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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!
Easy Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- ¼ 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)
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour sifted or aerated (see important note below!)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar for coating
Instructions
Important note about properly measuring flour using measuring cups:
- 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:
- 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.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Hi! I was just wondering if you could tell me if when converting recipes into a gluten free version, if I should change the amount of flour used and if so is there a formula you use?
Scrumptious! Made a batch yesterday afternoon, and they are so good, am prepping another batch right now to take visiting with me!
Hi! I made these per the directions and it says roll them into a ball, but it was to wet to roll...I followed the directions perfectly...don't know what happened...I figured there wasn't enough flour but the recipe said 3/4 sifted and spooned into the measuring cup and that's what I did...any suggestions?
Followed all your directions to a T and they turned out exactly like you said!!! Mine look just like the pictures. I've tried a lot of peanut butter cookies and these are the best!!! Thanks for sharing you recipe.
Perfect recipe! I love that there is not too much butter used. The batter made 15 cookies and they baked in exactly 10-12 minutes. They are very peanut-buttery! This recipe is a keeper!
These. Are. Amazing! I followed recipe with precision and they turned out just as described and pictured. I despise dry, crumbly cookies. These were a far cry from that. Perfectly chewy, soft, and delicious. Thank you for sharing this decadent recipe!
Ummmm, there's no rolling these into balls with your hands. I did EVERYTHING EXACTLY as directed and this dough is too goopy to roll with your hands. So, I just dropped spoonfuls onto the lightly greased aluminum foil covered cookie sheet and baked them as directed. THEN I sprinkled them with the granulated sugar after they cooled for 5 minutes. We ate them warm. They were soft and very tasty. My son and I did actually like them. Betty Crocker I am not, but I thought I'd give it my best shot. (I'm obviously a MUCH better poet. LOL)
Sadly disappointed in this recipe. They do not have a rich peanut butter flavor. Beautiful when baked, tasteless when eaten. I will return to my old recipe.
i couldn't wait To make these. Made a batch and sad to say I felt they were missing something. Not enough flavor, But did love the texture!
I made these twice- the first time they came out great. They were really soft both times but they held their shape and were soft and chewy the first time I made them. I did have to refrigerate them because they were too soft to roll right away. This time I don't think I refrigerated them long enough because they flattened in a minute in the oven. Rolling them became tossing them gently between my cupped palms and nudging them around in sugar. My butter was not melted- in fact when I started mixing I noticed it was clumpy, a sure sign that it wasn't soft enough. I wonder what I did wrong this time.
Hi... Can I use coconut oil instead of butter?
love this recipe! I made these tonight with almond butter and 1/4 c. of pure maple syrup (I was out of brown sugar) and they were delicious!!! couldn't taste the syrup at all.
let me start by saying, i hate baking... too many measurements, too many ingredients needed at hand.. i just dont have the patience for it. anyhow, i know my husband likes anything peanut butter so i wanted to surprise him by baking my first batch of cookies. dropped by whole foods and bought my first baking powder (got confused with baking soda and powder, ended up getting powder. heehee^^* googled easy peanut butter cookies and here i am! i love that these are super easy, super simple! followed directions and made them and i cant believe they look exactly the same as yours. thanks for making me and my hubby a fan, he loves them and so do i (we finished them in one sitting).