Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
These soft peanut butter cookies are easy to make, full of peanut butter flavor, and don’t require any dough chilling. This is the best peanut butter cookie recipe you will ever try!
Over the years I’ve published hundreds of recipes on my site. It’s been my goal this summer to update some of those older recipes that I really love with more pictures and information to ensure that you can make them with ease.
So today I’m bringing back one of my favorite classic recipes on the blog – these delicious homemade peanut butter cookies!
Why You Will Love These Cookies
- They’re incredibly easy to make
- No dough chilling required
- Super soft
- Packed with peanut butter
I’m also sharing helpful tips on freezing your cookie dough, preparing the dough ahead of time, and so much more. If you love peanut butter, then this is one cookie recipe you’ll want to try!
Ingredients For This Recipe
To make this peanut butter cookie recipe, you’ll need 9 simple ingredients. Let’s break down each one and what it does in this recipe:
- All-Purpose Flour: The flour helps provide the structure for these cookies so that they hold their shape and don’t fall apart when you pick them up.
- Baking Soda & Salt: The baking soda provides a little lift and the salt enhances the flavors.
- Unsalted Butter: I recommend sticking with unsalted butter for this recipe if possible. Your butter should also be soft enough to press your finger into.
- Brown Sugar & Granulated Sugar: I prefer to use a mix of sugars, the brown sugar adds moisture to the dough and keeps the cookies soft.
- Peanut Butter: I like to use creamy peanut butter and recommend sticking with a no-stir option like Jif or Skippy.
- Egg & Vanilla Extract: The egg helps bind everything together and the vanilla adds flavor.
How To Make Peanut Butter Cookies
Once you have all of your ingredients, it’s time to prepare these peanut butter cookies. To start, you’ll want to preheat your oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a couple of large baking sheets with parchment paper. The parchment paper is completely optional here, but it will make for easier cleanup and I find that cookies just bake up better with it too.
Next, you’ll whisk together your flour, baking soda, salt, and set it aside. You’ll mix the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together for a minute or two until they’re well combined. Then, mix in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla extract. I suggest stopping to scrape down the sides of your bowl at this point and giving it another mix to ensure that the wet ingredients are well combined.
After you mix up the wet ingredients, you’ll add the dry ingredients and mix them in until just combined. Then, scoop the cookie dough, roll each ball in some granulated sugar, place them on the prepared baking sheets, and press each one down with the tines of a fork in a criss-cross pattern. The fork marks will help flatten the cookies some so that they spread as they bake in the oven.
Once the cookie dough is ready, simply bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are set. Let them cool for 5 to 10 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
FAQ’s
Can I use crunchy peanut butter in these cookies?
Yes, you can substitute the creamy peanut butter with the same amount of crunchy peanut butter.
How do I adjust the recipe if I only have salted butter on hand?
A good rule of thumb when replacing salted butter with unsalted butter in a recipe is to reduce the salt by 1/4 teaspoon per stick of butter. Since this recipe only uses 1/4 teaspoon of salt, I recommend still adding a tiny pinch of salt.
Can these cookies be frozen?
Yes, you can freeze these cookies! Once the cookies have cooled completely, you can store them in an airtight container or freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to enjoy them, simply place the cookies on the counter for a few hours so that they can come to room temperature.
If you want to freeze the cookie dough: Scoop the cookie dough with a cookie scoop, press each ball of dough down with a fork in a criss-cross pattern, and freeze the cookie dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for 1 to 2 hours. Once the cookie dough is frozen, freeze in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 3 months. You can bake the cookie dough from frozen for an additional 1 to 2 minutes.
Can I prepare the cookie dough ahead of time?
Yes! You may prepare the cookie dough ahead of time and refrigerate it for up to 3 days. If you need to prepare it further in advance, then I recommend freezing it.
Baking Tips
- It’s best to use a room temperature egg in this cookie dough. If you forget to let your egg come to room temperature, simply place it in a bowl of warm water for 5 to 10 minutes.
- I prefer to roll the cookie dough in some extra granulated sugar before baking, but this step is completely optional. Feel free to skip it if you prefer!
- Want to add chocolate? Add 1 cup of chocolate chips to the cookie dough or try my peanut butter chocolate chip cookies instead!
More Easy Peanut Butter Recipes To Try!
- Classic Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Peanut Butter Fudge
- Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies
- Peanut Butter Balls
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe Video
Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (190 grams) all purpose flour, spooned & leveled
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (115 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar packed
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (190 grams) creamy peanut butter
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons (40 grams) granulated sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together for 1 to 2 minutes or until well combined.
- Mix in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla extract until fully combined, making sure to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Place the 3 tablespoons (40 grams) of granulated sugar in a small bowl. Using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough, roll into a ball, and coat in the granulated sugar. Place each ball of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, making sure to leave a little room between each one. Gently press each one down with a fork to make a small criss-cross pattern.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes, then carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
they came out amazing, i 100% recommend using this recipe. they were so soft an chewy.
I absolutely love this recipe they turned out so well every time I’ve made them. What would you recommend for the amount of coco powder i should use if I would like to make chocolate peanut butter cookies?
So glad you love these cookies, Dylana! It’s hard to say without testing it myself. You could probably swap out some of the flour with cocoa powder, but you’d likely need to make some other adjustments to the recipe. I will add it to my list of recipes to work on though! In the meantime, I do have a chocolate cookie recipe here that you could add some peanut butter chips to.
Thank you. I will try that recipe with the peanut butter chip.
The cookie dough was so crumbly I had a very difficult working with it.. Before you asked yes I spooned and leveled my flour. Not a happy camper.
Sorry the cookies didn’t turn out well for you, Linda. The cookie dough shouldn’t have been crumbly, it should have come together pretty easily. Did you make sure to use one stick of butter and a large egg? And did you use the correct amount of peanut butter as well?
Delicious. I’m not usually a fan of peanut butter cookies but these were great.
I MADE THESE AND THEY ARE REALLY GOOD AND MELT IN YOUR MOUTH. THE ONLY THING I DID DIFFERENT WAS ADDED A WHOLE CUP OF PEANUT BUTTER INSTEAD OF 3/4
They ate tasty but not enough of a peanut butter taste. I used Jif as suggested.
I’ve made these twice. The first time they were amazing the second time, they were hard & crunchy. I think I overworked the do because I mixed them in the stand mixer. Do not overwork the dough!!
Hi Danielle! I was wondering how many recipes you have for cookies? I also loved this recipe but I mistook 177 degrees Celsius as Fahrenheit. It was my mistake but I would still love to know how many recipes you have and if you live in Europe.
Thanks, Amy.
Hi, Amy! I have about 60 cookie recipes on my site, you can find them all here. I live in the US, but share metric measurements (and Celsius) for those outside the US.
Make sure you are putting the temperature for the oven at 350 degrees and not 177 degrees. This was my mistake and I want to make sure no one else makes this mistake! They taste great anyway!
I am looking for a peanut butter cookie recipe with powdered sugar. Could you replace any of the sugar in this recipe with that? Any suggestions?
I wouldn’t recommend it with this recipe. You really need the brown sugar to add moisture and help the cookies spread. I’d suggest searching for a recipe that’s specifically created to use powdered sugar, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Very good really excellent cookies
My peanut butter cookies turned out great thanks.
Easy and delicious! Made very quickly with the family.
I make the cookies regularly and love them, but find that salted butter is better than unsalted, with the same added salt as well
Agree! I’m a sweet and salty gal and your rendition give it more depth. Thanks!
For the flour I just sloppily eyeballed it using a 1 cup scoop. For sugar I used only Florida Crystals … it’s like a fine cane sugar. Salted butter. And pinch of course sea salt. WOW… baked for 11 minutes. Turned out awesome
These cookies were delicious! My Mom and husband couldn’t stop eating them! My picky 2 year old loves them also ? I will definitely be making a recipe card for these. I even used store brand p.b. and they still came out soft and tasty ? I followed the recipe and used a room temperature egg etc. I did half chocolate chip and the other half regular peanut butter. Thank you for sharing this fabulous recipe, needless to say I will be making them again ?? (probably on Friday bc they’re all gone and I made them this a.m., lol)
I’ve heard that adding instant pudding mix (and/or cornstarch) can help produce softer, chewier cookies. My questions is, if I use the instant pudding mix is it OK if I use the “sugar free” version, or will that mess things up ? Also, if I do add cornstarch, how much is recommended ? Thank you very much.
You could add some cornstarch to this cookie dough, I’d recommend only using about 1 teaspoon though. You would likely need to make some adjustments to the amount of flour and sugar in the recipe if you use instant pudding mix. I’d recommend using regular instant pudding mix too, not sugar free.
I followed the recipe and measured the ingredients in grams (thank you for providing these measurements). The cookies are a hit with the whole family. They smelled good and it was hard to wait 10 minutes while they cooled on the pan. I will save this recipe to make again. They are excellent!
Made the soft peanut butter cookies this afternoon, they’re delicious! I followed the recipe but I did make 2 changes. First change was I used extra crunchy peanut butter, second change was I added half cup each of peanut butter chips and semi-sweet choc chips. My husband ate one cookie and he told me to “keep that recipe” ! LOL. They baked up perfectly, I’ll be making these for gift giving this holiday season.
I am giving the recipe 5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The best!! do not over bake. if you do they will be crunchy unless that is what you want. followed recipe exactly except used salted butter and crunchy PB. so good! i also doubled the batch twice and still turned out perfectly without any adjustments. I had to chill dough in middle of baking due to time-contraints and determined it is better to get dough back to room temperature. Bakes more consistently as it relates to time and soft chewiness. I had oven on convection bake at 300 because my oven cooks hot. I also rotated cookie sheet halfway through again my oven cooks with hot spots. cookies only took about 6-8 mins depending. I love these! Thank you11.
The best peanut butter cookie that I’ve tried so far! The only change that I made was to add 1T milk along with the egg.
I baked a triple batch and had plenty of opportunity to adjust the recipe baking time since I have a convection oven and it can be a problem for the first couple of batches. I found that I needed to lower the temp to 340F. Twelve minutes in the oven, and 8 on the cookie sheet before removing to the cooling rack worked best, and now I know for the next time! These are very easy to overbake, even an additional minute can make for a dry cookie, but in the end are well worth the time invested. Thank you!
I used this recipe it was ok turned out dry & not sweet enough for my taste. The nice thing had no issues with using the fork. Unlike other recipe.
I baked the cookies a few times. I loved them. My husband and kids loved them too.
I used fine sugar beet’s (no granulated sugar sold), fine 70% whole wheat flour, kept the daugh cool before I baked them.
Thanks for the explanation about all ingredients. It improves my English, too
I made these recently, they turned out great! Nice and soft, not overly sweet. I’m not a huge peanut butter fan but these are good. Just wondering if you knew about how many calories each cookie is.
So glad you enjoyed the cookies, Jess. I’m not sure about the nutritional information, but you can plug everything into an online calculator to get an estimate.
I absolutely love this recipe I made it 1000 times and they are so good but I have a question. I have a friend who has a gluten allergy so I was wondering if I can substitute the AP flour for almond flour?
Hi, Missy! I’m not sure that almond flour would be a good substitute in this recipe. You could probably use a gluten free flour that substitutes 1:1 (like Bob’s Red Mill GF flour). I hope that helps!
This cookie was really good. Made it for my younger siblings and they loved them. thank you 😀
The taste is delicious but the dough is crumbly and hard to work with. The cookies fall apart even after baking. I followed the recipe so not sure what happened!
Hi, Sarah! The dough shouldn’t be crumbly to work with. Did you make sure to spoon and level your flour?
I made these cookies exactly as recipe states… But mine came out crumbly… What did I do wrong? They taste great, not much left…
Were they crunchy and crumbling? If so, did you make sure to spoon and level your flour? If you did, you can try bake them a little less time and that should help. If they were too soft and crumbling, I would try adding an extra minute or two to the baking time.
I went off the reviews and was sorely disappointed. Honestly it felt rather bland. Followed the recipe to a T. On the hunt for another.
I made the recipe, wouldn’t come together so I added another EGG. That helped and there almost room in cookie jar for another batch. Enjoy them.
These were the absolute BEST peanut butter cookies!
Sooo soft! They actually stayed soft for days! They are also delicious 🙂
I added chocolate chips to the second half of my batter and that was even more delicious. I will be making these too often. Thank you for the recipe!
I haven’t made these yet but would reality like to try the recipe. However, I want to add bourbon! A friend of mine made some with bourbon but she just picked a pb cookie recipe online and added bourbon. I’m not sure if 2 tbspns would be enough or too much. She can’t recall how much she added. But let me tell you, they were divine!! I love bourbon!! I would love your suggestions! Thanks!
Hi, Laura! I haven’t tried it, so it’s hard to say. I would probably try adding 1 to 2 tablespoons, then bake a cookie and see how it turns out. If it’s spreading too much, you may need to add a couple more tablespoons of flour. Or you could replace the vanilla extract with some bourbon extract.
These cookies are amazing!!! Favorite PB recipe evvvaaa. I did add a lil of my own touch to it. Pressed down in the middle and put blackberry jam in the middle before baking them and turned them into PB&J cookies ??? ???