These are the best, melt-in-your-mouth, soft-baked peanut butter cookies. They’re loaded with creamy peanut butter and moist, not sandy or crumbly, without the old-fashioned criss-cross. Instead, these are studded with melty peanut butter chips. No chilling or rolling required!
The reviews are in, and if readers have anything to say, it’s that this might just be the ultimate peanut butter cookie recipe. Instead of a classic crumbly cookie with a criss-cross top, these peanut butter cookies have a soft-baked, chewy texture, a bit like a chocolate chip cookie. There’s still plenty of flavor in every bite, with creamy peanut butter and peanut butter chips folded in.
After tasting what could be hundreds of peanut butter cookies, I’d never found “The One” until I made these. Some were too greasy, some dry, while others left a feeling of peanut butter sticking to the roof of my mouth. The real magic in this perfect peanut butter cookies recipe is that they’re incredibly tender and meltingly soft… not crumbly or cakey at all.
This Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe, at a Glance
- The exact right amount of peanut butter, plus brown sugar and cornstarch, for a slightly crispy edge and soft middle.
- Peanut butter chips are unconventional (and optional), but they add nice, creamy sweetness. Swap them for chocolate chips to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!
- There’s no chilling, rolling, or shaping needed to get these in the oven.
- A “melt-in-your-mouth” texture that’s original to this recipe, totally different from the sandy texture of a typical peanut butter cookie.
I’ve loved reading your reviews and hearing how many of you come back to these cookies again and again. I figured it was time to refresh the post with new notes and baking tips so you can continue baking the best peanut butter cookies ever!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Head to the pantry and gather the following ingredients. This is a look at what you’ll need, with the full ingredients list and measurements found in the recipe card below.
- Butter – Brought to room temperature. I like to use a combination of butter and peanut butter in these cookies. Some peanut butter cookie recipes use only peanut butter, and while that’s great for flavor, it tends to make the cookies a little crumbly.
- Creamy Peanut Butter – Be sure to use shelf-stable, creamy peanut butter. Jif and Skippy are my favorites. Avoid natural peanut butter (like the kind you need to stir), as the oils tend to separate and make the peanut butter cookies oily.
- Sugar – I use a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar in my peanut butter cookie recipe. It makes the edges a little crispy while still offering the depth of flavor brown sugar brings.
- Egg and Vanilla – Staple ingredients needed for structure and subtle flavor. Use pure vanilla extract or an equal amount of vanilla paste, not imitation.
- Cornstarch – Cornstarch gives these peanut butter cookies a melt-in-your-mouth texture and soft centers.
- Baking Soda, Baking Powder, and Kosher Salt – Together, these ingredients give the cookies rise without being cakey. You can use table salt; just reduce it to ¾ of the kosher salt amount, since table salt is finer.
- All-purpose Flour – Measure the flour using a digital kitchen scale, or the spoon-and-sweep method. Overmeasuring makes the cookies dry.
- Peanut Butter Chips – I like to add peanut butter chips to this recipe for sweetness and extra flavor for peanut butter fanatics (that’s me, I’m the fanatic). You could also use semi-sweet, dark, or white chocolate chips.
How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies
These cookies are easy to make, with a few tricks for keeping them moist and not too thick.
- Get ready to bake. Set the oven to 350ºF while you line a baking sheet.
- Cream the wet ingredients. Next, combine the butter and peanut butter in a bowl and beat for 1 minute, until smooth. Cream in both sugars until it’s lighter in color and fluffy. Lastly, add the egg and vanilla and mix for about 45 seconds.
- Add the dry ingredients. Now, you’ll mix in the cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the flour, just until a soft dough forms. Fold in the peanut butter chips.
- Scoop the cookie dough. Use a medium-sized cookie scoop to drop the dough onto your prepared baking sheet. If you’d like, press a few extra peanut butter chips into the top of each cookie for a bakery-style finish.
- Bake. Bake these peanut butter cookies at 350ºF for 9-10 minutes. The cookies will puff up slightly in the oven, then settle as they cool into a soft, crinkly texture.
- Cool. When the cookies are lightly golden at the edges, take them out. Let them rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack.
These Cookies Don’t Have a Criss-Cross Top
You’ll notice these soft peanut butter cookies are missing the iconic criss-cross pattern that’s a signature of many peanut butter cookie recipes. Since you don’t chill the dough, it’s fairly sticky, making it tricky to roll into a ball and hold a criss-cross imprint. Instead, you get melty peanut butter chips throughout and on top. A fair trade-off, if you ask me!
If you love a traditional criss-crossed peanut butter cookie, my recipes for flourless peanut butter cookies and whole wheat peanut butter cookies have you covered.
Tips and Variations
- Don’t overmix the cookie dough. You can make the peanut butter cookie dough in a stand mixer, with an electric mixer, or even mix by hand, though a mixer does make it easier to cream the ingredients. The key is not to overmix the dough after adding the dry ingredients. This can lead to dense cookies instead of soft, chewy ones. And we’re definitely going for moist and chewy!
- Invest in a cookie scoop. When baking these cookies (or any cookies, for that matter), a cookie scoop helps to portion out the dough and ensures that all the cookies are the same size and shape. If you don’t have a scoop, do your best using a heaping tablespoon to portion 2 tablespoons per cookie.
- Some ovens may need more or less time to bake. I suggest checking the cookies at 9 minutes and adding time as needed. Keep in mind that they shouldn’t be completely browned all over when they come out of the oven. These are soft-baked peanut butter cookies, and they’ll continue to set up while they rest on the baking sheet afterward.
- Peanut butter chips are optional. Add them to the cookie dough before baking, or press the chips into the tops of the warm cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. This is a step you can certainly skip if you want to, or if you find yourself fresh out.
- Use chocolate chips instead. As I said earlier, you can substitute peanut butter chips with white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate, or a mix.
- To make chocolate peanut butter cookies, I’d recommend my recipes for chocolate peanut butter chip cookies and these peanut butter chocolate cookies made with cake mix.
FAQ
Overly sticky dough is usually caused by an ingredient imbalance, so make sure that you’re using full-fat butter brought to room temperature, and spoon and level the flour if you don’t have a kitchen scale.
It could be that your baking soda or baking powder was old or expired, or that you forgot to add salt. Salt reacts with the baking soda and baking powder to give the cookies rise. Make sure your leavening is fresh!
Yes, you can make vegan peanut butter cookies using vegan butter and an egg substitute.
No, not for this recipe! These cookies bake up perfectly without chilling the dough. However, if you prepare the dough ahead of time, you can refrigerate it for up to 2 days.
Storage and Freezing
- At room temperature. These chewy peanut butter cookies last in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.
- Freeze the baked cookies. The cooled peanut butter cookies can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw the cookies at room temperature before serving.
- Scoop and freeze the cookie dough. After portioning the peanut butter cookie dough onto the baking sheet, pre-freeze the cookies until solid. Transfer them to a freezer bag or container and freeze the dough for up to 3 months. You can bake the cookie dough balls straight from frozen. See how to freeze cookie dough.
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
Peanut Butter Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Dessert
Description
These are the best soft-baked, chewy peanut butter cookies! Crisp at the edges, tender in the middle, and loaded with creamy peanut butter and peanut butter chips.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup peanut butter chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat and set aside.
- Add the butter and peanut butter into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Turn the mixer onto medium speed and mix for 1 minute, or until smooth and combined. Add both sugars and with the mixer still on medium beat the mixture for 2 minutes until pale in color and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add in the egg and vanilla and continue mixing for 45 more seconds until combined and smooth.
- Add in the cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix for an additional few seconds until combined.
- Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour, mixing until the dough comes together. Stir in the peanut butter chips evenly.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (2 tablespoons), scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet, placing the scoops 2 inches apart.
- Garnish with extra peanut butter chips, if desired.
- Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes until they are golden at the edges.
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Store airtight for up to 3 days at room temperature.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 155
- Sugar: 11.5 g
- Sodium: 104.7 mg
- Fat: 9.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 16.5 g
- Protein: 2.6 g
- Cholesterol: 19.4 mg
I had to make this by hand without a mixer and a slight alterations I used half shortening and half butter because that’s what I had, and I had a bag of peanut butter chip and chocolate chip mix bag. Mine came out just like the pictures here and they are really good! Soft peanut butter yum!
So glad you enjoyed!!
Delicious! I don’t have a countertop mixer so used a hand mixture for the wet ingredients. Then I mixed the dry ingredients together with a spoon and added them to the wet ingredients all at once, combining with a spatula. I don’t know why but I always have to extend the baking time on all cookie recipes. I’ve changed ovens so I think it’s the stainless steel cookie sheets? In any case I had to bake for 12 minutes or so to see color on the edges. Perfection.
So glad you liked them and thank you for sharing your experience without using a stand mixer! I am sure that will help others!
Shelly, could I add PB chips to the dough before baking?
Sure…that’s what the recipe says to do 🙂 Step #5! The extra chips on top are to make them look pretty 🙂
I absolutely love this recipe. My husband is a peanut butter addict so I’ve been looking long and hard for yummy peanut buttery recipes. The only thing that didn’t work for me is the time used to bake the cookies came out still pretty raw. I ended up putting one pan in twice for an additional 5 minutes each time. The second pan I put in twice as well with the first time at 5 minutes and the second time for 10minutes. Maybe it’s my altitude?? ????? I am not in the kitchen long enough to know these things or how ratios of ingredients will get a certain outcome. All I can say is that my husband exhibits GREAT CONTROL for an alleged fat kid as he has been eating one cookie a day. Lol. Aside from the changes in bake time, he actually prefers the darker (second pan) cookies. I am going to make this again until he’s sick of it! ? Thank you so much!!
One cookie a day? I wish I had the control! So glad you liked them and thank for the feedback on the bake time 🙂
I made these last night and they are DELICIOUS. I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out great. My suggestion is to only bake them for the recommended 9-10 minutes – they may not look done, but they’ll cook a little longer on the baking sheet and they’ll come out nice and soft. Thanks for this recipe!
I am wondering what would happen if I used natural pb with no sugar, salt, or anything, just peanuts as the sole ingredient. I am afraid to try and screw up the recipe since it clearly says to use creamy pb. Any idea?
I only buy natural pb. I just made these and they turned out really good. I only used 1/4 cup white sugar and baked them for 15 mins. I didn’t have peanut butter chips so I used half butterscotch and half semi-sweet and they are sooo good. 🙂
This is now my fav pb cookie recipe! I was going to bake choc pb cookies but found I was out of cocco. Found your recipe. Perfect! I’ve never seen cornstarch in a cookie recipe so that got me curious. Kinda soft, kinda crispy, not too sweet or too much peanut butter taste.
Thank you!! I worked hard on this recipe to get it just right!
Hi!! I made these cookies and the taste of amazing, but they got more crispy on top versus soft like yours look. I followed the directions to a T because I am extra like that LOL. I even set the timer on the stove to make sure I mixed it long enough. What kind of flour are using? I know that can make a difference! Any other ideas why mine would come out like that? Also, I under baked them so that they would stay soft. Thank you for your help!
What rack in the oven did you bake these on? Possibly you had them closer to the top heating element which might have made them cook a little more on top?
They were on the bottom rack. I was just wondering about the flour because I get different results from different brands. Is there a video for this recipe?
Made these with Werther’s soft caramels chopped up into bits and white chocolate Reeses placed on top… Fantastic Fantastic recipe!!!
What a great idea!!
These were so incredible that I had to come back to the page to lend praise where it’s due! Before I make a recipe I search tons of posts online and usually settle for one that strikes my fancy. I am so glad I kept searching before settling. This is THE peanut butter cookie you need in your life. She has mastered it hands down. I am generally not a fan of PB cookies because of all the reasons she listed, but they are now going to be a regular in my rotation. Make these and you won’t be disappointed!
Thank for the great tips on making real good peanut butter cookies.
I like the peanut butter chips being incorporated with other garnish ideas.
(Not your typical, traditional peanut butter cookie-with the fork stroke design,..no room for that).
I look forward to trying out the recipe soon.