The BEST Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe (Seriously!) (2024)

My peanut butter cookie recipe usesall butterandno shorteningfor the softest, actual-best tasting peanut butter cookies out there. This recipe is great for freezing & making in advance or enjoying the same day! Recipe includes a how-to video!

The BEST Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

Say hello to the softest, butteriest,bestpeanut butter cookie recipe you’ve ever tried! With their slightly crisp, sugar-coated exteriors that give way to chewy, melt-in-your-mouth, peanut butter-y centers, these cookies are in-cre-di-ble.

This recipe is one of my all-time classic favorites, right up there with my chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles. I have so many peanut butter cookie recipes on the blog (a quick search will show you there are at least 13 🫣), but these are the real deal, classic cookies everyone enjoys.

What’s so great about my recipe:

• Freezes well: I typically have a bag of of this cookie dough (portioned into balls) in my freezer!
• Quick chilling: Just 30 minutes!
• Super soft: if you’re looking for a crispy peanut butter cookie recipe, this isn’t it! This recipe was designed to melt in your mouth.
• Incredible flavor. We’re using real, creamy, rich BUTTER (no shortening) for best flavor and texture!
• Can be made ahead of time: simply cover and chill for up to 2 days.

What You Need

You’ll recognize most of the ingredients above, but there are a few key points I’d like to make about the following:

• Peanut butter. I recommend using creamy peanut butter, but chunky peanut butter will also work if you want a little extra texture (smooth peanut butter is my preference). I donot recommend using a natural peanut butter (the kind where the oil separates). I’ve found this can be a bit more drying and can yield crumbly, dry cookies (sadly!).
• Butter. Manypeanut butter cookie recipes (including my favorite version growing up) use shortening or a blend of butter and shortening. I developed this cookie recipe specifically to use butter and only butter. The result is a cookie that’s soft and chewy with an oh-so-tender, buttery crumb and a flavor like no other.
• Sugar. We’re using a blend of light brown and granulated sugar. The brown sugar imparts moisture and a touch of extra flavor, and of course, granulated sugar creates that pretty, sparkly exterior.
• Cornstarch. Ilove using cornstarch in my cookie recipes. It acts similarly to flour by preventing the cookies from spreading too much, but it does so without making them cakey or dry (the way flour might). It’s key for their soft texture!

SAM’S TIP: As with many of my recipes, this recipe uses unsalted butter and salt instead of salted butter. If you only have salted butter on hand, you can use that and reduce the salt in the recipe to ¼ teaspoon. If you’d like to learn more, I have a full post on why I use unsalted butter instead of salted butter.

As always, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies

1. Cream the butters and sugars until well combined, then stir in the egg and vanilla.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
3. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until combined.
4. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
5. Roll 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized balls between your palms before rolling through granulated sugar.
6. Press the tops of each cookie with a fork to create a criss cross design.
7. Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 9-12 minutes at 350F.
8. Let cool completely on the cookie sheets before enjoying.

SAM’S TIP: Donot over-bake these cookies! The centers should actually seem justslightly under-baked when they come out of the oven. They will finish baking as they cool on the cookie sheet for perfectly soft and chewy results.

Frequently Asked Questions

Looking for a chocolatey peanut butter cookie? Try my peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies!

Enjoy!

Let’s bake together!I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe andvideobelow! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me onInstagram, and you can also find me onYouTubeandFacebook

This recipe was originally published 05/09/2018. The recipe remains the same but more notes, photos and information have been added to the post with the hope to make it as helpful as possible!

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