PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

Homemade Peanut Butter Cookies are the best!This peanut cookie recipe will help you make soft peanut butter cookies in Five Simple Steps.

Like our Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies,this is one of my family favorites.My two little boys love these peanut butter cookies.

INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick, 4 ounces, 115 g), room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100 g) white granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (100 g) packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (194 g) peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups (195 g) all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

HOW TO MAKE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

1.MIX TOGETHER THE DRY INGREDIENTS IN A BOWL

Whisk together,Flour,Baking soda and Salt in a bowl.

2.COMBINE TOGETHER ALL THE OTHER INGREDIENTS IN ANOTHER BOWL

In another bowl,add the softened butter,peanut butter,sugar and combine them together.

We can do this with our hands using a balloon whisk or you can use a hand mixer which is so easy.

When the ingredients are well combined,add the vanilla essence and egg and whisk them together.

Now we got two bowls one with dry ingredients and one with wet ingredients.

3.COMBINE TOGETHER THE WET AND DRY INGREDIENTS

Add the flour mix into the cream mix and combine them together.

Here i used a spatula to mix them together.While mixing,make sure there are no dry patches left behind.

Now our cookie dough is ready.

Now we need to chill the dough.So cover the bowl with a plastic film and keep it in refrigerator for 45 minutes or until it’s cooled.

Chilling the dough for a few hours will help the peanut butter cookies maintain their shape, and not overly spread when cooked.

3.SHAPE THE COOKIE DOUGH

Shape the dough into 1 1/4 inch balls (1 1/2 table spoon;about 35-40g by weight). Place the balls of dough about 3 inches apart on un-greased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork. (It helps to dip the fork in sugar to keep it from sticking to the dough.)

4.BAKE THE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

Bake at 350°F until light brown, about 10-12 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool in their baking sheets for a minute. After a minute, transfer the cookies to a rack to cool completely

If you like your cookies more crispy, bake at a reduced temperature for longer time;Bake at 325F for unto 15 minutes.

TIPS THAT HELP YOU BAKE BEST PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

• Chill the dough. Chilling the dough for a few hours will help the peanut butter cookies maintain their shape, and not overly spread when cooked.
• Dip the fork in sugar. To help keep the fork from sticking when you make a cross-hatch pattern on the cookies, dip the tines in a little granulated sugar between cookies

WATCH THE VIDEO TO SEE HOW EASY IT IS TO MAKE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

HOW DO I STORE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES?

My Peanut Butter Cookies will keep for 3-4 days covered and stored them in an airtight container at room temperature.  These cookies are as good warm as they are cool. They stay crunchy on the outside and nice and soft in the middle making them a great bake ahead cookie or edible gift!

CAN YOU USE NATURAL PEANUT BUTTER IN PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES?

“Natural” peanut butter is much thinner than regular peanut butter at room temperature, and tends to be extra firm when chilled. It rarely has extra ingredients added to it and it separates easily into the oil and peanuts used to make the butter.

Regular storebought peanut butter is creamy and thick, even at room temperature, and usually has salt and sugar in addition to peanuts.

Natural peanut butter is often unsalted, so you may need to add additional salt to a recipe. It might also seem saltier than regular peanut butter because of the lack of sugar in the mix, so you might want to cut back on the salt in the recipe by 1/4 tsp if you are very sensitive to it.

Natural peanut butter cookies tend to spread out more, and frequently have a crispier texture (this is often do to a higher proportion of oil in the mix) than cookies made with regular peanut butter. Since they spread out more, they sometimes need a slightly shorter baking time.

Most recipes will deliver a similar result no matter which type of peanut butter you use.So you can use whatever type of peanut butter is available in your hands ;but understanding the differences will help you to adjust and adapt the recipe.

WHY ARE MY PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES DRY AND CRUMBLY?

1.Too much flour can cause a crumbly cookie. Make sure to measure flour by spooning through it lightly in its container to lighten it, then spoon lightly into a dry measuring cup 

2.Not enough fat or the wrong kind of fat can cause a crumbly cookie.Use real butter when called for and not substitutes. Butter substitutes and margarine contain water and can actually cause crumbly texture since they lack the fat to coat all of the flour.

3.Overbaking can also cause a crumbly cookie.Either the baking temperature is higher than required or baked for two long duration.

WHY DID MY PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES GO FLAT?

Mistake 1: Butter (or margarine or shortening) in the dough is too soft

This recipe calls for chilling the dough before shaping the cookie.If you don’t do this step,the butter will be so soft that it will melt faster in the oven. When that happens, cookies will flatten before they’ve been able to set.

Mistake 2: Using the wrong fat

If you use margarine instead of butter or butter instead of shortening, chances are you’re going to get different result. They melt at different temperatures and each has a different percentage of fat.

Mistake 3: Too much sugar

Sugar is solid at room temperature, but liquefies when heated. If you’re heavy-handed when measuring, that extra sugar means extra liquid and more spread when the cookies bake up in the oven.

Mistake 4: Over-greased baking sheets

For this peanut butter cookies, there’s enough fat in the dough to keep them from sticking to your baking sheets—no greasing required. If they’re greased unnecessarily, the dough will flatten too much as it bakes.

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES PRINTABLE RECIPE