Check your pantry, because you probably have everything you need to whip up a batch of these soft and chewy peanut butter cookies!
Course Cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies, easy peanut butter cookies
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 10 minutesminutes
Total Time 20 minutesminutes
Servings 18cookies
Calories 132kcal
Author Blair Lonergan
Ingredients
1cupcreamy peanut butter(such as Jif or Skippy brand)
1cupgranulated sugar, plus extra for rolling
1large egg, at room temperature
Optional, but recommended: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the peanut butter and 1 cup of sugar until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla, and salt. Mix on medium speed for about 1 more minute.
Place about ½ cup of additional granulated sugar in a shallow dish.
Using a cookie scoop (about 1 ½ tablespoons), roll dough into balls and coat in sugar. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Gently flatten each cookie by using a fork to make a crisscross pattern on top.
Bake for 10 minutes, or just until set and lightly brown on the edges. The cookies should still be soft in the centers so that they stay chewy when cooled.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Notes
Don't grease the cookie sheet. The dough will not stick, so there's no need for nonstick spray or parchment paper.
For thinner, flatter cookies, press down harder with the fork. The dough won't spread too much in the oven, so you can control the size and thickness of your cookies.
Use a processed peanut butter (like Jif or Skippy) rather than all-natural peanut butter. The processed nut butters do not separate, which yields a better quality cookie.
Forsoft peanut butter cookies, pull the cookies out of the oven when they still look slightly under-baked in the center. They will firm up as they cool, but will remain nice and chewy on the inside.
The cook time is just an estimate, and will vary depending on your individual oven. Keep a close eye on the cookies and pull them out when they are set and lightly golden brown on the edges. Don't overbake, or you'll end up with crunchy pb cookies!
This recipe yields a fairly small batch of just 18 cookies. You can double or triple the ingredients to bake more cookies.
Substitute with crunchy peanut butter if you like little bits of crunchy peanuts in your cookies.
Add chopped, salted, roasted peanuts to the dough for an extra-crunchy cookie with great flavor and texture.
For peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, stir about ½ cup of your favorite chocolate chips into the dough. We like mini semi sweet chocolate chips here.
Rolling the dough in extra sugar adds a nice texture and flavor to the cookies; however, this step is optional. Skip it if you don't want to bother!