Easy Peanut Butter Cookies
- PREP 5min
- COOK 10min
- TOTAL 15min
You can make these flourless peanut butter cookies in less than 15 minutes! They are soft and absolutely delicious, plain, and even more delicious with a dollop of jam or a drizzle of chocolate on top. We prefer these with a granulated and brown sugar blend, but you can use just one type of sugar. (We use ½ cup brown sugar and ¼ cup granulated)
**If making the jam-filled cookies, adding the jam on the day of serving is best. The cookies will soften too much from the extra moisture if left overnight.
You Will Need
1 cup well-stirred peanut butter (270 g)
1 large egg
¾ cup sugar, use granulated, brown sugar, or a combination (150 g)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon molasses, optional
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
Directions
1Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or use silicone baking mats.
2Make cookie dough: In a medium bowl, stir together peanut butter, egg, sugar, baking soda, a pinch of salt, vanilla, molasses (optional), and cinnamon (optional) until smooth and scoopable.
3Bake: Scoop or roll into 1-inch balls, then place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Press the mounds down with the back of a spoon or the tines of a fork to flatten them into cookies. Bake until the outer edges turn light brown and the tops look dry, for 8 to 11 minutes.
4To finish: Cool the cookies on the baking sheet without moving them for 10 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. (The cookies will firm up as they cool).
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days or freeze, wrapped individually, for up to 3 months. Jam-filled cookies are best the day you make them.
- Make ahead tips: The cookie dough keeps in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Even though you can bake immediately, chilling cookie dough makes even better cookies. You can freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months and bake it from frozen (add 1 to 2 minutes of bake time).
- Best peanut butter: Use very well-stirred peanut butter or the jarred peanut butter sold pre-mixed at the store.
- Salt: Before making the cookies, taste your peanut butter. If it is on the saltier side, you may not need to add a pinch of salt to the cookie dough.
- PB chocolate chip cookies: Stir ¼ cup to ⅓ cup chocolate chips into the batter before rolling and baking.
- Jam-filled cookies: Before baking, use a spoon to make a small indent in the middle of the dough balls. When the cookies are baked and cool, spread a teaspoon of jam into the middle of each cookie.
- Chocolate drizzled cookies: Once the cookies are baked and cool, melt ⅓ cup chocolate chips and drizzle over cookies. For chocolate-peanut butter drizzled cookies, add one tablespoon of peanut butter to the chocolate chips before melting.
- Reduced sugar cookies: Use ½ cup sugar. The cookies will be a little stickier and won’t be as easy to indent with the fork. They still bake well and taste great, just not as sweet.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates and are for the plain cookies.