Ultimate Soft Baked Peanut Butter Cookies

Soft baked peanut butter cookies made with brown sugar to create the softest, creamiest and most flavourful cookie. Intense peanut butter flavour with underlying vanilla and caramel tones, you can’t stop at just one!

Peanut butter is one of those foods that is so comforting, its like a big warm hug. Infusing peanut butter into cookies is a whole new dimension of deliciousness. The flavour somehow softens and intensifies in the best way. Paired with brown sugar and butter, you have a killer combination!

I’ve already shared plenty of peanut butter desserts on my site, including my favourite M&M Monster cookies, but these right here are my new obsession. They’re super soft, moist and tender with the perfect amount of peanut butter flavour. Along with that flavour comes the tenderness of the butter and using all soft brown sugar gives such a delightful caramel vibe to the cookie. I constantly find myself making these cookies even without any add-ins because they’re just that delicious!

Plus those natural crinkles on top are very aesthetically appealing wouldn’t you say.

These cookies are so easy to make, using your typical cookie dough making method, but there are a few tips and tricks I would like to recommend to get the best flavour and texture.

Cookie Tips

• Butter: use a good quality unsalted butter that is softened to room temperature. It should not be melted but warm enough to be creamed properly with the sugar.
• Soft brown sugar: these cookies use all brown sugar. Make sure you are using the soft kind, either light or dark is fine as long as its soft. It should feel like wet sand.
• Peanut butter: use a good quality commercial peanut butter brand. I’ve not tried using a natural peanut butter brand so I’m not sure it will work the same way as the cookies bake.
• Vanilla extract: the addition of vanilla extract is vital as it adds a wonderful undertone to the peanut butter flavour.
• Refrigerate the cookie dough: I tried baking a batch without refrigerating the cookie dough and although it does work, I found that the cookies baked thicker, softer and had those beautiful cracks on top when I chilled the dough. I highly recommend doing this step.
• Baking: when it’s time to bake, roll the cookies into balls and place a few inches apart on baking sheet. You can roll the cookie dough balls in sugar before placing on a sheet. Let the cookies bake for a few minutes then take them out, bang the cookie sheet twice on the counter then rotate and return into the oven to continue baking. Once they’re *almost* baked through, remove from oven and bang again on the counter before cooling the cookies on a wire rack. This step helps the cookies bake evenly and also releases air so the cookies aren’t too cakey and have those lovely crinkles on top.

When it comes to add-ins, this dough base is like a blank canvas. You can literally add anything into the batter before you chill the dough. Some of my favourites are chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, toffee bits, caramel pieces, chopped candy bars and butterscotch chips.

Another suggestion would be to chop up some peanuts and add to the dough for an extra boost in flavour and texture.

I’m super proud of this recipe. It took me a few times to get it right but the final result is perfection. I’m so happy to share the recipe with you guys, I hope you enjoy!

Other peanut butter recipe favourites:

• Classic peanut butter cookies
• Monster cookies
• Oreo chocolate peanut butter cupcakes
• Favourite peanut butter frosting
• Peanut butter & jam/jelly cupcakes
• Banana apple peanut butter cupcakes
• Best peanut butter layer cake
• Snickers cookies
• Chocolate peanut butter layer cake

Tag me @dutchbakerblog with your pics on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter 💜