Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe (2024)

These are the ULTIMATE peanut butter cookie! This recipe makes a soft, chewy and super thick cookie that will be one of the best you have ever had! Everytime I show up with these cookies, not only do they disappear, but I get endless requests for the recipe, so I am sharing it with you today!

When my neighbor, and cheif taste tester, had these cookies she said, “What are you going to name these cookies? Because you should definitely name them the BEST Peanut Butter Cookies EVER. People need to know how good these are.”

I experimented with making thisrecipe a few times and each time they were good, because you know it is a peanut butter cookie, and that makes it pretty hard to be bad, but each time I thought it was missing something, so I would try again. After what seems like 100 pounds of butter I made these peanut butter cookies and there was absolutely nothing I could do to improve them. In my mind they were a little piece of heaven!

These cookies are soft. They are chewy. They are super thick and delectable. This for me is the epitome of what a cookie should be. If you feel the same then you really do need to try this recipe!

It all started many years ago with my obsession search to create the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I absolutely hated it when I went to make a cookie and it would get thin and spread. So I decided if I couldn’t find the perfect recipe for me, I would just have to make it. So after lots of reseach into the science of baking and another 100 pounds of butter, I finally found a recipe that never failed me. Then I started making over all of my other cookie favorites. You can see all of my Thick & Chewy Cookies here.

Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

After all that talk, you may think that these are really complicated or special. The great news is that these are super simple to make and you can whip them up for friends, family, or even better… yourself, in no time!

First grab the ingredients:

• 2.5 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cup Jif peanut butter
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla

Then, start by combining your dry ingredients, the flour, salt, and baking soda, in a medium bowl and mix to combine.

Next, combine the butter shortening and peanut butter in your mixer or a large mixing bowl. A couple of notes on this… First, I recommend Jif Peanut Butter for these. There is just something about that classic peanut butter that just gives these the richness that makes them over the top amazing. If you want to use a different brand then that can work as well, BUT you need to use regular peanut butter, not natural or other kinds. They have different rations of fat (oil,) solids, and sugarsthan “regular” peanut butter so the cookies just don’t work the same. With that said, you can use crunchy or creamy, whatever you prefer. In the cookies pictured about I used regular, creamy Jif peanut butter and boy were they good!

Also, I frequently get asked about whether you have to use shortening in my cookie recipes. Shortening has a higher melting point than most fats so it helps the cookies to keep their shape as they bake and create that holy grail of thick, soft, chewy centers. So yes, you can substitute the shortening for all butter, but no they won’t be the same cookie, although since it is a peanut butter cookie, chances are they will still be super yummy.

Next, mix the sugars in with the peanut butter mixture until it is light and fluffy. Then stir in the eggs and vanilla until everything is combined.

Then take the dry ingredients and mix it into the peanut butter mixture in thirds. I use my kitchen aid for this, but if you don’t have one then you can do it by hand, you will just need quite a bit of elbow grease, but you can do it. Hey, why not work up an appetite for those cookies?

The dough will be stiff but not crumbly and should be easy to form into cookies. I make these by using a 1/4 cup measure to scoop the dough out then roll it into a ball and flatten very slightly using a fork to criss-cross the tops. This will make a nice big, thick cookie. You can make these smaller by measuring it out with a 1/4 cup measure then dividing the dough in half before rolling into balls.

Bake at 350˚F for 10-12 minutes or until the center of the cookies are just set. This is one of the most important things to making the absolute best most delicious cookies ever. If you ver bake cookies they won’t be nearly as moist and devourable. Usually while they bake they will start to spread and the centers will be shiny, then right when they are perfect they start to lose that sheen and it is perfect to take them out of the oven. Each oven bakes differently, so it is something you will have to watch on the first batch then you should be good to just repeat there after. They will continue to cook after they are removed from the oven to absolute perfection for your consumption.

After you take them out of the oven, let them sit for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet then move them over to the cooling rack to finish cooling. Grab a big glass of milk and dig in!

I really hope you love these as much as me and my friends do! If you make them, I would love to hear about it. You can leave a comment below or tag me on Instagram @easyfamilyrecipes. It absolutely makes my day to hear that someone enjoyed my recipe!