Peanut Butter Cookies

By Genevieve Ko

Published Dec. 8, 2021

Peanut Butter Cookies
Anna Williams for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susan Spungen.
Total Time
45 minutes
Rating
4(571)
Comments
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No mixer is required to make these craggy rounds that deliver all the comfort of eating a spoonful of peanut butter straight out of the jar — but with the creamy-candy richness of peanut butter chips in each bite. (If you’re a crunchy peanut butter person, you can throw in whole salted nuts, too.) Because of their low proportion of flour, these little disks develop fudgy centers inside lightly crisp edges. There are countless varieties of peanut butter in markets and all yield different cookie results. These use natural peanut butter, which is just peanuts blended with salt, so they taste especially peanutty.

Featured in: 24 Days of Cookies

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Ingredients

Yield:About 50 cookies
  • ½cup/65 grams all-purpose flour
  • ½teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, softened
  • ½cup/108 grams granulated sugar
  • ½packed cup/93 grams brown sugar
  • 1cup/263 grams natural salted peanut butter (see Tip), at room temperature
  • 1large egg
  • 2teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1cup/165 grams peanut butter chips
  • ½cup/74 grams lightly salted roasted peanuts (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (50 servings)

98 calories; 7 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 5 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 44 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

  2. Step 2

    Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon or spatula, smash and mix butter and both sugars together until smooth and creamy. Add peanut butter and stir until incorporated. Add egg and vanilla, and stir until well combined. Add flour all at once and fold gently until dry bits disappear, then fold in the peanut butter chips and peanuts, if using, until evenly dispersed.

  3. Step 3

    Using a small cookie scoop or a measuring tablespoon, drop rounds of dough on a prepared sheet, spacing 1½ inches apart. Bake until just dry on top and set along the edges, 10 to 11 minutes. Do not overbake. Scoop and drop dough onto the second sheet while the first bakes, then slide into the oven when the first comes out.

  4. Step 4

    Place the baking sheets on racks to cool completely. The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Tip
  • Look for peanut butter with only roasted peanuts and salt in the ingredient list, and be sure to stir well if the oil is separated. Chunky or creamy is a deeply held personal preference, so choose your favorite.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
571 user ratings
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Comments

pearl

Thank you for giving us recipes that are hand-mixed!

Boxplayer

"No mixer required" is not the same as "no mixer allowed" -- is it?

carol

If you want all natural peanut butter and don’t want to slop around mixing in the oil from the jar, AND if you have a cuisinart, make your own peanut butter. Put a load of peanuts in the bowl with the blade and turn it on. Let it go for a good five minutes. First it crushes the nuts, then it flops around like dough but be patient. It will eventually turn into peanut butter.

Danielle B.

I made these, adding white morsels, plus the lightly salted peanuts/peanut butter chips, and they were a HUGE hit and very tasty. I also use either Jiff or Skippy's natural peanut butter

wildwoods

For years, my go-to pb cookie recipe has been Smitten Kitchen’s salted peanut butter cookies, but Genevieve Ko’s recipe is a contender for the best of the best! I like this recipe mostly as written, without the bulky peanuts, and with mini pb chips instead of the usual size. For my oven, 15 min at 375 is just right for a #40 scooped ball.

Horsefeathers

These cookies are delicious! But they don't scrape off of a tray easily when they're right out of the oven; they need to sit for a bit to become hard enough to move in one piece. (That said, I'm not exactly complaining about eating crumbled warm cookies that didn't successfully make the transition.)

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