Incredibly thick and soft cookies loaded with peanut butter and rolled in sugar. My absolute favorite go-to recipe!
Peanut butter cookies. While my love for peanut butter doesn’t run very deep, I am completely obsessed with peanut butter cookies! Not just any peanut butter cookies though, I love mine soft and thick, no flat, crispy, pancake-y nonsense here. If that’s what you’re into, these are definitely not for you. These cookies are one of the many peanut butter things requested by Mike {some of his favorites are these bars or his birthday cake last year}, they’re his absolute favorite, and I realized this weekend that I have never shared my recipe with you guys! I don’t know how that happened because I make these ALL the time! They’re my go-to recipe when we need a peanut butter fix and I know you’ll love them!
These cookies are so versatile, you can stuff any thing you want into them, leave them plain, or roll them in sugar like I have pictured here. Other great options are: M&M’s, chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, peanut butter cups or make peanut butter blossoms out of them with candy kisses. If you decide to make peanut butter blossoms (ya know, with a chocolate candy kiss on top), just bake these cookies and the second they come out of the oven, press the candy kiss on top. My favorite way to eat these is with chocolate chunks pressed into the top after baking – mmm! Though, I decided to make them plain – just rolled in sugar – for you guys just so you can see how amazingly thick and plump they are without anything in them!
I mean, just LOOK at those soft centers! Can you even stand it?!
If you are looking for a go-to peanut butter cookie recipe for your recipe archives for whenever you need a peanut butter fix, because surprisingly I even get those sometimes, look no further, these are it! They’re the most perfect peanut butter cookies EVER. End of story.
Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted half way
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
- Cream butter and brown sugar together until smooth with no lumps. Beat in the egg,vanilla and peanut butter until completely combined. Pour in flour and baking soda and mix until just incorporated without over-mixing. Dough will be very soft and sticky. Chill dough for at least 15 minutes.
- Measure granulated sugar into a small bowl and set aside. Roll 1" rounded tablespoons of dough, roll in sugar and place about 1" apart on prepared baking sheet (they don't spread much). Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes. Allow to cool for only 5 minutes on baking sheet and then move them to a wire rack to finish.
- These perfect peanut butter cookies will stay soft and fresh for up to 6 days stored in an airtight container.
Could you use dark brown sugar instead of light?
Yes!
I have made this recipe several times. These are by far my favorite cookies!!
I made these these cookies for my peanut butter loving husband and children, pb has never been a personal favorite of mine, and I ended up loving them. I also had cookies that were not cooked at eight minutes, so I extended the time to ten minutes. After letting them cool in the pan for a while (longer than five minutes) and then in onacooking rack, the center eventually set. I wonder if higher elevation could be a contributing factor for myself and other’s who found the center gooey. I am tempted to add a tablespoon or two of flour to see if that helps, but I don’t want to mess with a good thing, because once these cookies set, they were delicious. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
I made these last night. I added Resee’s peanut butter chips and skipped rolling them in sugar. OMG They really were the perfect peanut butter cookie! Thank you for sharing the recipe
Ahh, yum! Thanks Janice, I’m glad you enjoyed them!
I just made these, used a scoop to ensure my cookies were of uniform size. Baked at 350 for 7 minutes they are amazing! I already baked 20 cookies and still have quite a bit of dough left, so I’m going to get a yield greater than the 24-25 stated in the recipe.
I just made these and they are delicious! I did 1 cup peanut butter because I really love peanut butter. I also forgot to chill the dough – oops. They turned out perfectly – super soft texture.
I was just wondering if you used an electronic mixer or mixed by hand. I’m about to make these right now! 🙂
I usually use my stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment but you can totally just use a bowl and spoon! 🙂
These look incedible. Getting ready to make a batch. These would be even more delicious with Reese pieces mixed in . Yum
Yum! Sounds delicious. Sometimes I like to stuff them with reese’s cups.. 🙂
Hi Abby, you definitely cannot skip the butter. You’ll need it for this recipe. I’m sorry 🙁
Lovely cookies. I used vegan egg replacer, so they stayed in perfect ball shapes, which was actually kind of fun, but they turned out scrumptious despite not flattening even a tiny bit. I also used olive oil as the fat. I sprinkled them with pink salt because I realized after rolling them into balls that I used unsalted PB, and I’m all about that salt 😉 I may reduce the sugar by a couple tablespoons next time I make them because they were a *tad* too sweet sweet for me. Thank you for the recipe!! I cannot wait to make them again!
These PB cookies are a perfect 10! I’ve never left a recipe review in my life, but these are so deserving! I will forever use this recipe! I doubled the recipe, and still flawless! My goodness, so good!
Delicious! Five Star Rating
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks!!
– Jessica
My kids (2 and 4 years old) and I had a blast making these! Instead of regular peanut butter we used goober (pb and j mix) instead, added m and m’s, and blue and white sprinkles. They look like someone mixed confetti and mud but came out extremely good. Thank you so much for this recipe and a new family moment with my baby boys!
Awww, I love this! <3
- Jessica
I made the peanut butter cookies and it came out so good. I left in the oven for 10 min and it still came out moist.. Thank You if I need to make these cookies this is the recipe I would go for…
I didn’t have flour, used pancake mix instead and they were amazing texture !
Very interesting! Lol – glad they turned out!
Awful cookies. Save yourself time and simply warm up some peanut butter and add sugar, then use a spoon to eat sweet, warm peanut butter. That’s what these taste like. I advice first making a very small batch before spending too much time on this. Unless, you are a huge fan of peanut butter, these cookies are awful. If you like cookies with a subtle peanut butter taste, skip this recipe!!!
Hi Jessica, this recipe is just AWESOME! The soft, chewy texture is incredible and definitely addictive …
I’m sure the recipe would also work great with other flavors, such as Nutella – it could probably be substituted for the peanut butter 1:1 without any problems. But what I would really like to find is a recipe for a lemon cookie
with the same soft, chewy consistency. Any ideas? I can’t figure out what to use as a subsitute for the peanut butter.
I tried using cream cheese, but the texture didn’t even come close. 🙁 I’d love your advice!