookies would not roll into balls, they were sticking all over my fingers. Definitely not A baker like my mother lol. Even my husband said i should of put in refrigerator:)
came out really good even though they were misshapen
I am glad you enjoyed them!
Yes, putting the cookie dough in the refrigerator to chill is a good idea for shaping the cookies. Also, in the recipe you’re supposed to use room temperature butter (not melted!) – that should also help to roll the cookies into balls.
These aren’t super peanut-buttery, so if you’re a peanut butter-phile and just want peanut butter taste, then these probably aren’t what you are looking for. But the texture is to DIE for. Absolutely perfect. And the peanut butter flavor is light enough to make them very versatile, so the recipe could be dressed up in a lot of different ways. I am writing this on a trusty 3×5 card as my new go-to base cookie recipe.
Thank you, Wendy! So glad you found the recipe helpful. You’re right, these are not overly rich peanut butter cookies – you can definitely taste peanut butter, but it’s a lighter flavor, which is how I like my peanut butter cookies. 🙂
These look absolutely awesome… picture perfect I would say! I’m pinning to make later in the week.
Thanks for sharing and love your blog!
Not my favorite. I prefer a more peanut butter taste. I did like the texture as some pb cookies are dry. Maybe adding some chocolate chips or something would help. I thought they needed a little salt, as well.
I followed this recipe to the letter and I was very disappointed in the lack of taste of any one flavor. There is virtually no peanut butter taste at all.
her blog stated that they would be overly peanut buttery
You can definitely taste a peanut butter in these cookie, but they are not overly rich peanut butter cookies.