BA's Best Peanut Butter Cookies (2024)

  • Step 1

    Preheat oven to 350°. Toast ½ cup (71 g) roasted, salted peanuts on a rimmed baking sheet until browned and fragrant, 6–8 minutes. Let cool, then coarsely chop.

    Step 2

    Meanwhile, cook 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter in a medium skillet over medium heat, swirling pan often, until butter foams, then browns, 4–6 minutes. Transfer brown butter with solids to a medium bowl; chill, stirring every 5 minutes, until cooled and beginning to solidify, about 15 minutes.

    Step 3

    Whisk ¾ cup (93 g) all-purpose flour, ¾ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, ½ tsp. baking powder, and ¼ tsp. baking soda in another medium bowl. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat 1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk, ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, ½ cup (170 g; packed) light brown sugar, and ¼ cup water in a large bowl until mixture is light and falls back on itself in a slowly dissolving ribbon, about 2 minutes.

    Step 4

    Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add in dry ingredients, then increase speed to high and beat 1 minute to develop gluten and hydrate flour. Add peanut butter, chopped peanuts, and brown butter and mix on low speed, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Let dough rest at room temperature until slightly firmed up, about 10 minutes.

    Step 5

    Portion dough into 20 balls (about 2 heaping Tbsp. each) and transfer to 2 parchment paper-lined rimmed baking sheets. Dip the tines of a fork in cold water and flatten cookie dough balls to ½" thick, making a crosshatch pattern on the top of each. Chill, covered, 1 hour.

    Step 6

    Arrange racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; place a dry, medium skillet on the bottom rack, then increase oven temperature to 375°.

    Step 7

    Sprinkle cookies with demerara or raw sugar and flaky sea salt. Working quickly, transfer 1 sheet of cookies to upper rack, then carefully pour 1 cup water into hot skillet; water will bubble and sizzle violently. Bake cookies until browned and edges are crisp, 12–15 minutes. Let cool slightly on baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Repeat with second sheet.

    Do ahead: Cookie dough can be shaped and frozen 1 month ahead. Freeze in an airtight container. Let rest at room temperature 1 hour before baking.

    Editor’s note: This recipe was first printed in our March 2016 issue as part of BA’s Best, a collection of our essential recipes. Head this way for more of our best cookie recipes →

  • BA's Best Peanut Butter Cookies (2024)

    FAQs

    How to make boxed peanut butter cookies better? ›

    For a delicious peanut butter flavor, add peanut butter or peanut butter cups to your basic cookie mix. Smooth peanut butter adds flavor, while crunchy peanut butter adds to the overall texture as well. Simply cream peanut butter with margarine or butter before following the recipe instructions.

    Why do you put fork marks in peanut butter cookies? ›

    The baking company shared that the reason has to do with the consistency of the dough. Because peanut butter cookie dough is dense, using a fork helps flatten it into the ideal shape and thickness, allowing it to bake evenly.

    Why do my peanut butter cookies taste dry? ›

    Why are my cookies dry and crumbly? This is most likely a classic case of using too much flour. It's crucial to properly measure the flour in this recipe, as even 1 extra tablespoon of flour can completely change the structure of the cookies. You also might have over baked them!

    Should you flatten peanut butter cookies before baking? ›

    Certain cookies — Sugar Cookies, Snickerdoodles, Classic Peanut Butter Cookies — need to be flattened a bit before they bake, lest they end up emerging from the oven looking like ping-pong balls rather than typical flat, round cookies.

    Can I use butter instead of oil in Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix? ›

    You sure can. The good news is that butter, margarine, shortening and all types of oil can be used in place of the vegetable oil in SuperMoist package directions.

    What can I add to box cookie mix to make it better? ›

    Add brown sugar

    Adding it to the pre-made dough will give it more sweetness, a chewier texture, moisture and that homemade flavor you're craving. You can also melt butter with brown sugar and incorporate it into the dough for extra tender, chewier cookies.

    Should you refrigerate peanut butter cookie dough before baking? ›

    Why You Need to Chill Your Cookie Dough. For starters, chilling prevents cookies from spreading out too quickly once they're in the oven. If you use a higher fat butter (like Kerrygold), chilling your dough is absolutely essential. Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool.

    Why did my peanut butter cookies come out oily? ›

    You baked your cookies and they came out an oily greasy mess. Urgh, what an awful feeling! If you've had this happen to you, odds are you made one of two mistakes: either you didn't allow the ingredients to thoroughly mix during the creaming process or you didn't allow the dough to rest enough before baking.

    Why did my peanut butter cookies burn on the bottom? ›

    Be A Mindful Measurer. Especially with sugar. Beyond providing sweet flavor, sugar is a key player in developing a crispy texture in your cookies. However, going overboard on the sweet stuff can promote fast and excessive caramelization, ultimately resulting in cookies with overly-darkened bottoms and edges.

    What happens if you add too much peanut butter to peanut butter cookies? ›

    This may not sound like a lot, but it is enough that it can affect the quality of your cookies – adding too much peanut butter can make them dry, hard, and crumbly.

    Is it better to use butter or shortening in peanut butter cookies? ›

    Butter will make your cookies taste buttery; shortening will make them taste suspiciously vacant, like Katy Perry's voice post-autotune. Yes, shortening yields chewier cookies than butter does, because butter contains water and shortening doesn't.

    How to enhance peanut butter flavor? ›

    Mix PB with yogurt, cinnamon, and a hint of honey or maple syrup. Dip in apples slices, celery, or spread on toast with banana slices and coconut. Mix into noodles. Thanks to its salty, nutty flavor and creamy texture, Asian-inspired noodle dishes taste divine with peanut sauce.

    Why do you put Criss Cross on peanut butter cookies? ›

    So it looks like that there are utilitarian reasons for the cross-hatching—to allow for even cooking—but it might have been passed along for nearly a hundred years for primarily aesthetic reasons, where the cross-hatching is more to identify the cookies as peanut butter ones, rather than to cook them well.

    How do I know if my peanut butter cookies are done? ›

    Unlike many other cookies, peanut butter biscuits only fully harden once they've been removed from the oven. Here's how to tell when peanut butter cookies are done: The tops of the cookies are a uniform light brown. They're soft to the touch but not moist or mushy.

    Why do you chill peanut butter cookie dough? ›

    Firm dough prevents the cookies from spreading too much, which is why chilling the dough is a crucial step for cut-out and rolled cookies. "The colder and more solid the fat is, the less the cookie will spread," says food stylist and recipe developer Caitlin Haught Brown.

    What to add to dry peanut butter cookie dough? ›

    There are a few things you can do to add liquid to your cookie dough if it is too dry and crumbly. One option is to add milk, water, or another liquid until the dough is the right consistency. You can also try adding melted butter or shortening. If your dough is still too dry, you may need to add more flour.

    How do you make peanut butter cookies soft again? ›

    Simply lay the bread at the bottom of the container and pile your cookies on top of it, seal the lid, and wait a few hours. The cookies will soak up all the moisture from the bread and by the next morning, they will taste as good as the day they came out of the oven gooey.

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