Packed with double the peanut butter, these very peanut butter cookies boast a dense flavor, remarkably soft texture, and a deliciously crumbly edge.
I know these cookies look familiar to you. Peanut butter cookies are nothing new in our kitchens and certainly nothing new on Sally’s Baking Addiction. Along with oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies rank high on my repeat recipes list!
I have a recipe for crispy old-fashioned style peanut butter cookies on my website and another in Sally’s Cookie Addiction. Then there’s these ultra soft and thick peanut butter cookies that serve as the base for variations like peanut butter blossoms and peanut butter and jam thumbprints. But can there be room for one more? With 2 cups of peanut butter in the cookie dough, today’s extra soft cookies steal the spotlight. We’re using the same cookie dough as my bakery-style peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and white chocolate peanut butter cookies, recipes I’ve grown to love so much because of all their flavor. Today’s cookies are easy to make, completely packed with flavor, and boast a deliciously crumbly criss-cross pattern on top. Love them!
Less Flour, More Peanut Butter
I call these very peanut butter cookies because they’re packed with 2 cups of peanut butter in the dough. This is 2x the amount of my classic peanut butter cookies AND they have less flour, so you can be sure today’s cookies are dense with flavor! They remind me of these peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in terms of peanut butter flavor, but they don’t have the chewy oat texture.
By the way, did you know that nut butter can take the place of flour in some recipes? These flourless almond butter cookies require just 5 ingredients. Almond butter provides enough structure and stability so there’s no need for any flour at all. If you’re looking for a gluten free peanut butter cookie, use that recipe and replace the almond butter with peanut butter.
Here’s What You’ll Love:
- Crumbly edges
- Packed with flavor
- Extra soft
- Crisp sugar coating
- Easy straightforward recipe
My first piece of advice… make a double batch so you can freeze some for later. Here’s everything you need to know about how to freeze cookie dough. No need to thaw, just bake for an extra minute or two. You never know when a cookie emergency will rear its head. You might not have time to make cookies from scratch, but you’ll have frozen peanut butter cookie dough. That’s a lifesaver!
Success Tips
- Use room temperature butter. Make sure the butter is cool to touch, not overly warm or melted. Here’s what room temperature butter really means.
- Use more granulated sugar than brown sugar. When making chocolate chip cookies, I always prefer to use more brown sugar than white sugar because that ratio produces a softer cookie. With all of the peanut butter in this cookie dough, however, too much brown sugar made the cookies so soft that they fell apart.
- Chill the cookie dough. Chilling the cookie dough is important, but this dough is thick so it doesn’t need hours inside the refrigerator. A quick 1 hour of chilling will prevent the cookies from over-spreading.
Best Peanut Butter for Cookies
The most common mistake with peanut butter cookies is using the wrong type of peanut butter. The BEST peanut butter for today’s cookies is a processed creamy peanut butter, preferably Jif or Skippy. Natural-style peanut butter is my choice for eating, but it just doesn’t produce the same type of cookie as its processed counterpart. With so much peanut butter in this cookie dough, natural peanut butter will give you a dry, crumbly cookie.
If you prefer peanut chunks, use Jif or Skippy crunchy. See recipe note.
Want to add extra peanut flavor? Go for it! Fold 1/2 cup of chopped peanuts or peanut butter chips into the cookie dough. Or you could even drizzle peanut butter on top like we do with these peanut butter chocolate cookies. YUM!
I’ve made hundreds of different cookie recipes and can say with 100% confidence that these have the most peanut butter flavor of any cookie I’ve ever tried.
More No-Fail Cookie Recipes
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft & Thick Monster Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Sugar Cookies
Very Peanut Butter Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
- Yield: 40 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Packed with double the peanut butter, these very peanut butter cookies boast a dense flavor, remarkably soft texture, thick center, and a deliciously crumbly edge. Chill the cookie dough for at least 1 hour to prevent excess spreading.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 cups (500g) creamy peanut butter*
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar for rolling
- optional: 1/2 cup (65g) finely chopped peanuts
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Add the eggs and beat on high until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the peanut butter and vanilla, then beat on high speed until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, then mix on low until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, add the peanuts, if using. Dough will be thick and soft.
- Cover and chill the dough for 1 hour in the refrigerator (and up to 2-3 days). If chilling for longer than a few hours, though, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
- Roll cookie dough into balls, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie (I like to use this medium cookie scoop), and then roll the balls in granulated sugar. Use a fork to make a crisscross indent on top of each. Bake each batch for 10-12 minutes until very lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven. Cool cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls, without sugar coating, freeze well for up to 3 months. Let frozen cookie dough balls sit on the counter for 30 minutes, roll in sugar, indent a crisscross pattern with a fork, then bake for an extra minute. No need to completely thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Peanut Butter: It’s best to use a processed peanut butter like Jif creamy or Skippy creamy. I do not suggest using natural style, oily peanut butter. Crunchy peanut butter adds peanut chunks as well as a more crumbly texture. I prefer to use creamy in this recipe.
- Check out my top 5 cookie baking tips before beginning. It includes how to prevent cookies from over-spreading and why room temperature makes a difference.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Just wondering how to adjust salt as I only have salted butter
Hi Shelley, you can use salted butter in a pinch. Feel free to reduce the added salt to 1/4 teaspoon
I made these cookies tonight. However, something is off. They are very small. They don’t spread out very much. The tablespoon and a half measurement was way too much because they weren’t spreading enough to cook in the center. I had to increase the time to bake the first batch. So, next batch I decreased the amount of batter and then I was able to decrease the time but they’re still coming out really small. I’m making the indent with a fork and that flattens them out a little bit but they barely spread out. Any ideas?
Hi Nicole, if cookies aren’t spreading, it usually means that there’s too much dry ingredient (flour) soaking up all the liquid. Make sure you are properly measuring your flour (weighing it or spoon & level). If you’re in the middle of baking a batch and the cookies still aren’t spreading, remove them from the oven, and bang the pan on the counter 2-3x before returning them to the oven. Hope these tips help for next time!
So glad you include the weights as well as the measurements for the dry ingredients. I find that my recipes turn out better when I go by weight.
I only have simply jif. Will I need to adjust the salt in the recipe?
Hi Debbie, you should be able to use that peanut butter without any changes to this recipe.
Could this dough be used for Peanut Blossom cookies? (I found your Peanut Blossom recipe and the dough has different proportions)
Hi Martha, you can! They just won’t be as puffy and thick as traditional peanut butter blossoms. Equally delicious, though!
How long would you bake these if making large/XL Cookies? (50-60g) would they still turn out good?
Hi Abby! You can reference the baking times/temp from our XL chocolate chip cookies recipe.
Very yummy, i am not aa overly-pb-lover, but these were delicious. will make again!
This recipe is great!! I tried it and chilled it for more than 1 hour to 3 hours and it turned out amazing!
These are perfect. I never need to try another peanut butter cookie recipe again. True peanut butter flavor, crispy edged, and chewy.
I love these cookies, but mine turned out way too crumbly. I don’t think I over baked, but even if I did (somewhat), I’ve never seen this result.
Hi Susan, Are they totally cooled? They can be crumbly if they’re still warm. Over-baking or over-measuring your flour will also cause crumbly cookies.
These are the best I’ve ever had, I added chocolate chip’s and cinnamon chips
Best tasting pb cookie I have found. Freezing the dough balls
, thawing, rolling and baking gave me very very crumbly cookies. Tried thawing completely before baking, but that did not help. In future, I will bake and then freeze. The super high fat to flour ratio is why the cookie is so flavorful and a little delicate.
Can these be made into bars in a 9×13 pan? What adjust ments do I need to make? Thank you!
Hi Meme, these cookies should work well as bars. We’d recommend a 9×9 square pan. We’re unsure of the best bake time.
I halved the recipe, used fresh ground cinnamon almond/cashew butter (280g instead of 250, because who wants to store 30g of nut butter), added ginger and anise powders and a tiny splash of almond extract (with the vanilla). Portioned and chilled for about an hour. Rolled in demerara sugar, pressed and baked for 11 min at 350. Rested on the pan for 5 min then transferred to a rack. These things are so stinking good!
Yes, I did have a fairly oily dough because of the non-processed nut butter and the touch extra, but once chilled it was totally fine. I can see it would be off putting or concerning if you were new to the party. Ended up making about 37 cookies (some dough may have gotten eaten along the way) sightly bigger than an average chips ahoy.
This is one of my favorite cookie recipes it’s so yummy.
Since theses are no ordinary peanut butter cookie, I use the bottom of one of my inherited Waterford crystal glasses to press the cookie with sugar.
Brilliant idea! I used the bottom of a scotch glass. It was pretty, and the glass did not stick to the cookies.
This is the best peanut butter cookie recipe I’ve tried
I found these to crumble and not hold together at all, complete mess and I won’t be making these ever again! Horrible
Hi Ivy, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. Did you use processed peanut butter like Jiff? A natural peanut butter isn’t the best to use here (see notes). Dry cookie dough can also be caused by too much flour in the dough. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
Merely a smiling visitant here to share the love (:, btw outstanding design and style.
This is the best peanut butter cookie recipe I have ever made! It checks all of the boxes. Wonderful texture, loads of peanut butter flavor (why else would you make them?!) and SOFT. I was never quite happy with my old recipe, and had never found a recipe worthy of replacing it, but this one takes the cake! (pardon the pun.) Peanut butter cookie perfection. Thank you!
Love the recipe bcuz it’s got 2 cups of peanut butter and I use the “oily” kind- processed peanut butter is gross. These cookies turn out perfect every time!
This my favorite recipe for peanut butter cookies. I follow it to a tee. This time I did add PB morsels. I chilled the dough but when I baked the first batch, they taste great, but they’re crumbling after baking. Is there something I’ve done? Can you recommend something to do to fix the remaining dough? This has never happened before.
Thanks !!
Hi Susan! Are they totally cooled? They can be crumbly if they’re still warm. Over-baking will also cause crumbly cookies.
The problem is that the cookies turn out very short, with a tendency to crumble into dust.
I’ve made these several times and they always turn out fantastically. Next, I’m going to try using brown butter and rolling them in toasted sugar.
Sally has done it again! I am getting quite the baking reputation because of Sally’s recipes. Wonderful flavor and nice soft texture. I didn’t change a thing. Next time I want to add some 60% cacao chocolate chips.
Killer classic PB cookies! Spot on rich peanut butter flavor, crispy edges, chewy centers. Made recipe as written and added the optional 1/2 cup of finely ground peanuts, which I toasted first. Baked 1/2 batch today, freezing the remaining dough for another day. Mine were a larger so added three minutes to time.
Lovely peanut butter flavor. I don’t like large cookies. I like cookies to be two or three bites. I made the recipe to the EXACT measurements listed. I rolled the dough after mixing, into small balls, then put them in fridge for two hours. I used a jar lid to flatten them into 2” diameter circles, after I placed them on the cooking sheet. Baked for 10-11 minutes. They came out perfect! Any less time and they will crumble. I just kept increasing time by one minute increments until I achieved the proper texture. At the size I made them, I came out with 95-100 cookies. I am definitely saving this recipe in my box!
Hi! I have always had great success with your recipes. Around 2014/2015 I made peanut butter cookies on repeat from your site. I think the title was something like “peanut butter lovers’ cookies”. It included extra chopped roasted nuts and peanut butter cups, I think. Is this the same base recipe? I can’t seem to find the one I always used to use. Thanks!
Hi Jennifer, that recipe is no longer available on the site, but I can send it to you by email if you send a request to sally@sallysbakingaddiction.com
Thanks for responding so quickly!
These are perfect. And I got out my cookie stamps and stamped them instead of using the fork. I rarely get to use the stamps. They came out wonderfully!
I love this recipe because of the “very peanut butter” taste. I’ve used regular peanut butter and today I tried natural peanut butter (Trader Joe’s). Didn’t have any texture problems with the natural pb and they are really good but find that I prefer the regular pb (specifically Jif).
I made these for several people and everyone agreed they are the BEST peanut butter cookies. Thank you!!! Soon I want to try a keto gluten free version for my husband and myself.
these cookies are Phenomenal,,,the best peanut butter cookies out there!