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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Love these cookies,I make them with Splenda Brown sugar blend. My husband and I are both diabetic and using this sugar substitute was wonderful
To much sugar.. cookies are too sweet.
Not happy with these cookies. I was so looking forward to a delicious PEANUT BUTTER soft chewy cookie-this is NOT it. Not enough peanut butter and texture is off. Been cooking cookies for almost 40 years now and this was a huge disappointment.
I have not made these yet, but in reading several of the comments I was wondering if increasing the amount of peanut butter would change the outcome drastically other than helping to increase the peanut butter taste, 1/4 cup of peanut butter is not very much and only half as much as the amount of sugar. I am thinking of doubling the amount of peanut butter to 1/2 cup. Do you think this would work and still keep the integrity of the cookie and its texture, etc. After all, at least to me, the purpose of having a peanut butter cookie or anything else is to be able to really taste the peanut butter. Thank you for any assistance and advice you can give me.
Also, to me, richness has nothing to do with the taste of peanut butter. Richness is a totally different concept unrelated to flavor.
do u think this would be good 4 a birthday present?
I think so! I love homemade cookies for a birthday present. In fact, once I got a cookie cake (basically many cookies piled up together on a platter as a very pretty pyramid) as a birthday present and LOVED IT!
Hi Julia. These cookies look like just the ticket for my son’s lacrosse party this Sunday. One problem – all I have on hand (for some mysterious reason) is a few jars of natural, unsweetened & unsalted peanut butter.
How might I compensate in the dough for the missing sugar and salt? I have no clue how much of each to add without over or underdoing it. Help!
I look forward to hearing your thoughts, Julia.
Cheers
I wouldn’t add any extra sugar. I would add 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Enjoy the cookies!
Do you use light brown sugar or dark brown surface? Is there a difference ??
I used light brown sugar but I don’t think it makes any difference. You can use either.
I notice when i use dark brown sugar in cookie recipes it does slightly change the color, texture and sweetness. However I actually prefer it now to light.
I like them both!
These were delicious! They’re easy and quick to make and the texture is amazing, my eight year old Emily just loves peanut butter cookies but the peanut is always too overwhelming, these had the perfect amount so she absolutely loved them!❤️
So happy to read comments like yours! So glad you enjoyed this recipe! That’s exactly what I like about it – it’s not overwhelming with the peanut butter flavor.
These are yummy! I doubled the amount of peanut butter and rolled them in chocolate sprinkles instead!
Lovely texture.
So glad you enjoyed these cookies!
There just wasn’t a lot of peanut butter taste which was disappointing. I followed the recipe and aerated the flour but they ended up just not being very sweet or full of peanut butter flavor.