Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

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!

4.94 from 32 votes

Print

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

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!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 18 cookies

Calories: 83 kcal

Ingredients

• 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

Instructions

Important note about properly measuring flour using measuring cups:

1. 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!
   

How to make peanut butter cookies:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 Notes

Recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart.

Follow Julia on Pinterest and Facebook to get more recipes and dinner ideas for your weekly meal planning!

Nutrition Facts

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

Amount Per Serving

Calories 83 Calories from Fat 27

% Daily Value*

Fat 3g5%

Saturated Fat 1g6%

Cholesterol 12mg4%

Sodium 22mg1%

Potassium 51mg1%

Carbohydrates 12g4%

Sugar 7g8%

Protein 1g2%

Vitamin A 50IU1%

Calcium 14mg1%

Iron 0.4mg2%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.