Delicious, soft-baked peanut butter cookies with a secret ingredient. A surprise peanut butter puddle takes them over the top.Â
My Secrets to Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
I fell upon a trick to achieving amazingly soft peanut butter cookies a while ago, when I was baking with my sister and we were well into the creaming of sugar with butter when we realized we had no eggs. Knowing one large egg yields about a quarter cup, I swapped in yogurt as a liquid substitute.
Guess what? I’ve been regularly including it on purpose ever since. And, given I used it here to replace half the typical amount of butter, dare I say it nudges these peanut butter cookies slightly in the direction of a lighter version?
I stirred some crisp rice cereal into the dough, which is totally optional, but adds a really nice texture. I love peanut butter and rice cereal together. (As you may have noticed with these incredibly addictive Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats with Salted Caramel and Chocolate.)Â Divine.
I topped these cookies with a sprinkle of salt, because the sweet, salty, peanut-buttery trifecta is just too much to resist. I also made a little puddle of peanut butter on top of each cookie for a gooey surprise.
There’s no question kids and adults both love a good peanut butter cookie. Especially when they’re this easy! These might possibly become your new fav.
How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies
Peanut butter cookies truly are a wonderfully easy and simple, yet delicious classic cookie.
Here’s how to make soft peanut butter cookies:
- Cream peanut butter, butter, sugar together.
- Add in eggs to bind, yogurt for an incredibly soft cookie, and vanilla to enhance the flavour.
- Add in dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt).
- Stir in optional add-ins (I used crisp rice cereal).
- Spoon dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies, remove from oven and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
For full directions and ingredients list, pop down to the recipe, of course!
How Long to Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
For soft, chewy peanut butter cookies, it’s best to bake the cookies at 350ºF for 8-9 minutes. Because the back of the oven will always be a bit hotter, it’s important to be sure to rotate your cookie sheet after about 6 minutes to ensure all of your cookies bake evenly.  Of course, all ovens will vary slightly in how they hold temperature so keep an eye on them and aim for a deliciously golden colour.
More Tempting Cookie Recipes
Toffee and Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies
The S’mores Cookie Recipes That’ll Change Your Life
Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup Smooth peanut butter plus more to top (optional)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup Greek yogurt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp coarse salt
- 1 cup crisp rice cereal (optional) plus more to sprinkle
- sprinkle of flaky salt optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Beat peanut butter and butter with sugars on high speed in a stand mixer for about 3 minutes, until nicely creamed. Beat in yogurt, egg, and vanilla.
- With mixer speed on low, sprinkle in the flour, then the baking soda and salt. Beat to combine.
- Stir in crisp rice cereal. Drop cookies by tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart. If desired, use a 1/2-teaspoon measure to make small indents in the cookies, and spoon in about 1/4 teaspoon more peanut butter per cookie. Sprinkle with a few grains of crisp rice.
- Bake for 6 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake for 2-3 minutes more, until golden but still slightly underdone. Sprinkle with flaky salt, if desired.
These look amazing! Just wondering if you use natural peanut butter or something like kraft pb?
I used a natural, salted peanut butter made with roasted peanuts for this recipe. I’d swap in a Kraft-style before an unsalted or unroasted natural one.