Easy Homemade Peanut Butter Cookies
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If you like your peanut butter cookies to have the perfect balance of salty and sweet that will just melt in your mouth, you must make a batch of these homemade peanut butter cookies immediately!
This is a recipe that I’ve wanted to bring you for a while. I’ve been making this homemade peanut butter cookie recipe for close to 10 years now. Although I’ve tried other peanut butter cookie recipes, I always come back to this as my standard – my husband’s all-time favorite. I like to make a big double batch of them if we’re going on a weekend trip to do double duty as filling snacks and treats for whoever it is we’re visiting.
Fortunately, this is a quick and easy peanut butter cookie recipe (just how I like it). All you need is a bunch of shelf-stable ingredients I bet are already waiting in your kitchen, like flour, sugar, eggs, peanut butter, and baking soda. After a little mixing and a little baking, you will have a delicious batch of homemade peanut butter cookies that are going to make your kitchen smell amazing.
You should also check out my 3-ingredient classic peanut butter cookie recipe here. It’s a good one, folks!
I hope you get to give them a try and if you have any little people in your life, invite them to bake these with you because kids make everything taste better.
Recipe Ingredients
- Shortening
- All-purpose flour
- White sugar
- Eggs
- Brown sugar (light or dark brown sugar)
- Smooth peanut butter
- Baking soda
How to Make Homemade Peanut Butter Cookies
So what we’re gonna do is dump everything, except the flour, into a large bowl.
Mix that up really well with an electric mixer, unless you have massively muscled arms. I’ll be using a mixer…
Add in flour and mix again.
Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
Your cookie dough will be a little crumbly looking like this. Use a cookie scoop or just your hands and make balls that are about an inch and a half in size.
Place on the prepared baking sheet about two inches apart.
Now, y’all know I don’t care for kitchen gadgets all that much and normally I’d say “Why use a dough scoop when your hands work perfectly well?” But after making three and four hundred peanut butter balls at a time, I’m a believer in the dough scoop. I actually own two of them because Katy likes to help and my kids really love peanut butter balls.
Next, take a bowl and put a little extra granulated sugar in it. Dip your fork in the sugar and mash down slightly on each peanut butter cookie dough ball.
Then dip in sugar again and repeat, continuing to do so until your batch of homemade peanut butter cookies is ready for the oven.
You don’t want to completely smoosh them, just mash them down one way and then the other to get a nice criss-cross design.
Bak at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown around edges.
Remove them from the cookie sheet and place them on cooling racks or just a plate (or clean countertop) to cool. Eat at least one warm though! Cooling the cookies allows them to harden, as they’ll be soft straight out of the oven.
I highly recommend enjoying one of these homemade peanut butter cookies with a glass of milk. Enjoy!
Storage
- Store your peanut butter cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
- You can also freeze the cookie dough for up to 2 months.
Recipe Notes
- If the cup of smooth peanut butter isn’t enough peanut butter flavor for you, go ahead and add a cup of peanut butter chips as well.
- Are chocolate peanut butter cookies more your style? You can also add a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to your cookie dough.
- While I prefer smooth or creamy peanut butter in this cookie recipe, you can use natural peanut butter. Just make sure you give it an extra good stir before adding it to your cookies to blend in the oil at the top. Crunchy peanut butter isn’t the right texture for these cookies.
- We regularly flatten peanut butter cookies with a fork as the dough isn’t as soft as other cookie doughs, so this ensures each cookie spreads evenly.
You may also enjoy these other peanut butter treats:
Peanut Butter Pie Made the Old-Fashioned Way
Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls (No Baking Necessary)
Peanut Butter Brownies with Peanut Butter Fudge Icing
Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar dark or light, I prefer dark
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract I use the fake stuff
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter
Instructions
- In a large bowl, place all ingredients except flour.1 cup vegetable shortening, 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 cup smooth peanut butter
- Mix until smooth and creamy with an electric mixer.
- Add the flour and mix until well combined. The cookie dough will look a little crumbly.3 cups all-purpose flour
- Form or scoop into balls about an inch and a half in diameter (can make them really big if you prefer).
- Place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
- Dip a fork or potato masher into extra granulated sugar and press into each cookie to form a criss-cross design.
- Bake at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly brown around the edges.
Notes
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Christy you mentioned we can use Peanut Butter chips also the question is do we use both or one or the other. thank you enjoy your recipes.
A Blessed Easter to you and yours……….lm
I just made the peanut butter cookies and used chunky peanut butter, these are so good! thank you!
These are so good! Only used 2 1/2 cups of flour and they were perfect. I love all of your recipes Christy. I haven’t made one yet that disappointed.
These look so good. I am about to make them for my hubby’s birthday today. Thanks Christy. I know he will love them.
Hello, Tina – – Here are some possible reasons you had that problem: If you dipped your measuring cup into the flour, that can pack it down and give you too much flour. Try using a spoon to scoop the flour into your measuring cup, then use the back of a butter knife to level the top of the cup. Also, stir the flour gently before scooping. If you have a standing mixer, try using the paddle instead of the whisk. If you have a handheld mixer, it may not be strong enough for this dough, and you’ll have to use a big spoon or spatula instead – – you can even use your hands to mix this. Make sure your shortening is warm enough to mix well. If your kitchen is cold (mine is), pop the shortening into the microwave for just a minute, but don’t let it melt. You can do the same with the peanut butter if you think it needs it. Whole wheat flour may not mix as well as plain white flour. If you use whole wheat, use just a little less, then see if you need to add the whole amount as you mix. I use a mix of white flour and whole wheat pastry flour – – the pastry type is softer and easier to mix. Large eggs work best in recipes. If you use small eggs, you may need to add one more here. They all-natural peanut butter doesn’t work as well as the regular kind. It’s just not made to mix into recipes.
I hope these ideas help you. Don’t get discouraged, just try again!
my dole turned out so crumbly that when I tried to press it on a cookie sheet it turn to powder I don’t know what I did wrong
love the potato masher idea. I like a quicker cookie……1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar or sugar sub, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla extract. 🙂
YES! These are GREAT and so easy!