Peanut Butter Cookies

By Genevieve Ko

Published December 7, 2021

  • Anna Williams for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susan Spungen.
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
45 minutes
Rating
4(578)
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.

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Ingredients

Yield:About 50 cookies

  • ½ cup/65 grams all-purpose flour

  • ½ teaspoon baking powder

  • ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt

  • ½ cup/113 grams unsalted butter, softened

  • ½ cup/108 grams granulated sugar

  • ½ packed cup/93 grams brown sugar

  • 1 cup/263 grams natural salted peanut butter (see Tip), at room temperature

  • 1 large egg

  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

  • 1 cup/165 grams peanut butter chips

  • ½ cup/74 grams lightly salted roasted peanuts (optional)

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving

7 grams carbs; 9 milligrams cholesterol; 98 calories; 3 grams monosaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 7 grams fat; 1 gram fiber; 44 milligrams sodium; 3 grams protein; 5 grams sugar

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
578 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.

Lissa

Yay for natural peanut butter recipe (because that's usually what I have)! I used tiny pb cups for the pb chips. I didn't expect these to be so sweet because less sugar than other recipes, but will try cutting down the sugar next time (doesn't always work with cookies, since sugar is what gives them their texture). Mine didn't flatten out like the picture, but cooked through fine with a couple minutes more--possibly due to using BRM GF one-for-one flour. Otherwise quite delicious and rich.

E

Substituted natural peanut butter for Skippy chunky PB because it’s what I had. Beware—the added 3/4 salt made these cookies way too salty, so next time I would forgo the salt altogether when substituting processed peanut butter. That’s on me for subbing it in but wanted to make a PSA! The texture is great otherwise and the cookies did taste delicious.

Robyn GN

Is it really baking powder? Most cookies use baking soda. I thought these were a little cakey.

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