These soft, thick, melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter cookies may be the only peanut butter cookie recipe you ever use again. 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.
This recipe has lived on my site for years and some readers say the cookies taste like the inside of a peanut butter cup. YUM!
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 has lived on my website since 2012 and 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.
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, 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.
Can I Use Natural Peanut Butter in Peanut Butter Cookies?
Yes, you can use natural peanut butter in this dough! Over the past decade, I’ve made these exact cookies with processed peanut butter such as Jif or Skippy as well as natural-style where the ingredients are only peanuts and salt. Here are my notes:
- Processed: The cookies truly taste perfect with great texture. They spread less and aren’t as crumbly.
- Natural-Style: The cookies spread a bit more and are somewhat sandier/crumblier.
But, most importantly, both cookies have fantastic peanut butter flavor. Keeping the above notes in mind, you can use either kind, just like you can in flourless peanut butter oatmeal 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:
After chilling, roll the dough into balls and then generously roll in granulated sugar. Sugar gives these cookies a sparkly sweet exterior with a touch of crunch before giving way to soft, melt-in-your-mouth bliss. Don’t forget the classic criss-cross on top of each cookie, just press with a fork!
Another success tip: After flattening the balls with a fork, use your fingers to reshape the edges into thicker/taller discs, because the thicker the disc, the thicker the baked cookie.
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:
- Crisp/Old-Fashioned Version: Crispier with less peanut butter punch.
- 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.)
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Cookies (pictured)
- Peanut Butter Blossoms (pictured)
- PB Cookie Cups on page 138 in Sally’s Cookie Addiction
- Peanut Butter M&M Cookies
- Peanut Butter Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- 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.
Print
Soft & Thick Peanut Butter Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes (includes chilling)
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
- Yield: 32 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These are the softest, thickest peanut butter cookies! You need just 9 ingredients for the base recipe, and it can be adapted in so many ways to make different variations (see post above). Do not skip chilling the dough.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/3 cups (170g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick; 115g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar, plus 1/2 cup (100g) for rolling
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (about 185g) creamy peanut butter (see note)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute on high speed until creamy. Switch to medium-high speed and beat in the brown sugar and 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar until completely creamed and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the peanut butter and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until combined. The dough will be very creamy and soft. Cover and chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least 1–2 hours, and up to 3 days.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Roll & coat the dough: Place remaining 1/2 cup (100g) of sugar into a bowl. Roll chilled cookie dough into balls, about 1 scant Tablespoon (5/8 ounce or 18g) of dough each. Roll each ball in the sugar and arrange on baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Use a fork to make a criss-cross indent on top of each. To prevent the cookies from over-spreading, after indenting the cookies, use your fingers to reshape into a thicker disc (since indenting the balls flattened them out).
- Bake for 11–12 minutes or until the edges appear set and are very lightly browned. The centers will still look very soft.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, transfer 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 3 days. 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. See How to Freeze Cookie Dough for more success tips.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Stand Mixer or Handheld) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats | Cooling Rack
- Peanut butter: Creamy peanut butter is ideal for this recipe because crunchy peanut butter creates an overly crumbly cookie. You can use processed peanut butter such as Jif or Skippy, or natural-style peanut butter. If using natural peanut butter, make sure it’s at room temperature, stirred well, and expect a slightly crumblier cookie. 3/4 cup of peanut butter weighs anywhere between 185–195g.
- Can I use almond butter? Yes, you can use almond butter in this cookie recipe; however, expect a crumblier cookie. You may enjoy these flourless almond butter cookies more, though!
- Can I add chocolate chips or other add-ins? Yes, in step 3 after the dry and wet ingredients come together, you can fold in 1 cup add-ins like chocolate chips (180g), peanut butter chips (180g), or chopped salted or unsalted peanuts (150g). Skip indenting the cookies with a fork.
Just finished making these cookies. I must say my roommate says they are delicious. However, I think I might have flattened them just a tad too much but they all came out really beautiful but just not thick. I used a scoop which is exactly 1 and 1/2 tablespoons and then rolled like you said to do. Thanks as always for the great recipe. Wish I were better at making peanut butter cookies so they looked like yours, nice and thick.
This recipe is far from dry. If they come out anything other than soft & beautiful you’ve done something wrong. My family couldn’t eat just one or two sometimes three for that matter. I will be making this again & again!
Same here I used natural peanut butter and it came out super dry and crumbly. Will try again with normal peanut butter or return to old recipe
Mine were dry too. I also think you don’t need to chill them. I baked half the dough right away and then chilled the other half. The unchilled came out better than chilled. They were dry crumbly rocks
Great recipe — as always.
I have been searching for the perfect peanut butter cookie recipe and THIS IS IT! Soft in the center with a light crunch on the outside. I will be printing this one! Thanks for sharing! My family devoured them.
Hi Sally, my cookies taste good but the texture is a little off. They seem almost gritty. Do you mind helping me troubleshoot? I followed the recipe closely, adding chocolate and peanut butter chips when indicated, and chilled the dough for two hours. Thanks!
Hi Erin, it sounds like the butter and sugars may not have been completely creamed together, causing a bit of a grainy after taste. For next time, try another minute or so of creaming the butter and sugars together to make sure they’re fully incorporated. This should help! Thanks so much for giving these cookies a try.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’m a cookies newbie so I really appreciate it!
Wow. I cannot give enough praise!! First off: every single one of Sally’s recipes is good. And I mean REALLY GOOD. Not just mediocre, full-on family favorite deliciously amazingly good. Thank you for the wonderful recipe. They whip up so quickly, and if you want to skip the chill time… then you can! I didn’t chill these, I just did them drop-cookie style, and they turned out soft, a bit crispy on the edges, and packed with peanut butter flavor! I will DEFINITELY be making these again.
Hi Elena, thank you for trusting our recipes. We’re so glad you loved this one!
I made these as a gift to someone who specifically asked for peant butter cookies. They’ve never been a favorite even though I love peanut butter. My aunt made them when I was a kid, and they were so dry! These are much better!
I used “natural” peanut butter because that’s what I had at hand. If I made these again, I’d use “processed” to nudge these over the “soft” line. I think slightly undercooking them would also help to make them softer. Don’t wait for the edges to brown.
For my next trick I will try one of your chocolate cakes with peanut butter frosting. I live on the west coast and cannot buy Drake’s Funny Bones here, so I am very excited to see if I can achieve something better with your assistance.
I’m hoping to make ice cream sandwiches with a peanuts butter/chocolate chip ‘bread’—do you think these would freeze ok and not become too hard? I love your chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich recipe but am hoping to do some with a peanut butter feature!
Hi Natalie, this recipe should work well for ice cream sandwiches – let us know if you give it a try!
They turned out great! I added some chopped chocolate and sandwiched some vanilla ice cream between them! You just need to be a bit gentle when making the sandwich so the cookie doesn’t break!
I only have salted butter will it work in this recipe?
Hi Mel! You can use salted butter, just reduce the amount of salt you include–try using just a pinch.
Great recipe! Question – could you sub cookie butter for the peanut butter? I love Biscoff cookies but a soft version would be yummy!
Hi Toni, we haven’t specifically tested that but that swap will typically work. Or, you might enjoy these Biscoff chocolate chip cookies instead! Feel free to leave out the chocolate chips in that recipe.
I wish I had never met this recipe. Made a batch for a visit by the grandkids, but my husband and I finished them off before they even got here. Outrageously good.
Anxious to try this recipe, but I only have Peter Pan Creamy Honey Peanut Butter. Any chance this would work, or should I just wait until my next trip for groceries?
Hi Debbi! We’re not super familiar with that product – is it thinner than other processed peanut butters? Is it much sweeter? We would wait until you have regular creamy peanut butter for best results!
Hi Sally! I’m excited to try this recipe. If I use them to make ice cream sandwiches should I still roll into a ball and bake?
Yes, definitely!
Texture as described, very soft and chewy however they lacked a strong peanut buttery flavor. Probably my taste buds
Didn’t you have a recipe for giant bakery style pb cookies? With no fork prints? Just rolled in sugar. I can’t find that recipe on your website.
Hi Sarah! Are you looking for our big bakery style peanut butter chunk cookies? They’re a favorite!
These were amazing! Whenever I go online for a baking recipe I know if it says Sallysbakingaddiction it is going to be a guaranteed hit!! Thank you
These are absolutely amazing! I took these to a party and got so many compliments. I’m so glad to have found my go-to PB cookie recipe. Thank you for sharing Sally 🙂
Good cookies, but not great. I thought they were a little dry, trying to figure out what I did wrong.
Hi Patti, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. How did you measure your flour? Be sure to use the spoon and level method (or weight measure) to ensure that excess flour doesn’t make its way into your baked goods, causing them to dry out. You’ll also want to only bake the cookies until the edges appear set and are very lightly browned. The centers will still look very soft. Over baking can cause them to dry out. Hope these tips are helpful for next time, and thank you so much for giving these cookies a try!
Hi! I was wondering if it would affect the cookies if I don’t press them down with a fork
Hi Analorena, You can just slightly flatten the dough balls down with your hand before baking instead of a fork. Enjoy!
Followed the recipe exactly as written. Then added some mini chocolate chips. So easy and quick to put together. Wanted to skip chilling the dough; just because I really wanted to eat cookies. Thought better of it and waited. They were perfect & so delicious!
My cookies came out perfect! Texture was wonderful (firm to the touch but soft to the bite), taste was wonderful, look was wonderful… Overall a great recipe.
These peanut butter cookies are the softest and thickest you’ve ever had! The original recipe only requires 9 components, yet it may be altered in a variety of ways to create other varieties  Do not forget to chill the dough.
I have been gluten free by choice now seven months. I miss sweets until now … I see a one to one flour gluten free for these cookies and OMG a they are perfect!!!!!!
You can not taste the difference plus gluten free is so much more healthier. Thanks for your terrific recipes !!!!!
I made these for an upcoming family gathering and because their are vegans included, had to tweak the recipe a bit. I used a flax egg, which worked well. I used Earth Balance sticks as a butter substitute and I’m not sure I would do that again. I swear I can taste the difference and I think my cookies may have spread a little more than they otherwise would have. They are still delicious, just not quite as expected.
If I make them again, besides using actual factual butter, I would go with a chunky peanut butter to give it an extra peanut flavor boost.
Just wondering if you can freeze these cookies and for how long?
Hi Sherri, see recipe notes for freezing instructions!
I love this recipe! I followed the recipe exactly as shown(I weigh all my ingredients) and I love the texture, they are so soft in the middle and don’t fall apart.
Do you think swapping out the peanut butter for almond butter would also work ?
Hi Surati, Yes, you can use almond butter in this cookie recipe; however, expect a crumblier cookie. You may enjoy these flourless almond butter cookies more, though!
My husband loves peanut butter cookies, I never saw the appeal. The ones I’d had were always dry and crunchy. These are the opposite! So delicious, Sally’s website is always my go-to for any recipe!
These come together so quickly! Love adding milk chocolate chips to the dough as well. Love how they have a slightly crisp edge and the softest center. Never tried a recipe from this site that hasn’t been incredible.
My daughter and I tried several different peanut butter cookie recipes looking for the perfect one. Found this one and the search is over.
Soft thick and oh so peanut buttery!
Tried to give 5 stars but the last star wouldn’t click!
Can you make this recipe with gluten free flour? I haven’t had peanutbutter cookies since I was a kid. This recipe looks great! I am trying to figure out how to eat with less sugar and to eat gluten free so my joints feel better! That being said, I still bake the with them on occasion. Can’t wait to make your cookies.
Hi Patricia! We haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour. However, you may enjoy this almond butter cookies recipe. Swap almond butter for peanut butter. There is no flour at all needed for that recipe.
This is almost the recipe that I use except I omit the regular flour and I use 1/2 oat flour and 1/2 almond flour instead. They are delicious!
Could these be made egg free? My son loves peanut butter but has egg allergy
Hi Michelle, I’ve never made these without egg, however, I think unsweetened applesauce would be a fine substitute here. I would use 3-4 Tablespoons applesauce.
I made these vegan with a flax egg and it worked just fine.