Here’s the story behind these amazingly delicious Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies. Making every effort here not to go to the grocery store unless absolutely necessary, and so I’m finding that I’m closely examining our pantry for ingredients that we have on hand to use.
I had two jars of natural peanut butter from Costco (the kind you have to stir) that I don’t usually buy, and no one around here really cared for. I think we rejected it because it has to be kept in the fridge, and it is a real hassle when trying to spread cold hard peanut butter on a soft piece of bread.
I really wanted to use this annoyingly natural peanut butter up before we opened another kind, and so I thought baking it into cookies would be the perfect disguise. Sure enough, my first batch of these Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter cookies disappeared in one day!
The dough comes together really quickly, and you really don’t even need to mix up the dry ingredients separately like most cookie recipes. I’ve written the recipe with the option of making them huge (like in the photos here) or more like a typical sized cookie.
The recipe will make one dozen large cookies, and I do recommend baking six at a time if you do them this way.
I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop the dough for these large and in charge cookies. There’s something about a really big cookie that makes me so happy!
That feeling of sinking your teeth into such a big, soft and chewy cookie is heaven. They stay soft for days, though I can’t promise they’ll last that long.
You can use a fork to make a crisscross pattern on the cookies, but I love to use my cookie stamps for these. These stamps are really beautiful and well made if you don’t yet own any cookie stamps.
Just make sure the cookie dough is about 1/2 inch thick going into the oven. The dough will spread out a bit more as it bakes.
All this time at home is leaving us with plenty of time for baking. And maybe we are craving the comfort that comes with pulling something sweet and warm out of the oven, you too?
These Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies would make a great little treat to leave on a neighbor’s doorstep with a little note of encouragement. Sending hugs to you all!
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Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 large cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
These amazingly delicious Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies are the perfect thing to make when you are craving something sweet and comforting!
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter ( I used natural, the kind that needs to be stirred)
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together peanut butter, butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar with the paddle attachment on medium speed.
- Add egg, vanilla extract, and milk, and mix together until creamy.
- Add flour, salt, and baking soda and mix on low speed until a dough forms.
- Depending on the size of cookie you’d like, scoop dough balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet according to the following measurements: To make one dozen large cookies, use 1/4 cup of dough per cookie and bake six per baking sheet. For 2 dozen smaller cookies, use 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie and bake twelve on a baking sheet.
- Stamp each cookie or press a fork into the dough to make a criss cross pattern. The dough should be pressed to about 1/2 inch thick. It will spread some in the oven.
- Bake the larger sized cookies for 13-15 minutes. The smaller sized cookies will only need to bake 8-10 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container for 3-5 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie
- Calories: 344
- Sugar: 21g
- Sodium: 323mg
- Fat: 19g
- Saturated Fat: 7.1g
- Unsaturated Fat: 9.5g
- Trans Fat: 0.3g
- Carbohydrates: 39g
- Fiber: 1.7g
- Protein: 7.3g
- Cholesterol: 36mg
Jerry C. says
An excellent way to use natural peanut butter!
Nikki says
With this recipe do you think it would still work out if I substituted the granulated sugar for Monkfruit sugar?
Tasha B says
Hands down best pb cookie recipe! They come out perfect every time. I never write reviews but I keep coming back to this recipe over and over. I follow the recipe to a T, I use adams natural creamy peanut butter.
Nc says
Delicious, perfect recipe for using natural peanut butter. Unlike a lot of the reviewers, I only use natural peanut butter (it’s what I like), and it’s always so hard to find a cookie recipe that uses it. Followed the recipe as printed, but because I have a toddler we added chocolate chips and sprinkles for the final stir. The only thing I wasn’t sure about was whether I needed to use room temp ingredients (I did a mix – cold egg and milk) and whether I should refrigerate the dough (I didn’t), like most peanut butter cookie recipes call for. I ended up with supremely soft cookies at the point I took them out of the oven, melt in your mouth peanut butter goodness. I’m saving this one!
Jeanne pelz says
Excellent and easy !
Michelle says
I did use warm egg, forgot the milk, and didn’t refrigerate the dough either. I used Adam’s crunchy peanut butter (it’s what I like) and the cookies turned out great. I was pleasantly surprised to find a good recipe for natural peanut butter cookies!
Erica says
I’ve used this recipe over and over again since I found it. My family loves these cookies so much that they start asking me to bake them again as soon as the last one is gone. They’re soft, just sweet enough, and they don’t fall apart in my 11-year-old’s lunch box (no matter how rough he is with it).
Kristi says
Texture was great and I loved that I could use natural peanut butter, but these were much too sweet for my taste. The sugariness overwhelmed the peanut butteriness. I might try it again with less sugar and a sprinkle of sea salt over the finished cookies.
Leon says
These are by far the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made. I loved them, and I’m not even a huge fan of peanut butter cookies! They’re definitely very soft, so keep that in mind with how you plan on transporting them. I turned 2/3 of the last batch I made into sandwich cookies with a chocolate peanut butter frosting, something I highly recommend trying.
Donna Young says
Would this work with gluten free flour
Michelle Boozer says
YES!!! I just made them with gf flour and they turned out amazing!! So good, just right flavor…not overly sweet and not overly peanut buttery either ( which my gf daughter prefers so it’s fine by me, too)…my husband didn’t even wait for them to cool completely and ate 4 of them (I made the 2T size) before the last batch was even out of the oven!! Definitely making a lot more of these as I’ve got another FULL jar of natural pb to use up 😉 You should absolutely make them too!! 😁😋
Aurora says
Best peanut butter cookie by far! Used coconut peanut butter from Hawaii. Perfect pb cookie as it is soft and chewy but still has a slight snap around the edges. Not fluffy or cakey like some pb cookie recipes I’ve tried. Great ratio of pb to sweet. Love it. Thank you for posting!
Courtney says
Easy recipe and great cookies.
Karen says
Best cookies ever 100%
Stephanie says
Overall decent recipe. However, for those who out there that are not experienced bakers, I would suggest clarifying the recipe…..butter, salted or UNSALTED, brown sugar, LIGHT or dark.
Shelley says
Hi Stephanie! I’m not Julie but I always bake with unsalted butter. You can always add a bit of salt for the batter if you wish. As far as brown sugar, I use light as the dark has more molasses flavour. That’s just my personal choice. Maybe Julie has different advise .
Cookie Monster says
Yummy yummy yummy I added a couple butterscotch chips and it took it over the top!
David says
Came out beautiful with peanut butter that would never be used… BRAVO and thank you
Jayne says
We have used nothing but Costco Organic peanut butter for years now. We stir it and split it into two mason jars. This lets us keep half in the cupboard to use and the other in the fridge until we’re ready for it.
I have tried over and over to make peanut butter cookies with it but it’s really difficult – they never turn out. We love peanut butter cookies but we try to stay away from hydrogenated oils and palm oils. This recipe makes PERFECT cookies using the Costco peanut butter.
Thank you thank you thank you!
Sara says
When halving the recipe, how would I half the egg? Would I just mix it together and split it in half or just use the yolk only?
Sarah says
Great recipe! I bought the runny natural peanut butter from Costco by mistake and this was a great way to use it up! My coworkers raved that these were the best and softest peanut butter cookies ever and I agree!