The Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies

This recipe for easy peanut butter cookies involves just one bowl, melted butter, no mixer, and no chill time. With a quick and simple method, this recipe delivers soft, classic criss-cross peanut butter cookies every time! Recipe makes about 20 cookies.

If you consider peanut butter a major food group like I do, check out my peanut butter and jelly bars, peanut butter blondies, peanut butter swirl brownies, and small batch peanut butter blossoms.

Why you’ll love this recipe

As a serious peanut butter lover, when I eat a peanut butter cookie it better knock my socks off. I’m talking intense, practically fudgy peanut butter flavor with deep, slightly salted caramel notes and a dense chew. The bakery-style kind, where peanut butter residue remains on your fingers long after the cookie is gone.

Sadly, in my experience many homemade peanut butter cookies fall short of the mark. They can be dry, crumbly cookies, too crispy, too sweet, or worst of all, NOT peanut buttery.

I’m happy to report that after MANY rounds of recipe testing (more on that below) you’ll love these easy peanut butter cookies because they’re:

• EASY – just one bowl and no mixer required, and no need to soften butter in advance!
• Incredibly quick – as mentioned, just one bowl, melted butter, and NO CHILLING required. You can go from “I want cookies” to “I’m eating cookies” in less than 30 minutes.
• Very peanut buttery – I used less sugar and butter than most recipes for stronger PB flavor
• Super soft – these cookies deliver on that soft, classic peanut butter cookie texture, but have slightly crisp edges and keep their shape
• A reasonably sized batch – like many of my recipes, this recipe is on the smaller side and makes 20 cookies, not 4 dozen cookies. I find this is the perfect amount of cookies to make for a party, or just for yourself on a Tuesday. If you need to make more cookies just double the recipe.

Recipe development

When I developed this recipe, I was looking to overcome the main issue I see with most peanut butter cookie recipes: they aren’t peanut buttery enough.

Most, if not all of them, rely on creaming butter and sugar to create crispness and lightness in the cookie. Usually the peanut butter is added during the creaming process, and then the finished dough is chilled to prevent spreading before the scooping and rolling and shaping can commence.

And I found myself asking: why does this have to be so complicated?

What I changed

1. Melted butter for ease, moisture, and texture. Melted butter makes the mixing process a lot less complicated. If we don’t need to cream room temperature butter and sugar, then we don’t need a stand mixer or hand mixer at all. And if we’re not using a mixer, we don’t whip as much air into the batter, and as a result we get the denser texture we want for these peanut butter cookies. Plus, added moisture from melted butter equals a heavier, denser cookie, just like the bakeries.
2. Higher ratio of peanut butter to sugar. This both keeps the cookie soft and moist (despite a reduction in sugar vs most recipes), and also makes the PB flavor stronger.
3. All brown sugar. Most recipes use a mix of white sugar and brown, but I like the moisture and hint of molasses flavor of brown sugar alone in these cookies.
4. One bowl method. I whisk the salt and baking soda in the large bowl with the wet ingredients, so they are fully incorporated and evenly distributed before adding the flour. This avoids unmixed pockets of baking soda or salt in the mixture, without needing a separate bowl for dry ingredients.

Ingredients

Like most of my recipes, there’s a simple ingredient list for the best peanut butter cookies:

• Creamy peanut butter (see next section for a discussion of which kind to use)
• Unsalted butter
• Brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• Vanilla extract
• Baking soda
• Salt
• All-purpose flour
• Granulated sugar (optional, for rolling or sprinkling over the peanut butter cookie dough balls)

Ingredient Note: What type of peanut butter is best in cookies?

A frequent question when baking with peanut butter is which type to use. Most recipes will advise you to use conventional peanut butter. Well, I have made this recipe with both “natural” (i.e., just peanuts and salt) and “conventional” (i.e., shelf stable) peanut butter, and I only noticed a slight difference.

The cookies made with natural peanut butter had a bit of a grainier, sandier texture than the cookies made with conventional peanut butter. They also crumbled a bit more. I think this is because conventional peanut butters contain added sugar and oils (either hydrogenated vegetable oil or palm oil) to make them shelf stable. This in turn adds a bit more fat/sugar and therefore moisture to the cookies, helps them hold together, and gives them a soft texture.

The results, however, were not so different that I would clearly recommend one kind over the other. Both produced delicious, soft peanut butter cookies. So all of this is to say that you should use whichever kind is your favorite!

How to make easy peanut butter cookies step by step

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and 1/2 cup of peanut butter together (this takes about 45 seconds to 1 minute in my microwave). Stir until there is one homogenous melted butter-peanut butter mixture, then whisk in brown sugar.
3. Whisk in egg and vanilla until mixture is well-combined. Add the salt and baking soda to the wet ingredients, and whisk until fully incorporated.
4. Add the flour and stir with a fork or rubber spatula until a fairly stiff dough is formed. You may need to put in some elbow grease with the spatula or your hands to get it to come together, but it will.
5. Scoop dough using a tablespoon cookie scoop, then roll it between your palms to create a smooth dough ball. Place on the cookie sheet then press down gently using the tines of a fork to form a crisscross pattern. Repeat with remaining cookie dough balls, spacing 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Sprinkle granulated sugar over the cookies before baking if desired.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, until the cookies are slightly puffed, golden brown, and smelling amazing. Let cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

How to make the criss cross pattern for peanut butter cookies

To make the criss cross pattern on peanut butter cookies, first roll a Tablespoon or more of cookie dough between your palms to create a smooth dough ball. Place on the cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart from the next cookie, then using the tines of a fork, press down firmly on top of the cookie in one direction. Remove the fork, turn it 90 degrees, then press down firmly again. You should press the fork marks in more deeply than you expect the final product to look, because the cookies puff up in the oven.

Storage

Baked cookies can be stored:

• At room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days
• In the refrigerator for 7-10 days
• In the freezer for up to 3 months. This is my favorite way to keep cookies on hand when the craving strikes. Make sure to wrap the cookies individually and store in a freezer bag. When ready to eat, simply microwave a cookie for 30-45 seconds, or allow to come to room temperature for 1-2 hours.
• Cookie dough can also be frozen and baked later: scoop dough onto a flat surface like a plate or baking sheet, and place in the freezer for an hour.  Then store frozen cookie dough balls in a freezer-safe bag to be baked whenever cookie cravings strike!  Bake from frozen for 12 minutes at 350 degrees F, or 14 minutes if you like them crispy on the edges.

Additions and Substitutions

• Peanut butter: you can substitute any nut butter (like almond butter or cashew butter), or seed butter (like sunflower seed butter or tahini) in this recipe
• Add-ins: feel free to add 1/2 cup (85g) of chocolate chips or chopped nuts to the cookie dough; note this will make it difficult to do the criss-cross pattern but you can skip it! You could also make these into PB&J cookies by adding a swirl of jam on top of each cookie before or after baking.
• Make it gluten-free: substitute an equal weight (156g) of gluten-free oat flour or a gluten-free all-purpose flour mix that contains xanthan gum. I’ve tested and like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Baking Flour.
• Make it vegan: use vegan butter, and use a flax egg (1 tbsp flax + 2.5 tbsp water, mixed and let sit for 5 minutes to form a gel), or 1/4 cup applesauce or vegan yogurt in place of the chicken egg.
• Make it into bars: see my peanut butter cookie bars.

How to make peanut butter cookies egg-free

For each egg in the recipe, you can pick one of the following substitutes: (i) one flax egg (1 Tablespoon (6g) ground flaxseed + 2.5 Tablespoons water, mixed and let sit for 5 minutes to form a gel), or (ii) 1/4 cup (63g) unsweetened applesauce, or (iii) 1/4 cup (56g) thick Greek yogurt. Use any of the substitutes in place of the egg in the recipe, to be mixed with the wet ingredients. The egg is the binder in this recipe and any of the substitutes listed here will work in the same way.

More Easy Cookie Recipes

• The Easiest Chocolate Chip Cookies (my original one bowl, no mixer cookie recipe!)
• The Easiest OATMEAL Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Easy S’mores Cookies
• No-Mixer Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies (another version of this PB cookie recipe!)

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