These easy Peanut Butter Cookies come together in just one bowl with simple ingredients! They’re soft and chewy and freezer friendly!
Table of Contents
I shared this recipe first on Spend With Pennies.
I don’t know about you, but around here we love peanut butter.
We love it in our oatmeal, on our toast, in our desserts (any and all of them, please!), our Banana Cream Pie, and these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.
But these easy Peanut Butter Cookies?
They’re some of our favorites.
These cookies are so easy to throw together, and you can mix them up in a variety of different ways to make them more exciting (but really, who needs to detract from that glorious peanut butter?!)
How to make easy Peanut Butter Cookies:
- Combine your butters: cream your butter and peanut butter together until smooth.
- Add your sugars: be sure you whip your sugar in until it’s light and fluffy! It will become noticeably lighter in color and texture.
- Beat in your eggs and vanilla — just until smooth and combined.
- Add your dry ingredients — Don’t pack your flour in the cup! Be sure to fluff and level your flour to avoid dry, crumbly cookies! Mix until the dough comes together.
- Bake — but don’t overbake! Overbaked cookies are dry and hard and not soft and chewy like they should be. Make sure you bake until they appear just set, even a little glossiness in the center is okay. They will continue setting up on the hot pan out of the oven. I find 9 minutes is perfect for 1″ dough balls.
Variations on these Peanut Butter Cookies:
- Can’t resist the urge to add chocolate to peanut butter? How about a chocolate drizzle! Simply melt some chocolate carefully, then pour it into a ziploc bag, snip the end and drizzle over cooled cookies.
- Stir in some chopped peanuts for a double whammy peanut butter cookie.
- Add some chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, M&Ms (oh my word, how amazing would those be??), or butterscotch chips for a new spin your family will go crazy for!
How to store peanut butter cookies:
There are two ways to store these peanut butter cookies if you happen to have leftovers that last beyond the first couple hours on the counter 😉
- Room temperature: You can store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4-6 days (they will last past that point, they just won’t be as good). The only problem with storing them at room temperature is you know they’re not going to last long! The freezer is a much safer option 😉
- In the freezer: these cookies can be frozen in an airtight container or freezer bag up to 3 months. This means you always have something delicious on hand if surprise guests drop in or you need an after school snack!
Tools you’ll need to make this easy cookie recipe:
I promise, you don’t need much! Here’s what I use to make this recipe the best it can be:
- A mixer: cookie dough is a tough thing to mix by hand! I use either my KitchenAid hand mixer or KitchenAid stand mixer (what can I say, I’m loyal!) — it makes the dough come together so quickly and easily!
- Good baking sheets: dark non stick baking sheets will make your cookies brown faster, so I like to use a light or medium colored baking sheet — you can choose what you like depending on how brown you like your cookies to be on the bottom.
- Parchment sheets: Once I started using parchment paper for cookies I never went back. There’s no worrying about sticking, no scrubbing pans, and – bonus! – you can reuse parchment paper for all the cookies. Just brush it off, fold it up and stash it in a cupboard for next time.
Easy Peanut Butter Cookies
written by Ashley Fehr
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter 240g — not natural
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup sugar 200g
- 1 cup brown sugar 205g packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour 390g
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer (a paddle attachment on a stand mixer works best for this recipe), beat peanut butter and butter until smooth.
- Add sugars and beat on high speed until light and fluffy – 2-3 minutes.
- Add eggs and vanilla and beat on low speed until combined.
- Add flour (fluffed and levelled!), baking soda and salt and beat on low speed just until cookie dough comes together.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll into 1″ balls and place 2″ apart on baking sheets.
- Press down slightly with fork.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, just until set (a slight glossy sheen in the very center is okay). Remove and let cool on baking sheets before moving to an air tight container to store.
Nutrition Information
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Michelle says
This recipe needs way more peanut butter to be considered a peanut butter cookie. My first batch and I could barely tell that this was PB cookie. Ended up adding an additional 3/4 cup.
Ashley Fehr says
Everyone has their own tastes 🙂
Kemberlee says
Can you substitute oil or lard for the butter and have a similar result? I don’t feel like running to the store for butter. Lol
Ashley Fehr says
Understandable! I haven’t tried any other way unfortunately. Margarine would be my next choice, or maybe a combination of oil and lard?
Danielle says
Just wondering if I could substitute some of the butter for more peanut butter to get a more peanut butter flavour?
Ashley Fehr says
Hi Danielle! I wouldn’t swap it 1 for 1 as peanut butter actually dries out baked goods, so increasing the peanut butter and reducing the butter would result in crumbly cookies. You could likely increase the peanut butter somewhat without reducing the butter, or only reduce the butter a little.
Linda Woodring says
I was VERY unhappy with this recipe. Very dry. Way too much flour or needs another egg.
Compared it to my mothers recipe of old and has double the flour with only a 1/4 cup increase in the butters.
Hard dough to work with.
Ashley Fehr says
Hi Linda! I’m sorry you feel that way. I would encourage you to fluff and weigh your flour as I think you will have different results. The cookies definitely are not dry!
Lacy says
These were wonderful! If you’re going to freeze the DOUGH, how long do you allow for thawing to make your next batch of delicious cookies? Thanks!!
Ashley Fehr says
Hi Lacy! I think I would probably scoop out the cookies and freeze as balls, then you could put them right in the oven!
SouthernGal820 says
My favorite peanut butter cookie recipe. I have used this recipe twice, once with Skippy creamy and once with JIF creamy…the JIF one is much better. They come out a little dry with Skippy, perfect with JIF. The thing I love about this recipe is you don’t have to refrigerate the dough, you can just mix and make. I also vary my cooking times so we have some more chewy, some a little more crunchy around the edges and I do some with Ghirardelli white chocolate chips.
Ashley Fehr says
I’m so glad you liked them!
S.B. says
This is not only the easiest but hands down the most moist and chewy peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made, and not over sweetened.❤️
Ashley Fehr says
I’m so glad you liked them!
Linda says
This is my new go to peanut butter cookie recipe.My family loved them! Did half regular and half with white chips.
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Linda!
Paige says
My new favorite cookie! My husband and I made these today and added just a few chocolate chips to 1/2 the recipe and made the rest plain. So good. We baked at 350 for 12 minutes. Golden brown on the bottom and chewy in the middle. We let cool on the cookie sheet as you suggest and I think that is key! Thank you for this recipe!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Paige! I’m so happy to hear that!
Cyn says
Has anyone refrigerated dough over night and baked next day?
Ashley Fehr says
I don’t usually. You could, I would just let it warm slightly or they will be quite thick.
Sheila says
Has anyone tried using this recipe and putting hershey kisses in the middle instead of flattening?
Ashley Fehr says
I haven’t but I think that would work great!
Cristina Warren says
I was a little bit concerned because the dough seemed so fluffy…not like a normal cookie dough. But WOW! Super good and they turned out perfectly! Thanks for the recipe. 😁
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Cristina!
Jess says
I made these using natural peanut butter and they turned out perfectly. I just let the peanut butter and butter mix for an extra little bit to make sure it was fully incorporated! I’m a chocolate and peanut butter fanatic so I dipped the bottoms in melted chocolate and they are sooo delicious ❤️ Highly recommend!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks for sharing Jess!
Lizz says
We tried making these and they taste great except we have no idea what we did wrong – we cook for about 8 minutes and then it was almost like the cookies had an outer shell with liquid PB in the middle?????? Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen
Ashley Fehr says
Hi Lizz! I’ve actually never heard of that happening. Did you use natural peanut butter by any chance? It tends to separate.
Deanna says
I don’t have unsalted butter how bad would it be to use margarine?
Ashley Fehr says
You could use margarine! They might just be a little thinner and spread a little more
Elizabeth says
I also added PB2 powder (about 2 Tbs) and it didn’t make the cookie batter too dry or crumbly. They turned out soft and chewy with extra peanut butter flavor!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks for sharing Elizabeth!
Todd D Baxter says
I am making these for the second time. My wife loves them. They don’t last long. I did try them with chunky peanut butter and they were awesome. Thank you for the recipe!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Todd! I’m glad to hear that!
Madilyn says
Do they make 27 or do they make less??
Erin says
I made these a week ago for my peanut butter loving husband, and although we are them quickly, he craved more peanut butter. So, I used this recipe as a base, then added peanut butter chips, and instead of flattening the cookie, left them as balls to bake! This kicked it up just the amount we needed!! Thanks so much for sharing your recipe! It is awesome!
Ashley Fehr says
I love the addition of peanut butter chips!
Haylee Callow says
Easy and delicious. Best cookies I’ve had by far. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Haylee!