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 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?!)
Love thick and chewy cookies? Try The Best Snickerdoodle Recipe, these Monster Cookies, these Chai Cookies Recipe or my Grandma’s Sour Cream Sugar Cookies next!
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!
- For a fun twist, make these Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossoms instead.
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 š
- 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 š
- 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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Nicole says
I made these tonight and they just crumble š Can I fix the dough? Iām not sure what happened. I followed the directions exactly…
Ashley Fehr says
It sounds like too much flour was added, which is easily done if using volume measurements and not weight. I recommend scooping and lightly filling your measuring cups with flour when measuring using cups. I hope that helps!
Joe says
Made these yesterday and they came out completely awesome thank you so much for sharing will definitely be making them again
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Joe!
Kira Clemems says
Hello, im new to baking. Can this cookie dough be frozen?
Ashley Fehr says
Yes, it definitely can!
Melanie says
Why canāt you use natural peanut butter?
Ashley Fehr says
It is an entirely different product. You can always try, but I can’t guarantee results
Eranga says
Will it be ok to add some chopped peanuts into the dough?
Ashley Fehr says
Yes, definitely!
Eranga says
Thank you…
Elizabeth Villagomez says
Added some almonds and they came out super delicious!!!!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Elizabeth!
Ashley says
These were so soft and delicious. They tasted like store bought cookies from the bakery. Super simple and all in one bowl. The best peanut butter cookie recipe!!!
Ashley Fehr says
Thank you Ashley!
Ava says
These cookies were very delightful. Came out of the oven soft. I would Definitely make these cookies again as the hole family loves these! Would definitely recommend these cookies!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Ava! I’m so glad you liked them!
Irene says
Does anybody have a problem with the Crumbs when we were holding them in together they were very crummy?
Ashley Fehr says
They shouldn’t be crumby! It sounds like too much flour was added. I would be careful when measuring your flour, scooping it into the measuring cup and levelling it before adding to the cookie dough.
Irene says
Thanks, we think the same
Amanda G says
I had the same issue and I know I measured everything correctly ?
Ashley Fehr says
The way you measure one cup of flour will make all the difference here. If you are not weighing the flour, it should be fluffed and spooned into the cup and not scooped with the cup. The difference between the too will make the difference between soft cookies and crumbly cookies.
Sara says
These cookies were amazing! I bake pretty often and these were probably the best cookies I have every made! & so easy! I added another 1/4 cup of peanut butter and about 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips and they were FABULOUS! I made them about the size of a chips ahoy cookie and the dough made 72 cookies!
Ava says
Hi sara,
Just wondering if your cookies were crumbly when you went to role them into balls? Wondering if we did something wrong?
Ashley Fehr says
I love that! Thanks Sara for sharing your additions!
Kaye Reams says
Very good cookie. I added 1 cup of peanut butter chips to give them more of a peanut butter taste.. Also, when using my 1 3/8ā cookie scoop there was no need to roll into balls. I just flattened each scoop with a fork.
Kris says
These are hands down the best peanut butter cookies I have made. My hubby loves pb cookies but they are not my favorite, these I will eat. On a whim I added Caramel M&Ms and they are an amazing addition. Do yourself a favor and try it! Thanks for a keeper recipe!
Ashley Fehr says
I’m so glad to hear that Kris!
Cindy Adams says
We love the texture of these. We didnāt think they had much of a peanut butter taste so I am going to double the peanut butter next time. As soon as I take them out of the oven, I sprinkle in a little sugar. I will definitely keep this recipe, but will double the peanut butter. I doubled the batch and scooped one level Tablespoon per cookie. I get 92 cookies this way.
Shelley Arlen says
Put some chocolate chips in and added a couple minutes to cooking time (12 minutes) and they turned out wonderful and chewy. The cookies will almost fall apart after coming out of the oven, but I find if I let them stand on the cookie sheet a couple of minutes they are a lot easier to move to the wire racks. I also have to say that when using the scoop to put cookies on sheet, my scoops were a little more rounded or heaping than everyone elseās. This recipe with chocolate chips made 30 nice sized cookies. Yummy!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Shelley!
Elisabeth says
These cookies came out so good! My family enjoy them!! Will keep this recipe!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Elisabeth!
Ashley says
These are so easy and always delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Ashley!
Alli says
These are my kids favorite cookies. We make them all the time. Never can get enough, yum!
Ashley Fehr says
My kids love them too!
lauren kelly says
My favorite cookie! I added some mini chocolate chips and they were incredible!
Ashley Fehr says
That is a great idea!
Billy says
One of my favorite all time cookies. These are so amazing!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Billy! One of ours too!
Heidi says
My go-to recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies!
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Heidi!
Liz says
These were super easy to make and my family gobbled them up. Had to hide half the batch in the freezer!!!
Ashley Fehr says
I definitely do that too!