Best Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

This is the best peanut butter cookie recipe you'll ever make or eat! These classic, soft peanut butter cookies are easy to make, loaded with peanut butter, and will definitely become your new favorite peanut butter cookie recipe! Learn how to make peanut butter cookies by following our step-by-step instructions and watching the video!

Course cookies, Dessert

Cuisine American

Diet Vegetarian

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Chilling time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Servings cookies (1 ½ TBS each)

Calories 155.2kcal

Author Laura

Equipment

Ingredients

½ cup salted butter softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar packed
1 TBS whole milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp fine sea salt
¼ tsp cinnamon optional, but recommended!

Instructions

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder cinnamon. Set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer, or in a large bowl with a hand-held mixer, cream together butter and peanut butter until smooth.
Add sugars and beat until combined.
Add eggs, vanilla and milk and beat for 30-60 seconds on medium-high speed until the mixture is light in color and sugar is dissolved.
Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until combined.
If desired, add chocolate chips or other mix-ins and stir until combined.
Chill in the refrigerator for at least 60 minutes in an airtight container.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Line a baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
Use a cookie scoop to measure 1 ½ to 2 TBS dough and roll it into a ball. Repeat until all the dough has been used.
Place 12 cookies on each large baking sheet.
Use a fork to gently press a crisscross pattern into the top of each cookie.
Bake in preheated oven for approximately 9-10 minutes. Take them out when they are just *BARELY* starting to turn brown, puffed and just start to crackle.
Let the cookies sit on the baking pan for 5 minutes before removing to cooling rack.
Cool completely on a wire rack before serving or storing.

Video

Notes

To store:

Store peanut butter cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days, or in the refrigerator for 5 days.

How to freeze peanut butter cookie dough:

Roll the peanut butter cookie dough into balls
Place dough balls onto a cooking sheet
Flash-freeze them in the freezer until hard.
transfer to an airtight, freezer-friendly container or ziplock back and store until ready to bake.
To bake peanut butter cookie dough: remove cookie dough from freezer and let come to room temperature, then follow recipe instructions for the criss cross pattern and baking.

Ingredient Substituions

Salted butter. unsalted butter and coconut oil can be used in place of salted butter.
Peanut Butter. I recommend using a variety of peanut butter that is solid at room temperature (Jif, Skippy, Skippy Natural, etc.). You can use natural peanut butter, but be aware that the cookies may spread more and be more on the crispy side than the soft side. Also, many natural peanut butters are unsalted, so you may need to increase the amount of salt int he recipe by ¼ tsp.
Whole milk. 2%, whole, and half-and-half have can be used in place of whole milk.
Granulated Sugar. Organic cane sugar is my granulated sugar of choice, but regular granulated sugar works perfectly.
Cinnamon. Ok, I truly believe the touch of cinnamon sets these peanut butter cookies apart from the rest. I do not recommend leaving it out, as it greatly enhances the flavor.
Sea salt. I only ever bake with pure, fine sea salt. If you are using iodized salt I recommend decreasing the amount of salt by ½.

Nutrition