Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies

These Peanut Butter Cookies have the perfect combination of a crisp, crunchy exterior and a tender, chewy inside. Use smooth or chunky peanut butter to get the texture you prefer. They’re sure to satisfy the peanut-butter lover in your life!

Shortly after we started dating, Mr. M. let it slip that peanut butter cookies were one of his all-time favorites. No problem! I’d been baking cookies for years, but never the peanut butter type for some reason. So I set about to bake him a batch, using a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks.

They were a total flop!

They were cakey, brittle, and even dry. Definitely not like the ones he remembered from his childhood. So over a few years’ time, I tried another recipe, then another. I must have tried at least half a dozen different recipes. Every single one was lacking in some way.

So I finally gave in and asked my MIL, who was a home ec teacher at the time, for her recipe. And at long last I had the recipe for the perfect peanut butter cookie.

What Makes Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies?

When I told her about the problems I’d been having with the texture of other recipes, she gave a little shrug as if everyone should know this. “It’s just your fat-to-flour ratio,” she said.

Bing!

A light bulb went off in my head. It may have been one of the most important things I ever learned as a cook and baker. And it definitely changed the way I think. My recipe varies only a little from hers; I’ve found that all-butter, rather than a combination of butter and shortening, improves the texture even more.

How to Make This Recipe

For cookies, typically you’ll start by creaming the fat (usually butter) and sugar(s). Because you’re using two different fats in this recipe – butter and peanut butter – here you’ll start by creaming them first, and then add the two types of sugar. Cream this mixture until it’s light and fluffy. Then add the beaten eggs and mix again until all is well combined.

In a separate bowl, stir the flour and baking soda together, then add this mixture a little at a time to the batter.

Now it’s time to form the cookies. My MIL’s recipe says you can drop the cookie dough by teaspoons onto the ungreased cookie sheet, but I always roll the dough into about one-inch diameter balls. Whichever way you go, space the cookies about two inches apart on the cookie sheet. Press down gently with the tines of a fork, first in one direction, then at 90° to make the crosshatch pattern that’s classic for peanut butter cookies.

These cookies will not brown all that much on the tops. Watch them carefully toward the end of the baking time to be sure the bottoms don’t get too dark.

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