Everyone needs a classic, old-fashioned peanut butter cookie recipe. Make bakery-style, soft peanut butter cookies at home with this simple recipe.
Do you love peanut butter cookies? We do!! Today we’ve got an easy peanut butter cookie recipe that you can use for other classic cookies such as peanut butter cup cookies, peanut blossoms and chocolate chip peanut butter cookies.
Bakery Style, Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
Time to share another of our “famous” bakery style cookie recipes! (Famous= popular in our family. 🙂 ) I love my cookies soft, slightly underbaked, and THICK. Oh, yeah, and they have to be straight from the oven. That is, barely cooled off enough to not burn my hand. If I had to choose one of our bakery style cookie recipes as my favorite, these soft peanut butter cookies would be at the top of the list. Why? Well, because of a few reasons:
- They’re peanut butter cookies, and I looooovvvveeee peanut butter! (Obviously!)
- These cookies are thick and soft. No hard, crispy edges here.
- Lastly, they are moist. A lot of times peanut butter cookies are very dry and crumbly, especially the kind you buy from the store. You could have the classic peanut butter cookie look, but unfortunately, I’ve had to second guess myself before grabbing a cookie. Some types of peanut butter cookies are so dry, you can barely taste the peanut butter. Thankfully, these cookies are not that way. In fact, these cookies are bursting with peanut butter flavor and stay soft!
Can I use natural peanut butter in peanut butter cookies?
We find that natural peanut butter makes the cookies too soft. We recommend using traditional peanut butter in these cookies. If you figure out how to use natural peanut butter, let us know how much to use and we’ll add an update.
How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies
This dough is super easy to whip up. All you need is a few basic ingredients, a mixer, and 10 minutes. Here are a few tips:
- Use room temperature butter. But don’t melt it. You want the butter just to give slightly when you touch it. If the butter is melted, then cookies will have a different texture.
- Make sure the butter and sugar are creamed really well. If you’ve ever had cookies that haven’t turned out the best or had little spots of melted sugar, it may be because the butter and sugar weren’t creamed well enough.
- Because mixing is so important, we find it easiest to use a stand mixer.
- Don’t overbake the cookies! You don’t want them brown at all. This helps them stay soft.
Should you refrigerate peanut butter cookie dough before baking?
As always I like to chill the dough. I would recommend rolling them into balls and making the class criss-cross pattern first, before you chill the dough. Rolling them first into small balls helps the dough chill faster than a big mass of dough. Plus, it’s easier to work with room temperature dough.
There’s one step to these peanut butter cookies that is unique just to Lizzy T. With all of our bakery cookies, we sprinkle the top with a little bit of sugar before they go through the oven. This gives a special effect that you won’t want to skip out on. A little extra sweetness never hurts.
Why are my peanut butter cookies dry and crumbly?
We think you’ll find that with our recipe, the cookies are soft (and stay soft!). But if you have a recipe that you are struggling with, use these tips.
- Make sure you use real butter. Margarine can make cookies crispier.
- Test your oven temperature to make sure it is heating correctly.
- Measure your flour correctly. Spoon the flour into the measuring cup, then level it with a knife. Don’t pack the flour in.
- Use silicone baking mats to promote even baking. You can find these in just about any store.
- Don’t overbake the cookies. We take the cookies out before they start getting brown at all. This helps them stay soft.
Okay, and one more thing- if you don’t need these cookies right now but know that you’ll want them in the near future, they are very freezable!
Can I freeze unbaked cookie dough?
Yes! This peanut butter cookie recipe works great for freezing. Here’s how we do it.
- Roll out the balls, use a fork to make criss-cross lines on the cookie.
- Put the unbaked dough on top of each other, with wax paper in between layers.
- Wrap them up and put them in a plastic baggie, and write instructions on the bag of how to bake them so it’s easier to remember when that cookie craving hits. 😉
- Put the baggie in a bigger plastic container, and then stick in the freezer! I like to use Rubbermaid Take Along rectangle containers. They’re big and fit lots of cookies inside.
How long can you freeze cookie dough?
You can freeze cookie dough for up to 3 months as long as it is sealed properly.
How to Bake Frozen Cookies
All you have to do when you are ready for freshly baked cookies is pull them out of the freezer, then let them defrost fully before opening the container or bag. Once the cookies are cold but completely defrosted, you’re ready to bake them!
How do you store cookies in the freezer?
If you’re wanting to bake the cookies first, store them in the same process that we use above. The Rubbermaid containers are GREAT for freezing! Use wax paper (or parchment paper) between the layers so the cookies don’t stick.
Looking for Other Cookie Making Tips? Check out these articles!
- See the difference between using butter and shortening in cookies.
- Flat cookies? Get help here.
- Everything you need to know about how to freeze cookie dough.
- Our favorite tools for making homemade cookies.
Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars. Add vanilla and mix. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to mixture in mixing bowl and mix until well combined.
- Use a large cookie scoop (or whatever size scoop you'd like!) and roll the dough into balls.
- Place the dough balls on a non-stick baking mat. Use the tins of a fork to make a criss-cross pattern, pressing down into the cookie dough. Sprinkle extra white sugar on the tops of the cookies. Refrigerate the cookies for 30 minutes.
- Bake the cookies at 375 degrees for 9-10 minutes. If you like cookies to be soft, be sure not to overbake them. They shouldn't be browned at all.
- Store in an airtight container.
Video
Notes
The calories shown are based on the recipe making 30 cookies, with 1 serving being 1 cookie. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information.**
Nutrition
Jessica @ A Kitchen Addiction says
November 4, 2015 at 9:08 amI can’t resist a good peanut butter cookie! These look perfect!
Kacie` says
March 7, 2016 at 7:06 pmWill this recipe work with bread flour?
Julie Clark says
March 8, 2016 at 9:13 amYou can use bread flour but they may not be as soft as using all-purpose flour. I’ve never tried bread flour.
Renee says
May 21, 2016 at 9:26 amHi Julie,Maddie and Kinslee. I have a couple questions, can these freezer cookies be made with Country Crock margarine sticks for baking and my other question is can your recipe for Peanut Butter m&m Monster cookies be frozen? Thanks in advance for any reply.
Julie Clark says
May 21, 2016 at 3:05 pmYes the monster cookies can be frozen. They make great freezer cookies! As far as using Country Crock Margarine, I’ve not tried it. Usually margarine makes for a flat cookie. So yes, you can bake with it, but it may change the look and texture a bit.
Kristyn says
August 13, 2016 at 2:33 pmMade these last night, and they turned out great!
Julie Clark says
August 13, 2016 at 8:43 pmWonderful! Thank you! They’re our favorites. I can’t resist them!
Kaylee says
August 14, 2016 at 12:26 pmToo much flour. I made these and followed recipe and they tasted like flour. There was no peanut butter flavor at all. Very disappointed.
Julie Clark says
August 15, 2016 at 6:11 amI’m sorry you were disappointed! These are always a hit. Not sure what went wrong. 🙁
Jenna says
August 24, 2016 at 6:58 pmI was super excited to give these a try because the pictures make them look delicious and mouth watering! Was extremely disappointed by the taste. You could barely tell they were peanut butter cookies. The texture was beautiful but the flavor just wasn’t there.
Julie Clark says
August 24, 2016 at 7:51 pmI’m sorry you didn’t enjoy them! They are truly some of our favorites.
Russell says
September 26, 2016 at 9:46 pmI also made these peanut butter cookies and they look great but taste terrible. There’s no peanut butter flavor. They taste like flour.
Julie Clark says
September 27, 2016 at 8:25 pmI’m sorry you didn’t enjoy them. We make them all the time and love them. If you’re looking for super peanut butter flavor, try these: http://www.tastesoflizzyt.com/reeses-overloaded-peanut-butter-cookies-2/ You can leave the chocolate out if you’d like!
Jeannine says
March 18, 2017 at 6:49 pmNo do not use bread flour it does not work they taste bad And I used all purpose flour and now I am on the third batch the boys took them fishing and ate them all. I give them 5 stars
Melissa says
April 18, 2017 at 3:50 pmSalted, or unsalted, butter?
Julie Clark says
April 18, 2017 at 4:12 pmI normally use salted.
Christina says
September 16, 2017 at 4:14 pmThis is the greatest peanut butter cookie recipe in existence….I wanted to make something that matched my mom’s delicious cookies from my childhood. These are full of nostalgic bliss and have become a party staple with my friends and family!!! Thanks so much, they are just perfect.
Julie Clark says
September 18, 2017 at 5:32 amAwww, thank you!!!
Janice Rose says
April 25, 2018 at 11:52 amI think these are great bakery cookies that stay soft into the next days. Beautiful appearance. Would make a great commercial cookie. Now if you want that chewy and crunch texture, stronger on the taste of peanut butter, this might not be the cookie you are looking for today. But good recipe.
Elizabeth says
February 4, 2019 at 8:31 pmBest peanut butter cookies I ever made. So soft and sweet. Made a few of them big as the palm of my hand . A few others made into blossoms . Perfect . Thank you for posting this recipe. It’s saver. Yummy in my tummy !😁
Samantha says
March 6, 2019 at 12:06 pmIs a serving size 1 cookie?
Julie Clark says
March 7, 2019 at 6:27 amyes
Janet Myers says
March 24, 2019 at 5:46 pmI was looking for a soft peanut butter cookie recipe. And when I found this one and made them, this was the perfect one!! And they warm up nicely in the microwave, just as soft as when first baked.
Thank for sharing!! This is definitely a keeper and one to share!!