This recipe for the easiest peanut butter cookies you'll ever make involves one bowl, melted butter, no mixer, and no chilling. It delivers soft, intensely flavored peanut butter cookies every time!
Course Dessert
Keyword cookies, peanut butter
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 10 minutesminutes
Total Time 25 minutesminutes
Servings 20cookies
Author Katiebird Bakes
Ingredients
6Tablespoons (85g)unsalted butter
⅔cup (132g)brown sugar(packed)
½cup (130g)peanut butter*
1large egg(50g)
1teaspoonpure vanilla extract
1/2teaspoonbaking soda
1/2teaspoonsalt
1 1/4cup (156g)all-purpose flour**
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and peanut butter together (this takes about 45 seconds to 1 minute in my microwave). Stir until there is one homogenous melted butter-peanut butter mixture, then whisk in brown sugar. My whisk of choice is actually a fork, but a normal whisk works too.
Whisk in egg and vanilla until mixture is well-combined. Add the salt and baking soda, and whisk until fully incorporated.
Add the flour and stir with a fork or spatula until a fairly stiff dough is formed. You may need to put in some elbow grease with the spatula or your hands to get it to come together, but it will.
Scoop dough using a tablespoon cookie scoop, then roll it between your palms to create a smooth dough ball. Place on the cookie sheet then press down gently using the tines of a fork to form a criss-cross or hashtag pattern. Repeat with remaining cookie dough balls, spacing 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Sprinkle granulated sugar over the cookies before baking if desired.
Bake for 10 minutes, until the cookies are slightly puffed and smelling amazing. Enjoy!
Notes
*conventional or natural peanut butter both work. I tried it both ways, and slightly prefer the texture of the cookies when conventional peanut butter is used. Natural peanut butter tends to produce slightly grainier cookies, but either result is delicious so pick your favorite.**Note on measuring flour: for best results, please make sure you either weigh your flour using the gram measurements OR if you don't have a kitchen scale, use the “spoon and level” method for measuring flour, rather than using your measuring cup to scoop flour directly from the bag. The spoon and level method produces a lighter cup of flour, while scooping from the bag produces a packed, heavier cup that will prevent the cookies from spreading as they should. If you haven’t heard of this method before, Sally’s Baking Addiction has a great tutorial!Recipe adapted from my Peanut Butter Blondies.Cookies will keep (and stay soft!), stacked in an airtight container at room temperature, for up to 5 days. You can tightly wrap and freeze baked cookies for up to 3 months. To freeze cookie dough for later, scoop, roll, flatten and then freeze the cookie dough on a plate or baking sheet for 30 minutes, then keep in a freezer bag and bake cookies directly from frozen, adding 2 minutes to the baking time.