Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

from 9 votes

Preheat your oven for a tried-and-tested recipe for the best Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies.

Child's hand reaching for Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies on white plate next to glasses of milk and wire cooling rack with cookies

If I had to use two words to describe my ideal cookie, they would be “soft” and “chewy.” These peanut butter cookies deliver on both levels, achieving a characteristic bite without a crumbly texture.

Cross-testing this recipe for Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies countless times in the last few weeks led me to discover three tried-and-tested tips for chewy cookie perfection:

1. Join the Dark Side

The type of sugar in your cookie dough will have a significant impact on the consistency of your cookie. All white sugar produces a crispier texture, while a mix of white and dark brown sugar yields a chewier consistency as a result of the increased molasses content (and thus stronger molasses flavor) in brown sugar.

Glass stand mixer bowl containing cookie dough

2. Low and Slow for the Win

Turn down your oven temperature from the standard 350ºF to 325ºF. Lowering the temperature, and slightly increasing the baking time, will ensure that your cookie has ample time to evenly bake throughout without the edges becoming hard and crispy long before the center has a chance to bake.

3. Underachieve to Please

Most important of all: When in doubt, under-bake your cookies. Remove the cookies from the oven 2 to 3 minutes before the centers are fully baked, and then allow the cookies to rest for about 5 minutes while still on the hot cookie sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to fully cool.

Hand with fork pressing down on peanut butter cookie dough

Ready for your salty-sweet fix? Grab the (peanut) butter and preheat your oven for two dozen of the world’s best peanut butter cookies.

Pair your creation with a tall glass of ice-cold milk, or kick it up a notch by sandwiching together two of the cookies with your favorite flavor of ice cream for irresistible ice cream sandwiches.

Homemade peanut butter cookies atop a wire cooling rack next to two glasses filled with milk and a child's hands reaching for plate of cookies

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Dessert

Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Preheat your oven for a tried-and-tested recipe for the best Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies.
Author: Kelly Senyei
4.67 from 9 votes
Child's hand reaching for Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies on white plate next to glasses of milk and wire cooling rack with cookies
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 24 cookies

Ingredients 

  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, plus additional for rolling
  • 1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 3/4 cups creamy peanut butter
  • 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup salted peanuts, roughly chopped

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 325ºF and line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the white sugar, brown sugar, and butter and beat until grainy. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition, then add the peanut butter and vanilla, beating until fluffy. (The dough will be very soft.)
  • In three portions, add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing between each addition just until combined. (Be careful not to overmix.) Stir in the chopped peanuts.
  • Scoop out the dough into quarter-cup portions, rolling each portion into a ball and coating it with additional white sugar. (See Kelly's Notes.) Position the coated balls of cookie dough roughly 2 inches apart on the lined baking sheet. Using a fork, press the tines down into each ball of dough once and then rotate the fork 90° and press the tines down into the dough again.
  • Bake for 20 to 22 minutes (rotating the sheet tray half-way through), or until the edges are golden and the centers appear slightly under-baked. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to cool while still on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to fully cool.

Kelly's Notes:

  • The less you handle the cookie dough, the better, as the warmth of your hands will quickly cause the peanut butter to melt. Store the dough in the fridge in between batches to ensure it's easy to handle.
  • ★ Did you make this recipe? Don't forget to give it a star rating below!

Nutrition

Calories: 342kcal, Carbohydrates: 36g, Protein: 7g, Fat: 19g, Saturated Fat: 7g, Cholesterol: 40mg, Sodium: 163mg, Potassium: 192mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 23g, Vitamin A: 265IU, Calcium: 29mg, Iron: 1.2mg

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Recipe by Kelly Senyei of Just a Taste. Please do not reprint this recipe without my permission. If you'd like to feature this recipe on your site, please rewrite the method of preparation and link to this post as the original source.


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Comments

      1. 5 stars
        Love this recipe. I have been told that these are the best peanut butter cookies they have tasted. Have given this recipe to mothers and this is the only one in use. Thank you.

    1. Hi Alexis – Oven temperatures (as well as baking dishes) can cause great variances in the bake time. Do you have an oven thermometer to ensure your oven is running at the correct temperature?

  1. I’ve been craving peanut butter cookies. I found this recipe and it sure satisfied that craving! Easy to follow, and DELICIOUS!

  2. 5 stars
    Wow! Best peanut butter cookies ever… I have been on the hunt for a great peanut butter cookie recipe for a while tried lots. I will look no more these are in my recipe book for good now.. only change I made is half creamy peanut butter have crunchy peanut butter.

      1. 4 stars
        I wish it was more clear that this recipe doesn’t make just 24 cookies, but 24 HUGE COOKIES. Every ingredient I added made me more and more sceptical, and now I have enough dough to make cookies all week!

        I used my larger cookie scoop and adjusted the cook time because they still weren’t quite as big as the recipe called for. I can still only fit 8 on a full cookie sheet. I have made 2 batches of 8 and have more than half the dough left.

        They taste super awesome though!

  3. Just to let you know when you put 48 and 72 cookies in the measurements for the butter they all say 2 sticks for 2 and 3 pounds of butter. I will be making these tonight but adding chocolate chips instead of the chopped peanuts. Heaven.

  4. Hi. I’m eyeballing you recipe and explanations for a couple hours now. I have been on the hunt for a real “chewy” soft moist pb cookie. I have tried 5 recipes and have dozens of cookies from those recipes that claim to have the chewy factor. None of them are “chewy”, all are soft and moist. They are good, but my idea of pb cookie would be like Costco’s PB cookie (which they have stopped making because of COVID), they had a chew factor that I can’t replicate. So before I make another dozen or so, could someone (or the author) plz plz put me out of my misery and tell me this has a real “chew” factor in it? ***cross fingers***

  5. 4 stars
    Made these today and they are tasty! Just a couple of comments – it could use a little more salt (or next time I might use salted butter). The 1/4 cup size is too big imo. They ended up as big as my hand and my spatula wasn’t big enough to get them off the pan without breaking (though thank goodness for the silpat because it made it easy to ‘slide them off with spatula assistance). I made a second batch about 1/8 cup (or overflowing soup spoon) and cooked for about 16-18 minutes and they were still huge. Thank you for sharing a great recipe!

      1. Hi Caroline – This recipe calls for 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter. Does that help answer your question?

  6. 5 stars
    I’ve been searching for a soft chewy recipe for some time, that actually is soft and chewy. I think my search is over. This is a great recipe, with great peanut butter flavor. It has almost double the amount of peanut butter of other recipes I’ve tried. I also like the 1/4 cup size cookies. They are thicker and larger, therefore chewy. Love the recipe.

      1. 5 stars
        Made these tonight. Made them a little smaller, about small golf ball size. A quarter cup made really big cookies. But the flavor is like peanut butter fudge. Hubby loved them. Will definitely make them again.

  7. I’ve been looking for chewy peanut butter cookie recipe for some time. I think my search is over. The flavor in these cookies is intense peanut butter. It calls for more peanut butter than any recipe I’ve found so far. I like using the 1/4 cup per cookie. This makes a larger thicker cookie that is large on taste and is soft and chewy, as well. Thank you for the great recipe!

  8. Oh I love a good peanut butter cookie, but I can never seem to make them!! At the top of your recipe it says Cook 18 minutes, but your directions say 20-22 minutes. Which time is the correct time? I’m anxious to try this recipe.

    1. Hi Kathleen – Thanks so much for catching that! You can follow the recipe as written (20-22 minutes). Updating the recipe now!

  9. 5 stars
    I just made these and they turned out perfect! I used crunchy natural peanut butter and even added a few chocolate chips to a few of them.

  10. Dear Kelly,
    I love this idea of chewy Peanut butter cookies.But for a long time Ive been trying to find the receipe for the peanut butter cookies they sold at school.Do you remember those,they where very thick stronge pp taste and they had lots of butter in the receipe?If you can find that receipe my kids and grandkids will be very happy,because I loved them growing up.

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