Soft, chewy, and packed with peanuty flavour, these are the BEST PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES you’ll ever make!
Oh, how I LOVE a good-old, classic peanut butter cookie. A touch of crispiness when you bite into it but soft and chewy on the inside… Oh man, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Don’t get me wrong; I love a peanut butter cookie with a twist too, like my peanut butter maple cookies, but when I have a hankering for a traditional peanut butter cookie, this recipe is thee best.
Now, if you like a thin and crunchy cookie, this is not really the recipe for you. These cookies are the kind that your teeth sink slowly into, and the good news for soft cookie lovers is: these cookies stay soft. They won’t harden up in the cookie tin after a day or two.
Not that you’ll likely have to worry about that…. Would homemade cookies even last longer than a day or two at your house?
These became my favourites years ago when I lived in Ottawa.
My friend, Barb, and I did a lot of baking back then, and we always swapped our best recipes. She got this one from her sister (thanks, Robin!).
Once she’d shared this recipe with me, I never bothered with any other peanut butter cookie recipes because this one is so good (and easy!)
I’m pretty sure, if you give it a try, it will be the only one you use from now on too!.
Ok, let’s make some cookies!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup softened butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
How to make these Soft Peanut Butter Cookies:
To begin, grab a good-sized bowl. All of the ingredients will be mixed in this one bowl, so be sure it’s big enough.
Start by creaming together the butter and peanut butter. Stir it well with a wooden spoon until it’s smooth and blended.
Add eggs and vanilla to the butter/peanut butter mixture, and stir them in well.
Add sugars, and stir until well blended.
Add flour, baking soda and salt, sifting them as you add them to the bowl.
Give everything a good stir until all of the ingredients are incorporated and you have a beautiful, peanut-buttery dough sitting in front of you.
To form your cookies, you’re going to roll the dough into balls. I make mine slightly smaller than a donut hole. Set these peanut butter balls on a baking sheet or baking stone, leaving about 2 inches between them.
The cookies themselves don’t spread much while they’re baking, but you’re going to flatten them first so you need a bit of room between them.
With a fork, gently press a criss-cross pattern into each dough ball to flatten it.
If you find your fork sticks to the dough, you can dip it in a bit of flour or sugar whenever it gets sticky.
See? Now that I’ve flattened the peanut butter balls into cookies, they’re only about an inch apart on my stone.
Now pop your cookies into the oven. You’ll want your oven set to 350ºF. The cookies will bake for 10-12 minutes.
When your cookies are done (they’ll be just starting to brown), remove them from the oven, and let them cool on the baking sheet/stone for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
When your cookies have cooled, transfer them to an air tight container.
When I’m storing any kind of cookie, I usually leave the lid slightly askew for the first day or so to ensure the cookies are covered, but that there’s not too much moisture in the container.
Mmmmm! Now, pour a glass of ice cold milk, or a steaming mug of coffee, and enjoy!
Best Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1 cup softened butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, with wooden spoon, cream together peanut butter and butter.
- Add eggs and vanilla and stir together until well-blended.
- Add sugars and stir well.
- Sift in flour, baking soda and salt and stir together until completely incorporated into the dough.
- Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on baking sheet or baking stone.
- With a fork, flatten slightly, making a criss-cross pattern on top of cookie. If fork sticks to dough, dip it in flour or sugar.
- Bake at 350ºF for 10-12 minutes.
- Remove from oven, and let sit for a few minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
- Store in air-tight container.
Nutrition
More of our best cookie recipes:
- Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Chip Cookies
- White Chip and Cranberry Cookies
- Big, Soft Ginger Cookies
- Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Rice Krispy Cookies
- Giant Chocolate Chip Pizza Cookie
Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
Sarah
These were great. I chopped up some honey roasted peanuts and mixed them in the dough. I always use golden yellow sugar but I’d like to try these with dark brown because a little molasses can be a nice touch to peanut butter cookies. My only suggestion is maybe include the yield in the recipe. Not that I’m complaining about having 54 delicious cookies to show off to my friends.
amanda
love these – put 1/2 cup less white sugar and turned out great.
Also use real natural peanut butter – yum!
Melpomeni Varahidis
Is the peanut butter: salted? sweetened? if I used roasted peanut butter, will it make a difference?
happyhooligans
I just use regular peanut butter, Varahidis, so I imagine it would be salted.
Jacquie
I did exactly on the reciper and they are coming apart so l melted two tbsp of butter so l was able to make a ball so they don’t come apart but know coming out of the oven l have to wait not to touch them they are coming apart so l don’t know what l did wrong l made them on Saturday and they were very nice tell me what l did wrong. Thank you
happyhooligans
Hi Jacquie, sorry you’re having troubles. If you made them Saturday and they turned out as they should, but they’re not this time, I really don’t know what might be causing the problem. My best guess is that you may have mis-measured something this time around?
jannice
I just made these cookies, and they’re a hit!!, I only added 1/2 cup of each sugar, and only 2 cups of flour, and they’re soo soft, and delicious, thanks for the recipe!
Julie
Loved these! Made them exactly as recipe said and they are delicious! Perfect combo of crisp on outside and chewy on the inside!
Jackie Currie
Oh great! So glad you love them!
Bonny
These cookies were so good . I only baked them for 11minutes .
Twyla Murray
I made these yesterday ( March 16th ) but , when they cooled right down , there was hardly any peanut butter taste and they went hard . Not sure what I did wrong cause I followed the recipe to the letter and Only cooked them for 10 minutes .
Jackie Currie
Sorry they didn’t turn out as they should, Twyla. Since you say there was hardly any peanut butter taste, I’m guessing you didn’t add the required amount of peanut butter. 1 cup of peanut butter is what the recipe calls for, and what most peanut butter recipes call for. Even Kraft’s own PB cookie recipe calls for that amount. If the amount of PB you added was less than what was called for, that could definitely result in your cookies going hard as well.
Aloy casey
These cookies are great! I am 10 and I used Adam’s dark roasted peanut butter instead of the normal one and it turned out great. I would totally recommend.
Jackie Currie
Woot! Way to go! I’m glad you love them! And so glad to hear that the Adam’s PB worked well. I love Adam’s PB!
Crystal Oicle
What did I do wrong? The cookies are tasty but they spread so much in the oven that you can’t see the fork marks!! They are so thin
Help!
Jackie Currie
Hmmm, they definitely shouldn’t have spread like that, but it’s hard for me to know where you went wrong. One of the most common reasons for cookies spreading too much is becuase the butter was melted instead of softened. Here are some other reasons cookies spread too much: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/tips-for-cookie-spreading/
Anna Kissenbeck
Hi
Can I freeze the cookies?
Thanks
Anna
Jackie Currie
I haven’t, but I think you can freeze just about any homemade cookie, so I’m assuming you could freeze these as well.
Trevor
Made these this morning, didn’t have any vanilla left so left it out. Absolutely the best peanut butter cookies ever. Going to try now with gluten free flour for the other half. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
Jackie Currie
Yay! I’m so glad you love them! Good luck with the gluten-free version!
Trevor
Made a second batch gluten free, turned out perfect but had to chill the dough as the consistency was thinner than with regular flour. Final results were excellent.
Jackie Currie
Hooray! I’m so glad they turned out!!
Nancy
How many cookies can be made with this recipe?
Tracy
Made these this afternoon and turned out very good. It’s a keeper! Thank you for sharing this.
Bev
Favorite pb cookies.:)