Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Those Peanut Butter Cookies will be one of the best peanut butter cookies you have ever tasted! They are soft-baked and super thick and melt in your mouth releasing a peanut butter flavor explosion. They are super easy to make and will last super long and stay soft the whole time!

If you are looking for the perfect soft and chewy and thick peanut butter cookie then this recipe is for you. Peanut butter lovers and non peanut butter lovers will absolutely fall in love with these thick cookies. They are not to sweet yet give you the full peanut flavor. Super soft and pillowy they will slowly melt in your mouth releasing their flavor explosion. If you happen to have any cookies left after a week you will get a very pleasant surprise as they are still super soft! I found out that they actually get better every day. As the days go by they start getting softer and softer. They are literally the perfect cookie I can not say it enough!

Ingredients for this peanut butter cookie:

The ingredients for this cookie are similar to a basic cookie recipe with added peanut butter:

• Flour
• Baking Powder
• Salt
• Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)
• Dark Brown Sugar
• Granulated Sugar
• Peanut Butter (non-natural, creamy is preferred)
• Egg (at room temperature)
• Vanilla Extract

Why have room temperature ingredients?

Room temperature ingredients make better cookies! This little detail will make or break your recipe.

Room temperature ingredients bond together much easier which will give you aa smooth and evenly textured batter which then again will result in an evenly textured baked good. If you would use cold ingredients you risk that they do not properly mix together or do not at all which will have a complete recipe failure as a result.

Having your butter at the right temperature is vital for baked goods. When beating butter with sugar it creates little air pockets which will give you the nice light and airy texture in your baked good. However, if the butter is cold the sugar crystals can’t make their way trough to build the pockets.

The best way to bring your butter to room temperature is to take it out of the fridge 1h before you start baking.

Room temperature eggs blend more evenly in batters and help your dough to rise more easily as they whip to a higher volume than when you use cold eggs. Cold eggs can give you a lumpy batter and your cookies will need longer in the oven. You will see that when trying to cream the cold eggs with the butter. The cold eggs will shock the butter and make everything curdle. Your entire cookie base will be ruined and not be the nice fluffy texture you are looking for.

You can let the eggs come to room temperature like the butter or do it a quicker way. Simply fill a bowl with warm (not hot) water and add your eggs to it for about 15 minutes.

How to make the perfect soft and chewy peanut butter:

Making those cookies is super simple and here is how:

In a medium bowl whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside. Beat in the peanut butter, egg and vanilla extract on low speed.

Next add the dry ingredients and mix in on low speed. Cover your bowl and let the dough sit in the fridge for 1 hour or up to 2 days.

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.

Remove the cookie dough from the fridge. Start rolling your dough into balls using 1 tablespoon dough. I highly recommend using a cookie scoop to get them all even. Pour some extra granulated sugar into a small bowl and roll each cookie dough ball in the sugar coating them nicely. The granulated sugar step is optional but highly recommended.

Bake your cookies for 8 minutes. The cookies will still be very soft and look underbaked. Do not keep baking them! They will get firm once they are cooled down.

Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool. Enjoy!

Here are some tricks to get perfect, soft peanut butter cookies:

Peanut Butter: Choosing the right peanut butter is important. I highly recommend using super creamy and thick, non-natural peanut butter. Natural peanut butter creates a very crumbly dough and can be very dry or super oily which both won’t work with this recipe. Plus natural peanut butter will never get the awesome peanut butter flavor into the cookie once baked.

Brown Sugar: Unfortunately brown sugar is not available in many countries. Here is a simple way to make your own brown sugar at home in simple steps.

Chill time: The cookie can get baked directly. However, chilling is recommended as the cookie will spread a lot if this step gets skipped. Let the dough chill for at least 1h or up to 2 days.

Bake time: The baking trick for the softness and chewy texture is to slightly underbake your cookies. When you take the cookies out of the oven. It is very important that you do not keep them in your oven for to long. Once you let them cool for a few minutes they will set and turn into the perfect cookie.

Add a topping: They are amazing to eat as is but get even better when you ass a topping like a mini Reese’s or a chocolate kiss, etc

Double Batches: You can easily double this recipe. However, as it is much more dough you will have to chill it longer (I recommend an extra 30 minutes).

Make Ahead Instructions: If you ask yourself if you can make the cookies ahead of time then I am happy to tell you you can! Here is how:

Make the cookie dough and let it rest in the fridge covered for up to 4 days. Once you are ready to bake the cookies remove the dough 30 minutes before hand.

Chefs tip: Form the cookie balls and freeze them. It is always great having cookie dough ready! There is no need to thaw the cookie dough. Bake the frozen cookies for an extra minute in the oven. The cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Shelf life: Keep in a closed container for up to one week. After one week they start to get dry.

What to make with this cookie:

Spooky Spider Cookies for Halloween (uses Reese’s!)