Peanut Butter Cookies
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This easy peanut butter cookie recipe is packed with peanutty flavor and has just the right balance of salty and sweet.
When I set out to find the best peanut butter cookie recipe, I tested dozens—from favorite cookbooks to popular online versions. The standout was Gwyneth Paltrow’s recipe from My Father’s Daughter. With a few small tweaks, it’s become my go-to.
What sets these cookies apart are the salted peanuts and peanut butter chips scattered throughout. The peanuts add a satisfying crunch and a salty edge, while the chips melt into little pockets of peanut butter goodness. I’m not usually a fan of peanut butter chips, but they really work here. If you love a classic peanut butter cookie, this one is hard to beat.
“Wow Wow wow!!! My 7-year-old said it best after trying one: It’s like I’m having a party in my mouth eating this cookie.”
What You’ll Need To Make Peanut Butter Cookies
- All-purpose flour: Provides the structure for the cookies. For the best texture, measure it using the spoon-and-level method rather than scooping directly from the bag; too much flour can make the cookies dry.
- Baking powder and baking soda: Give the cookies just enough lift and help them brown. Make sure they’re fresh for the best results.
- Unsalted butter: I prefer unsalted butter so I can control the salt. If you only have salted butter, reduce the added salt by ¼ teaspoon.
- Creamy peanut butter: For the best texture, use a creamy, shelf-stable peanut butter rather than natural peanut butter, which can separate. Skippy No Need to Stir is my favorite here.
- Light brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture and complements the peanut butter’s rich flavor.
- Egg and vanilla: The egg binds the dough together, while vanilla rounds out the flavor.
- Peanut butter chips and salted peanuts: Double down on the peanut flavor while adding little pockets of sweetness and crunch. I love Virginia peanuts here—they’re extra big, crunchy, and flavorful.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
How to Make peanut butter cookies
Make the dough: Start by whisking the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Add the dry ingredients, then mix in the peanut butter chips and salted peanuts. The dough will be thick.
Pro tip: Give the dough some time to chill before shaping; it makes it easier to handle and helps the cookies hold their shape in the oven.
Shape the cookies: Roll the dough into balls and arrange them on the baking sheets. Use a fork to make the classic crisscross pattern on top, which also helps flatten the cookies so they bake evenly.
Bake and cool: Bake until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges. They’ll still be tender when they first come out of the oven, so let them cool on the baking sheet before transferring them to a rack.
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Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter, at room temperature (I like Skippy No Need To Stir)
- 1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup peanut butter chips
- ½ cup very finely chopped salted peanuts (optional)
Instructions
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and vanilla on medium speed until well combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the egg and beat until incorporated, about 20 seconds more. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Mix in the peanut butter chips and chopped peanuts (if using).
- Chill the dough for 1 hour (see note below). Set racks in the middle and upper thirds of the oven and preheat to 350°F (175°C). Using a 1½-in scooper with a wire scraper (if you don’t have one, use a spoon and your hands), form the dough into 1½-in (4-cm) balls on the prepared baking sheets. Using the tines of a fork, mark a crisscross pattern on the cookies, pressing them down slightly. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back midway through, until puffed and golden on the bottom. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a rack to cool completely. (Note: the cookies are very fragile when hot, so take care not to break them. They’ll firm up nicely as they cool.)
Notes
- It’s not absolutely necessary to chill the dough, but it is quite sticky and difficult to handle if you don’t have a cookie scooper. Chilling the dough makes it much easier to handle, but feel free to skip this step if you like.
- Freezing Instructions: The cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. Roll the dough into balls, let set on a baking sheet in the freezer, then place in a sealable bag and press out as much air as possible. Bake as needed directly from the freezer. (Allow 1 to 2 minutes longer in the oven.) To freeze after baking: Let the cookies cool completely and store in an airtight container, separating layers with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Before serving, remove the cookies from the container and let them come to room temperature.
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Hi, Can i check if you will be able to specify the speed for each step? im always messing things up when it comes down to the mixer. im using a kitchenaid mixer!
Appreciate the help!!
Hi Jay, the peanut butter, sugar, vanilla and then the egg should be mixed on medium, and then the dry ingredients and peanut butter chips (and peanuts if you’re using them) should be mixed on low. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
What is the oven temperature?
Hi Sue, the cookies should be baked at 325°F. Hope you enjoy!
I made these and they are very, very, good…they are not the best peanut butter cookie I have ever made, but pretty close. Mine did not get browned, but I did only bake for the suggested 12 minutes. they are delicate, but not so that they disintegrate when you touch them. The nuts and the chips give them nice texture. I also rolled mine in granulated sugar prior to baking. I can’t eat just one. They were easy to mix and bake.
These are great cookies, but I wouldn’t skip chilling the dough. Also, they are more crumbly/fragile after they are baked and cooled than other peanut butter recipes, so I took off a star for that reason. The chips and peanuts are a great bonus!
Agreed with the previous review that said the dough is extremely crumbly, but the cookies do come out very tasty; also, agreed that it makes much more sense to make and chill the dough first, then preheat the oven shortly before baking.
Clarification question: should the dough be chilled in the refrigerator or the freezer?
Hi Kelly, The dough should be chilled in the fridge but please see the note I added to the recipe. It is actually not necessary to chill the dough if you have a cookie scooper, or if you can handle it right away. I found that it was too sticky to roll unless chilled.
These are so delicious! I didn’t have peanuts or peanut butter chips, so I used chocolate chips instead! They turned out great! The texture of these cookies are really what make them great!
Best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had. Wouldn’t change anything about the ingredients. Only tweak to the recipe itself would be to preheat the oven after the “Chill for 1 hour” step.
These were delicious! I used natural peanut butter and they were perfectly sweet and salty. I did not chill the dough for an hour and I found the batter quite crumbly (not sure if there’s a connection), but I did my best to form them into balls with my hands and then I hoped for the best, and they turned out well in the end. As promised, they came together perfectly as they cooled. I would definitely make these again!
My cookies were also crumbly and not sticky. I added 6min to the recommended time. Felt like they were a little under done but very tasty. I can’t think of what I could to make them sticky.
I was just reading this recipe and thinking I would make them but I am always nervous about US cups versus Australian when to my absolute delight I saw the little button at the top to change to Metric!! Did I miss that before or is it new? Anyway, it is wonderful, because I do like your recipes and they will be even easier now.
Hi Anita, I’m slowly but surely converting recipes so that they have both cup and metric measures. (All of the new ones have both.) If there are any specific recipes that you’d like converted, please let me know!
I made these today and they were super-peanut-buttery delicious! Great sandy, moist texture. Our favorite peanut butter cookie, ever! Baked off a small sheet, and will freeze the rest of the unbaked cookie dough balls. (No will power.)Thanks for another great recipe, Jenn!!