Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies
These PERFECT peanut butter cookies definitely live up to their name! They contain all of the best textures – soft, buttery, chewy, rich – along with a delicious crunchy peanut sprinkle coating. It’s also an unexpected peanut butter cookie, leaving the fork criss cross behind and adding a bit of color to give these cookies the attention they deserve.
Reasons to LOVE These Peanut Butter Cookies
With so many peanut butter cookie recipes out there, why choose this one?
For starters, the peanut butter flavor is so rich along with a peanut crunch coating. Those layers of peanut flavor make these cookies absolute perfection.
Combining peanut butter with honey is so nostalgic for me because I great up on peanut butter and honey sandwiches. So when I was developing this recipe, I knew I had to find a way to sneak some in.
Swapping some sugar with a bit of honey creates a dense and chewy texture that’s unlike any other peanut butter cookie.
Paired with a touch of cornstarch, these cookies hit the perfect balance of chewy and soft.
Last but not least, these cookies can be made to your liking. Chill the dough for 30 minutes for a thin but rich cookie, or chill for a few hours to get thick but soft peanut butter cookies.
Either way, you’ll definitely be making this your new go-to peanut butter cookie recipe.
Peanut Butter Cookie Baking Tips
To make sure your peanut butter cookies do, in fact, turn out PERFECT, here’s what you need to know:
- Flour – For accuracy, weigh the flour if possible. Otherwise, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it off for a light and fluffy cup.
- Peanut Butter – Use standard creamy peanut butter that doesn’t contain any oil seperation. Do not use natural peanut butter.
- Cornstarch – Don’t skip this! It adds a delicious delicate chew to these peanut butter cookies. A similar starch, like tapioca flour or arrowroot powder, can be used as well.
- Mixing – After adding in the flour, mix with the electric mixture until the dough thickens. Then switch to a rubber spatula and mix the rest together by hand. This ensures the dough is well incorporated without over mixing.
- Size – For the best results, use a large cookie scoop. A larger cookie produces a variety of textures with golden chewy edges and a soft center.
- Baking – Furthermore, pull the cookies when the center still looks a bit underdone. The residual heat will continue to cook the cookie outside of the oven to produce a perfectly soft center.
Troubleshooting – My Peanut Butter Cookies Spread Too Much
There are many reasons why cookies can spread too much, but here are some of the most common:
- Under Mixing – If all of the ingredients are not well incorporated, it creates a weak structure for the dough. Give the dough a really good mix with every step except for the flour. Once the flour is added, take your time and gently combine the dough to ensure the flour is fully incorporated without over working the dough.
- Rich Butter – For all of my recipes, unless otherwise noted, I use basic unsalted butter. If you opt for a more rich butter like European-style or Irish butter, that extra fat can cause cookies to spread more.
- Flour – There may have been an issue with how the flour was measured. For accuracy, I always suggest weighing.
- Peanut Butter – Use standard creamy peanut butter for this recipe. Natural peanut butter can cause the cookies to spread too thin.
- Chilling – When in doubt, just chill the dough for a bit longer and that should help the spread.
Peanut Butter Cookies FAQs
For this recipe, no. Make sure to use standard creamy peanut butter that doesn’t contain any oil seperation. Creamy Jif, Skippy, or store brand is ideal.
Yes, as long as it’s not a natural version. Use a crunchy peanut butter that doesn’t contain oil seperation.
I haven’t tested it but if I were to try, I would simply swap the flour with an all-purpose gluten free baking flour. I like Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur Flour.
Yes, feel free to skip the peanut sprinkles and just use sugar for the coating.
Yes, but the sprinkle coating likely won’t hold up so I suggest leaving out the sprinkles and just use sugar and peanuts (or just sugar). After the dough has chilled for 30 minutes, roll and coat the balls and then place into a freezer bag to freeze for a couple months. Allow the dough to thaw before baking.
These peanut butter cookies should be kept in an air tight container at room temperature. Since they contain honey, the cookies will stay soft for quite some time. But they should be consumed within 5 days for the best flavor and texture.
For more peanut butter cookies, check out my:
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
- Peanut Butter Neapolitan Cookies
- Pan-Banging Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
Make sure to tag me @butternutbakery on Instagram and comment below if you make these Peanut Butter Cookies. To pin this recipe and save it for later, you can use the button on the recipe card or on any of the photos above. Happy baking!
Watch how to make these perfect peanut butter cookies:
Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies
- Total Time: 1 hour 27 minutes
- Yield: 15 cookies
Description
These peanut butter cookies are absolute PERFECTION with a soft, rich, and chewy texture and a coating of crunchy peanut sprinkles (because they’re way more fun than the classic fork criss cross).
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Cookies
- 1/2 cup (108g) unsalted butter, room temp
- 2/3 cup (175g) creamy peanut butter
- 3/4 cup (155g) light brown sugar
- 3 tbsp (57g) honey
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 1/3 cup (175g) all-purpose flour
Peanut Crunch Sprinkles
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp sparkling sugar (or more granulated sugar)
- 3 tbsp rainbow sprinkles
- 1/4 cup dry roasted salted peanuts, uniform finely chopped
Instructions
Peanut Butter Cookies
- In a large mixing bowl using a hand or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and peanut butter until smooth.
- Add the brown sugar and mix again until smooth.
- Mix in the honey, egg, and vanilla extract.
- Then mix in the baking soda, salt, and cornstarch until well incorporated.
- Last, mix in the flour. Switch to a rubber spatula and mix by hand to ensure it’s fully mixed in.
- Cover the bowl and chill for at least 30 minutes. *30 minutes will provide a cookie that looks like the photos here, but chill for a couple hours and the cookie will bake a bit thicker. You can also chill the dough overnight. To do so, chill the dough for 30 minutes then roll and coat the balls, cover, and chill.
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small dish, mix together the peanut sprinkles. Feel free to add more sprinkles or peanuts for a hefty coating.
- Using a large cookie scoop (3 tbsp worth), scoop the dough and roll in the coating. The dough should be soft and a tiny bit sticky.
- Place 4 cookies on the baking pan and bake for 12-14 minutes or until the edges are golden and the center looks pale, puffed, and slightly underdone.
- Immediately after pulling the cookies from the oven, use the inside curve of a fork to nudge in the sizes to create uniform cookies.
- Let the cookies rest on the pan for a couple minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack and continue baking the batch.
- The cookies are best at room temperature. Enjoy!
Equipment
Buy Now → - Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cooling Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Join Our Community
Meet Jenna
I’m the creator, baker, and photographer behind Butternut Bakery. Here I share desserts for every diet because I believe everyone should have a chance to indulge!
Very delicious!
Thanks so much!
Delicious
I wasn’t sure what sparkling sugar was, but substituted turbinado sugar. These cookies turned out great! Loved that crunch coating, took me back to childhood at DQ. Great recipe, Jenna.