These soft and chewy peanut butter cookies are adapted from a tried and true bakery recipe. This recipe makes a dozen medium cookies that are melt-in-your-mouth delicious!
I'm excited to announce that these peanut butter cookies are the first dessert recipe in my new series "Lynn's Desserts". I'll get into what that means a little further below, but if you're just here for the cookie recipe, let me tell you about these delicious peanut butter cookies!
This recipe makes a dozen medium-sized peanut butter cookies, or 18 small cookies. The cookies are soft but dense, a little chewy, and coated in sugar. And, of course, they have the classic crosshatch on top.
These cookies don't reinvent the wheel. They're just plain good bakery-style cookies adapted from a recipe that has made thousands of cookies. I like them even better than the peanut butter cookies I use with my peanut butter brookies, and that's saying something!
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Why this recipe works
This is the first recipe I'm sharing from my Lynn's Desserts series. Lynn is my good friend that I met in Athens, Georgia. She owned a cafe and baked large batches of desserts in Athens for many years, and not only am I lucky enough to know her, but I'm lucky enough to be given her dessert recipes to adapt.
I say adapt because the majority of the cookie recipes make 100 cookies! I did some math and recipe testing and cut the cookie recipe down into a more manageable amount, say a stick of butter instead of 4 pounds of butter.
Her cookies were well-loved in Athens. In fact, she has had people reach out to her decades later asking for the recipes. She also has recipes for cakes, pies, and bars, and I'll be sharing those as time goes on, as well.
I'll include a few of Lynn's tips in this post, in addition to the usual ingredient swaps, step by step photos, and FAQ. Now let's get to the peanut butter cookies!
Ingredients
- Peanut butter: I tested this recipe with regular and natural peanut butter. Both work well.
- All-purpose flour: If you aren't using a scale to measure ingredients (which I recommend you do), make sure to spoon flour into the measuring cup and level it with the back of a knife. This ensures the most consistent measure of flour.
- Unsalted butter: This is where I deviate a bit from the original cookies. We're using real butter. Lynn's cookies typically used a butter replacement as the cost of using real butter didn't even out, especially in 90s Athens. Unlike margarine or Crisco, this butter replacement was actually a 1:1 swap with standard butter.
- Granulated sugar: Standard white sugar. Used for the cookie dough and to roll the cookies in.
- Dark brown sugar: Has a bit more depth than light brown sugar, but light brown sugar will work just fine if that's all you have on hand.
- Molasses: Just a small amount is added to the cookies, so they aren't exactly molasses crinkles, but the molasses does add extra depth and chewiness.
- Salt: Use table salt, like iodized salt.
- Baking soda: This leavens the cookies.
Step-by-step instructions
The butter should be room temperature before creaming it with the sugar. To speed up the process, slice the butter thinly and let rest in a warm place. I typically put butter out on the counter at least an hour before baking.
Ideally the egg will also be room temperature, but I find that this step is much less important.
- In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer or stand mixer to cream together the butter and sugar on low speed, until light and fluffy. This takes about a minute.
- Mix in the egg, peanut butter, molasses, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix this into the wet mixture just ~½ cup at a time, until well combined. The dough should be firm but scoopable and easy to roll into balls.
- Use a tablespoon to measure out roughly 2-tablespoon-sized portions of cookie dough. Roll into balls, then coat in granulated sugar.
- Transfer to a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet, leaving roughly 3 inches between each cookie. Bake in batches, as needed.
- Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are set and the top no longer appears doughy. Let rest for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. The cookies will continue to firm up as they cool.
Top tips
- Natural peanut butter tends to be looser than standard peanut butter (like Jif or Smucker's) because it doesn't contain hydrogenated oils or emulsifiers. If using natural peanut butter, the jar needs to be stirred very well before measuring it, because the peanut oil naturally floats to the top of the jar. If you measure without stirring you will likely be measuring more oil than peanuts, which will greatly affect the cookies.
- Use a kitchen scale. I'm serious, this is just worth it. I use this scale. All of Lynn's recipes included both weights and standard measurements, but when I was testing I primarily used gram weights because it leads to the most consistent results.
- If using salted butter instead of unsalted butter I recommend decreasing the added table salt by ¼ teaspoon, as a stick of salted butter typically contains ¼ to ½ teaspoon of salt.
- Some peanut butters are saltier than others, just like some salted butters are saltier than others. If using a particularly salty peanut butter (just taste it to check), I recommend decreasing the added salt by a pinch or two.
FAQ
I tested them both ways, and I find that the peanut butter cookies look and taste better with the sugar. If you do opt out of using the sugar coating, the cookies will still be delicious.
What makes a peanut butter cookie a peanut butter cookie? I'd argue that the crosshatch is integral to that classic bakery-style cookie, along with the sugar coating. The crosshatch doesn't affect the texture too much, it's more of a visual component that peanut butter cookies are known for.
Storage tips
- If storing the peanut butter cookeis at room temperature, leftover cookies are best within 3 to 4 days. Let cool completely on a wire cooling rack before trasnferring to a container.
- Freezing: Cookies freeze well! Let them cool completely before transferring to an airtight container. The cookie dough also freezes well, just let thaw overnight or add a minute or two in the oven to frozen pre-portioned cookie dough.
- Make in advance: The dough can be made 24 hours in advance as long as it is kept in an airtight container. Otherwise, it will start to dry out. Let the cookie dough sit at room temp for 15-20 minutes before portioning it out.
- If baking pre-portioned cookie dough directly from the fridge or freezer, just note that the cookies won't spread as much.
More delicious cookie recipes
This recipe is part of my Lynn's Dessert series, which features classic bakery recipes that have been made hundreds of times. If you enjoy this recipe, make sure to check out one of the many other desserts in the series or leave a comment below to let us know what you think.
Recipe
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Peanut Butter Cookies
Equipment
- 1 hand mixer or stand mixer
- 1 medium mixing bowl
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar (10 tablespoons)
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (6 tablespoons) plus more for coating the cookie dough
- 1 large egg ideally room temp
- ½ cup peanut butter see note #2
- 1 ½ teaspoons molasses
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (optional but recommended.)
- In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer or stand mixer to cream together the room temperature butter and sugars on low speed, until light and fluffy. This takes about a minute.
- Mix in the egg, peanut butter, molasses, and vanilla extract until well combined, about 30 seconds.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix this into the wet mixture just ~½ cup at a time, until well combined. The dough should be firm but scoopable and easy to roll into balls.
- Use a tablespoon to measure out roughly 2-tablespoon-sized portions of cookie dough (roughly 40g per cookie). Roll into balls, then coat in granulated sugar.
- Transfer to a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet, leaving roughly 3 inches between each cookie. Use a fork to press a crosshatch pattern gently into the top of each cookie. Bake in batches, as needed.
- Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are set and the top no longer appears doughy. I find 11 minutes to be the best time for a thick, chewy cookie. After removing from the oven, let rest for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. The cookies will continue to firm up as they cool.
Video
Notes
- To speed up the butter softening process I like to slice it into smaller pieces and set it in a warm area instead of just setting a stick on the counter. In an ideal world the egg will also be room temp, but I don't find that it affects the cookies enough to make it a requirement.
- Peanut butter: I tested this recipe with both "natural" (no emulsifiers or hydrogenated fats) and standard peanut butter (think Jif, Smuckers.) Both work. If using natural, make sure to stir it very well before measuring.
- Lynn's tip: Only half of the dough ball needs to be coated in sugar. This keeps the bottom from burning. However, I think this is more applicable when not using parchment paper, as I had no trouble with sugar burning when baking the cookies on parchment.
- I highly recommend using a kitchen scale and following the metric measurements listed under the "metric" tab. I also include US customary measurements as I know that's the standard for most home bakers in the US.
- This recipe makes 12 medium cookies or 18 small cookies. To make small cookies, portion out heaping tablespoon sized dough (roughly 1.5 tablespoons per cookie) and start checking the cookies at the 8 minute mark.
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