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This classic Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe makes the perfect pick-me-up, after school snack, or all around sweet treat. This old fashioned recipe is the one to bake, right down to the criss-cross pattern made with a fork.
Chances are your grandma (and your grandma’s grandma) had the recipe for the best peanut butter cookies ever in a little metal box sitting on the counter. It’s been around that long, and for a very good reason: there’s no better PB cookie around.
This recipe is easy to make with creamy or crunchy peanut butter, plus you can freeze the dough for large batch baking (Christmas cookies!) or just to have on hand anytime you want a still-warm, deliciously soft peanut butter cookie with the perfect peanut butter flavor and texture.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Butter: Cold butter usually softens up in about 30 minutes when left out at room temperature (much longer if frozen). To soften butter in the microwave, cut each stick of butter in half, unwrap, and place on a microwave safe plate. Then cook the butter at 10% power (that’s ten percent!) for 1 minute. Afterward, gently press on the butter with your finger. If still too firm, cook for another 40 seconds at 10% power.
- Peanut butter: The recipe calls for creamy, but crunchy is fine too. I like making the cookies with store-bought peanut butter such as Skippy or Jif better than homemade peanut butter or natural peanut butter.
Step-by-step instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, or on to parchment paper, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- In a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment, or with an electric mixer, cream together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-6 minutes. Beat in the peanut butter until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds.
- Beat in the vanilla until smooth, Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition. Scrape down the bowl and beaters as necessary. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds.
- Working with 1 heaping tablespoon of dough at a time, roll dough into 1 1/2-inch cookie dough balls and lay on prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. (I use the OXO medium cookie scoop, a size 40 portioner, and do 12 scoops of dough per baking sheet).
- Make a crosshatch design on each cookie with the tines of a fork.
- Bake cookies until the edges are golden and the centers have puffed and are beginning to deflate, about 12-17 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes 24 soft and chewy Peanut Butter Cookies.
- Storage: These cookies last about 4 days in an airtight container or cookie jar. Like soft cookies? Store them in a ziplock bag.
- Freezer: Make the dough, form it into a log, wrap it up tightly, and freeze it. It will last for 3 to 4 months. When you’re ready to bake, let the dough thaw overnight in the refrigerator before rolling up. Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about how to freeze cookie dough.
- Dusted in sugar: Like glittery, crispy edged cookies? Roll the unbaked dough ball in a shallow bowl of granulated sugar before pressing with a fork.
- Chocolate chips: Mix in ½ bag (about 6 ounces) of your favorite chocolate chip into the dough.
- Cinnamon: Sift ½ teaspoon of cinnamon into the dry ingredients to gently flavor the cookies.
- Extra nuts: Throw in a handful or two (4 to 6 ounces) of chopped peanuts (or walnuts, pecans, or cashews) to the dough for extra crunch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Portion out and chill (or freeze!) the dough before baking.
Classic peanut butter cookies are made with flour, sugar, leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda, butter, peanut butter, vanilla, and eggs.
Cold cookie dough doesn’t spread as much, so you can chill your dough for taller, thicker cookies. However, the recipe doesn’t call for that since we press the cookies down flat before baking.
Professional bakers love unsalted butter so they can control the amount of salt in their cookies for perfectly repeatable results every single time. I typically stick with salted butter in my cookie recipes because that’s what I have on hand. The recipe is written for salted butter.
Substitute your favorite gluten free flour blend in this recipe for gluten free cookies. My favorite is King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free flour blend.
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Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup butter softened (2 sticks, see note 1)
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter (see note 2)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, or on to parchment paper, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- In a standing mixer fit with the paddle attachment, or with an electric hand mixer, cream together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-6 minutes. Beat in the peanut butter until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds.
- Beat in the vanilla until smooth, Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition. Scrape down the bowl and beaters as necessary. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds.
- Working with 1 heaping tablespoon of dough at a time, roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and lay on prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. (I use the OXO medium cookie scoop, a size 40 portioner, and do 12 scoops of dough per baking sheet). Make a crosshatch design on each cookie with a fork.
- Bake the cookies until the edges are golden and the centers have puffed and are beginning to deflate, about 12-17 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Butter: Cold butter usually softens up in about 30 minutes when left out at room temperature (much longer if frozen). To soften butter in the microwave, cut each stick of butter in half, unwrap, and place on a microwave safe plate. Then cook the butter at 10% power (that’s ten percent!) for 1 minute. Afterward, gently press on the butter with your finger. If still too firm, cook for another 40 seconds at 10% power.
- Peanut butter: The recipe calls for creamy, but crunchy is fine too. I like making the cookies with store-bought peanut butter better than homemade peanut butter.
- Yield: This recipe makes 24 soft and chewy Peanut Butter Cookies.
- Storage: These cookies last about 4 days in an airtight container or cookie jar. Like soft cookies? Store them in a ziplock bag.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
Hello Meggan……..Greetings from Canada
Love this recipe. Great taste and easy ingredients. My cookie sheets are 17 X 11 inches. I followed the recipe exactly, I thought. The cookies spread out and covered the whole sheet with slight indents between each one. The dough when mixed was very wet so before I put them in the oven I put them in the fridge before baking. With the rest of the dough I made the cookies smaller, 3/4 inch balls. Into the fridge again before baking. The end result was much better. Would really like the cookies to be thicker. I have two questions:
1. When I added the flour mixture I may have/probably over mixed. Could that be my problem?
2. Are my pans smaller than yours?
The cookies were the best and family wants a repeat.
I am new to your site and we have enjoyed your Honey Garlic Chicken, Chicken Piccata and Turkey Meatballs to name a few. Look forward to making more of your great recipes,
Thank you
Delicious Wishes
Yvonne
Hi Yvonne, thanks for taking the time to write in! I’m so sorry your peanut butter cookies turned out flat! I don’t think it was overmixing as much as your butter may have been too soft or melted, or your oven temperature may have been too high. Oven temperatures vary somewhat, so I recommend making sure you let the oven warm up completely and use an oven thermometer. I believe your pans are actually bigger than mine. I use 1/4 size sheet pans, which are 9 1/2- by 13-inches. Also you did exactly what I would have done by placing the cookie dough into the refrigerator to chill. I hope your next attempt goes a lot better and I’m glad your family loved them. – Meggan
Very wonderful recipe. The easiest cookies ever! xoxo