My peanut butter cookie recipe is everything a classic should be. Perfectly sweet (without being overwhelmingly so), soft with slightly crisp edges, and very peanut-forward. They’re made with all butter (no shortening!), brown sugar, and a touch of cornstarch for the perfect, tender, soft and buttery cookie. Recipe includes a how-to video!
This super soft and buttery peanut butter cookie recipe is one of my all-time classic favorites, right up there with my chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles. I have quite a few peanut butter cookie recipes on the blog (a quick search will show you there are at least 13 🫣), but these are my take on the classic.
Why This Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe Works:
- All butter, no shortening. Many classic peanut butter cookie recipes (including the one I grew up with) rely on shortening, which can lend thickness to the cookie but leaves them tasting flat. I swap this ingredient for butter, which not only adds flavor, but creates a tender, richer crumb.
- Slightly underbake for just the right texture. The cookies should come out of the oven looking just barely underdone in the center. Residual heat finishes baking the cookies as they cool, leaving you with chewy centers and cookies that are still soft the next day (and the day after that…)
- Classic look, improved method. We still press them with a fork (it’s tradition, after all 😉) but unlike many recipes these cookies don’t actually need it, the dough is already balanced for just the right spread.
- Adaptable. Add your favorite mix-ins (I include a few of my favorites below!), or head over to my recipes for flourless peanut butter cookies or sourdough peanut butter cookies for those equally tasty versions.
Ingredients
- Peanut butter. I prefer creamy peanut butter, but chunky peanut butter will also work if you want a little extra texture. Natural peanut butter (the kind where the oil separates) or homemade peanut butter can work, but will yield more crumbly, dry cookies.
- Butter. Many recipes (including my family’s recipe growing up) use shortening or a blend of butter and shortening. I developed my peanut butter cookie recipe specifically to use butter and only butter. The result is a cookie that’s soft with a buttery, tender crumb and flavor that makes your eyes roll back in your head.
- Flour. Measure this with a scale or alternatively use the technique in my post on how to measure flour. Adding too much flour to the dough will make for hard, dry, and bland peanut butter cookies.
- Sugar. Growing up, peanut butter cookies were only ever made with granulated sugar. One of the first changes I made when developing my own recipe was to swap out a majority portion of that with brown sugar. This not only adds moisture (thanks to the molasses in brown sugar, but also depth of flavor. We do still keep a bit of the granulated sugar in the dough to keep things from being overwhelming, and I also roll my cookies through granulated sugar for a pretty, sparkly exterior that helps encourage just the right amount of spread and gives them a lovely, delicate and subtle crunch (just on the outside!).
- Cornstarch. Cornstarch acts similarly to flour by absorbing moisture and preventing the cookies from spreading too much, but you need less of it than you do flour and it doesn’t toughen the dough the same way. It’s key for a soft texture and you’ll find it in many of my cookies like my peanut butter blossoms and brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
SAM’S TIP: Feel free to add chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, Reeses pieces, chopped chocolate, or even chopped up Nutter Butters to the dough.
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies
- Step 1: Make the dough. Cream the butter, sugars, and peanut butter together until well combined and smooth, then stir in the egg and vanilla. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until you have a cohesive dough, then cover and place in the fridge to chill.
- Step 2: Roll through sugar. After chilling (the dough shouldn’t be sticky–if it is, put it back in the fridge), roll 1 ½ tablespoon scoops of dough between your palms. Roll each dough ball through granulated sugar, then place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Step 3: Press with a fork. Use a fork to gently press down into the cookies in a criss-cross pattern to give the cookies a head start on spreading.
- Step 4: Bake. Do not over-bake these cookies! The centers should actually seem just slightly under-baked when they come out of the oven. They will finish baking as they cool on the cookie sheet for perfectly soft and chewy results.
SAM’S TIP: If your first batch of peanut butter cookies comes out a bit too flat, your ingredients may have just been a tad warm, just pop the dough back in the fridge and chill it a bit longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Since peanut butter is thick and low in moisture, it can keep the cookies from spreading more than you’d expect. Lightly pressing them with a fork gives the spread a head-start (and their signature look).
Peanut butter cookie dough is typically quite dense and needs to be pressed down to encourage spreading and even baking. Typically this is done with the tines of a fork.
With my peanut butter cookies recipe, the fork marks are less necessary (and you can skip it if you prefer unnecessary as these cookies will spread pretty well on their own. However, a peanut butter cookie without the criss-cross design on top just doesn’t seem right to me, so we keep it classic here!
Yes! My peanut butter cookies recipe freezes quite nicely. To do this, simply follow the directions for rolled cookies (if rolling in sugar) or drop cookies (if not rolling in sugar) in my how to freeze cookie dough post.
Over-baking your cookies is a surefire way to ruin their texture, so keep a close eye on them! I actually recommend you remove them from the oven when they’re still a bit soft in the middle, that way they can finish cooking on their cookie sheets outside the oven.
For softer cookies, it’s better to avoid using natural peanut butter AND make sure that you measure your flour properly (see my post on how to use a kitchen scale!).
More Peanut Butter Recipes:
Can’t get enough peanut butter? Try my peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies, peanut butter snickerdoodles, or peanut butter pie next! 🥜
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
(The Actual Best) Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 Tablespoons (141 g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ½ cup (140 g) creamy peanut butter¹
- ⅔ cup (135 g) light brown sugar, tightly packed
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (188 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- Additional granulated sugar for rolling
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Combine butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar and ¼ cup granulated sugar in a large bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer) and use an electric mixer to beat until creamy and well combined.10 Tablespoons (141 g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature, ½ cup (140 g) creamy peanut butter¹, ⅔ cup (135 g) light brown sugar, tightly packed, ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- Add egg and vanilla extract and stir until well-combined.1 large egg, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.1 ½ cups (188 g) all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, ¾ teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon salt
- Gradually stir the flour mixture into the peanut butter mixture. Make sure to pause periodically to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure all ingredients are well-combined.
- Cover mixing bowl with plastic wrap and place peanut butter cookie dough in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes to one hour (start with 30 minutes, if the dough is too sticky or your cookies are coming out of the oven too flat, chill for an additional half an hour. This dough may be chilled overnight if you'd like).
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Once dough has chilled, remove from refrigerator and scoop into heaping 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized balls (39g).
- Roll the cookie dough between your palms until smooth and then roll thoroughly in additional granulated sugar. Place on prepared cookie sheet, spacing cookies at least 2" apart.Additional granulated sugar for rolling
- Use the tines of a fork to gently make a criss-cross pattern on the surface of each cookie by slightly pressing down.
- Bake on 350F (175C) for 9-12 minutes. Edges should be just turning golden brown but the cookie centers should appear slightly under-baked, allow cookies to cool completely on the cookie sheets and the centers will finish baking (but remain soft and chewy) as they cool on the cookie sheet. Don't over-bake or the cookies will be dry.
- Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet before enjoying.
Notes
¹Type of Peanut Butter
Crunchy peanut butter would work fine here (just adds texture to the cookies!). While “natural” peanut butter will “work”, the cookies tend to be a bit more dry and crumbly.Freezing
This cookie dough freezes well. Chill the dough as instructed then scoop and roll through sugar and criss-cross with a fork (if desired) before freezing in an airtight container. Cookie dough will still need to bake on 375F but may need an additional minute or so in the oven.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
This peanut butter cookie recipe was originally published 05/09/2018. The recipe remains the same but more notes, photos and a video have been added to the post to make it as helpful as possible!
Chris
This is exactly how my mother made PB cookies. I now make them this way. bi had never heard of using shortening. Sounds gross. I appreciate you continuing tradition of tining the cookies. It’s not a PB cookie without the marks on top.
Sam Merritt
I have had a peanut butter cookie made with shortening and they just lack flavor. I hope you enjoy these cookies for years to come! 🙂
Marcella
These peanut butter cookies are amazing. I have tried so many pbc recipes to no avail. This one is a keeper! I followed the recipe exactly. For my oven, it took 10 minutes and 30 seconds to bake at 350. They looked soft in the center but I trusted the process and took them out of the oven and yum, so amazing ! Thank you!!
Michelle
I click on “jump to video” but I don’t get a video of this peanut butter cookie! How else do or what else do I have to do to “jump to the video”?
Sam Merritt
Hi Michelle! If you are running an ad blocker it will also disable the video. 🙁
Amber
Made these twice so far this holiday season and we devoured them. So moist and creamy! I added some chocolate chips to half of them on this last batch and gave them a bit of a pop. So good alone and with a touch of chocolate! Thanks so much for an awesome recipe!!
Ashly
This is literally the best recipe I have made. My cookies come out fluffy and they taste amazing!
Violeta Talandis
Another amazing recipe! We used natural peanut butter so it was less sweet. Cookies didn’t spread and 12 fit easily on a cookie pan.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed them, Violeta! Thanks for coming back to leave a review 🩷
Martha
Fabulous! A friend requested PB cookies, and I made these. I thought I didn’t like peanut butter cookies until I tried yours…yum😋
Jamie P
I made these cookies and they turned out so good my parents ate all of them when I went to bed. Today I made them again but doubled the recipe the dough is in the fridge right now waiting to make them. Hopefully they don’t all get eaten tonight lol. I am diabetic so can’t have but 1 maybe 2 and that puts me way over on my sugars. But I am going to stash a bag in my room so I am able to enjoy them too. Thanks for the Amazing recipe 😊❤️
Joy
I was wondering if I could substitute corn starch with something else?
Sam Merritt
Hi Joy! You can use flour instead. The cookies just won’t be as soft.
Sabrina
I have made several things from your website/instagram. So I don’t even have to taste this to know it will taste amazing…but I still made it and ate it and so so good!! Thank you!!
Sam Merritt
Thank you so much for your continued support, Sabrina! I’m so glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
A
They’re okay. They’re not the best- I tried one that beat the batter for several minutes, which made it melt in your mouth. I won’t make these again.
Candé
Can you plz help me double this recipe. This is my go to for peanut butter cookies .
Sam Merritt
Hi Cande! You will just want to double all of the ingredients. You can measure them all out twice if that’s easier. 🙂
Lorene Howe
made these before, great cookie.! making them again today!! so soft!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you like them Lorene! Thanks for the 5-star rating 🩷
Joelin
Hey! Is it going to change if I use a metal bowl??
Sam Merritt
Hi Joelin! A metal bowl will work just fine here. 🙂
Joelin
Thank you so much!
Sherry Woodward
can you make these PB cookies larger i am making cookies for a graduation party and want them to be the same size
Sam Merritt
Hi Sherry! They can be baked a little bit larger, up to a certain point. Your bake time will be increased.
Zoey K
I LOVE these cookies!! They are the perfect way to use up my sourdough discard, and they always turn out so yummy! I have made them twice now, but I seem to mess up the consistency a bit – they’ve turned out more cake-y and fluffy. I don’t mine this at all (they still taste amazing), and its not really a big deal, but I was just curious if there is a way to get them a bit chewier. Anyway, thanks so much for a delicious recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Zoey! The discard is likely the issue here. It contains a lot of water, which can lead to the cakey texture you mention. We’d recommend you follow our recipe for sourdough peanut butter cookies instead; that recipe accounts for the extra water and yields the chewy texture you are looking for! And they still taste incredible 😊