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
“A good laugh is sunshine in the house.”
~William Thackeray. Submit your quote here!
Mmmmm! Love peanut butter cookies and idea of using potato masher!!
Now, for my funny….when my daughter was in 1st grade before Valentine’s Day the teacher had them cut out big red hearts…in the middle of the heart, they wrote “I love…” the all around they names all the different things they loved. She listed mommy, daddy, bubby, cats, dogs, horses, etc. and beer!?!?!?!? Of course, when I looked at it, the only this I saw was BEER. I could tell they had been hung up and was shocked that the teacher had allowed it to be displayed. I was really curious what possessed my daughter to choose “beer” as something she listed that she loved, so I asked her to read it off to me. She read, ” mommy, daddy, bubby, cats, dogs, horses and deer.” Whew!!! (it was just a problem in getting lower case b’s and d’s mixed up….but why couldn’t it have been switched in dogs or bubby!?!?!?)
Just a quick funny from a former coworker who was a stay at home mom at the time of the story. They had asked her daughter in kindergarten what she wanted to be when she grew up and she wanted to be a “homewrecker” like her mom. (she was meaning a homemaker!)
Kids can be SO funny!!!
Loved everyone’s jokes and stories!
Since today’s recipe uses peanut butter, I thought I would share a little diddly I sang to my kids and now sing to my grand-kids and great-grandson.
A peanut sat on a railroad track,
Its heart was all aflutter.
Along came the 8:15,
Toot toot, peanut butter!
A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds.
After explaining the commandment to ‘Honor thy father and thy mother,’ she asked, ‘Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?’
Without missing a beat, one little boy answered, ‘Thou shall not kill.’
I would love to be able to try this recipe, but we have nut allergies in our house 🙁
As for Katy Rose’s “pony”, my gonna-be-four-on-Monday little girl informes me that that one is “a unicorn NOT A PONY.” Just thought I’d share my knowlegdge. 😉
Beverly,
I know some people who have found that while they are allergic to peanuts they’re not allergic to other nuts…this opens up other possibilities such as almond butter. I can’t think of it off the top of my head but there is a peanut butter substitute (all natural) which tastes almost exactly like it and is safe for those with allergies. May want to look for it and see if it works in these cookies.
Thanks. He is actually allergic to tree nuts (hopefully, growing out of it because the two he is allergic to are my favorites.) It is easier to tell him (now 6 years old) to avoid all nuts and that way he doesn’t have to remember which ones or worry about cross-contamination in processing.
I think you are talking about Sunbutter. I have looked for it at a few stores around here, but haven’t found it. I wanted to try just one container instead of having to get a whole case.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Its soynut butter and Walmart carries it and it works just fine as a substitute in any recipe and after you eat one jar of it you will never miss peanutbutter again… its Great Value brand,, not expensive..
Hugs Jo in Oklahoma
I was sitting in the exam room at my doctor’s office. I examined the height vs weight chart and discovered that I am 11 inches too short. I’m going to have to cut back on the peanut butter cookies (after the next batch).
Another blonde joke alert:
2 blonde women walk into a restaurant carrying an 8×10 framed picture and were chanting excitedly “55 days! 55 days!” A few minutes later, a few of their blonde friends come in chanting “55 days! 55 days!” When the waiter finally came over, he asked why they were so excited. One of the women gestured to the frame and said, “This puzzle said 2-3 years on the box and we did it in 55 days!”
Enjoy!
Blonde joke alert!!
How can you tell when a blonde has been making chocolate chip cookies?
You find the M & M shells all over the floor!!! 😉
I will making these peanut butter cookies tonight along with my homemade cheeseburgers and fries! Yum!