Soft & Thick Peanut Butter Cookies

These soft, thick, melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter cookies may be the only peanut butter cookie recipe you ever use again. Some readers say the cookies taste like the inside of a peanut butter cup—YUM! You need just 9 ingredients and the dough can be adapted in many ways to make different variations like peanut butter blossoms and peanut butter jam thumbprints.

I originally published this recipe in 2012 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips.

Why hello there, peanut butter cookie lovers. You’ve come to the right place! This may look familiar, as I have shared a number of peanut butter cookie recipes over the years. But believe me when I say this one is the one to keep in the front of your recipe folder.

This go-to, flagship peanut butter cookies recipe is the same dough used to make these popular peanut butter blossoms among the other 6+ variations listed below. The recipe stands the test of time and even after publishing dozens of other peanut butter recipes online and in my cookbooks… THIS IS THE BEST ONE.

One reader, Joyce, commented: “I’ve been looking for the recipe like my mother used when I was growing up. Soft and chewy in the middle, crispy on the edges, and the perfect peanut butter taste. Takes me back to when I was 9 years old and learning how to make these standing on a chair. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!!! ★★★★★”

Another reader, Faith, commented: “Seriously the BEST peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had! So delicious. The recipe was very easy to follow while still including helpful tips and directions. Thank you! ★★★★★“

And another reader, Rita, commented: “I’ve been baking for my family for 50 years. This is the absolute best cookie recipe we have ever tried. Thanks, Sally. Outstanding! ★★★★★“

Why You’ll Love These Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

• Pillow-soft centers with slightly crisp exterior and crumbly edge
• No-fuss recipe with 9 ingredients
• Super simple to make
• Marked with a traditional criss-cross on top
• Major peanut butter flavor
• Versatile cookie dough—add mix-ins or turn the dough into pb&j thumbprints

Grab These 9 Ingredients:

You can find the full printable recipe below, but first let me tell you some of the keys to recipe success, starting with the ingredients.

Ingredient Success Tips

• A shockingly small amount of flour. You may look at the recipe below and wonder why there’s so little flour… has Sally completely lost her mind?! Ha! Well, peanut butter and other nut butters act as a binder and can actually replace some or all flour in recipes including these flourless almond butter cookies. Using more flour will dry out the cookies, so stick with the recipe below.
• More peanut butter than other recipes. Most recipes I’ve tried call for around 1/2 cup of peanut butter with similar amounts of other ingredients. We’re using more.
• Use creamy peanut butter instead of crunchy. Just like when making peanut butter snickerdoodles, big giant monster cookies, or white chocolate peanut butter cookies, creamy peanut butter is ideal because crunchy peanut butter creates an overly crumbly cookie. Crunchy peanut butter is typically thicker and, well, less creamy! For a soft cookie that stays mostly intact, use creamy peanut butter.
• A combination of brown sugar + white granulated sugar. Like when you make chocolate chip cookies, it’s ideal to use more brown sugar than white granulated sugar in this dough. Brown sugar lends a softer, moister, and thicker cookie, while white granulated sugar helps the cookies spread. Use both, but use more brown.

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Can I Use Natural Peanut Butter in Peanut Butter Cookies?

Another Success Tip: Chill the Cookie Dough

Chilling the cookie dough in the refrigerator before baking the cookies is crucial to this recipe’s success. The dough is incredibly creamy, almost like peanut butter frosting, and you’ll have a heck of a time trying to roll and bake such a soft dough. Set aside 1–2 hours for chilling, or do yourself a favor and make the dough the night before.

Expect a VERY creamy cookie dough:

After chilling, the cookie dough solidifies and it’s easier to roll into balls:

Welcome to the Peanut Butter Cookie Headquarters

Today’s cookies have been my go-to for a decade. If you want to compare, here are 2 other peanut butter cookie doughs and how they differ:

1. Crisp/Old-Fashioned Version: Crispier with less peanut butter punch.
2. Very Peanut Butter Cookies: Bigger and crumblier with EXTRA peanut butter flavor. It’s practically today’s recipe, only doubled. This is the same dough we use for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

The following recipes use today’s dough. (Note that the plain cookies have an extra Tablespoon of flour to retain shape because we’re flattening with a fork.)

1. Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Cookies (pictured)
2. Peanut Butter Blossoms (pictured)
3. PB Cookie Cups on page 138 in Sally’s Cookie Addiction
4. Peanut Butter M&M Cookies
5. Peanut Butter Jam Thumbprint Cookies
6. Reese’s Cup Stuffed Cookies

So whether you’re looking for a classic criss-cross cookie or want to add some flair, this soft-baked peanut butter cookie is the ideal base recipe for many variations.

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