Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the basic ingredients for peanut butter cookies? ›

Peanut butter

Peanut butter cookie / Main ingredient

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.

For example, I added a couple tablespoons of brown sugar to a store-bought peanut butter cookie mix and everyone at the event said it tasted home made. I also rolled them in granulated sugar before baking (I would have used colored sugar, but didn't have any).

RECIPE TIPS AND FAQ'S:

Why did my cookies fall apart? If your cookies are crumbly, you probably cooked them a tad too long. Next time, take them out of the oven as soon they no longer look wet. They will finish cooking on the baking sheet after you remove them from the oven.

Conventional creamy peanut butter works best for peanut butter cookie recipes because it has a smooth and even texture. My favorite creamy peanut butter brands are Skippy or Jif. Natural peanut butter, made up of just peanuts and salt, is typically very oily and hard to get even.

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.

Ingredient Issues

Using the wrong type of peanut butter can throw off the texture and flavor, incorrect sugar ratios can make them too sweet or not sweet enough, and don't forget the salt – it's a small ingredient but makes a big difference in balancing the flavors.

If you're wondering this, and you've baked cookies and frosted them successfully, then you're doing something right and continue to do you. Butter bleed is when the oil and butter...essentially the fats from your cookie... bleed to your icing after it's dry.

Another Success Tip: Chill the Cookie Dough

The dough is incredibly creamy, almost like peanut butter frosting, and you'll have a heck of a time trying to roll and bake such a soft dough. Set aside 1–2 hours for chilling, or do yourself a favor and make the dough the night before.

For a delicious peanut butter flavor, add peanut butter or peanut butter cups to your basic cookie mix.

Why do you press down peanut butter cookies? ›

Baking soda and baking powder are powerful leaveners, but even they can't do their job properly in the face of so much fat. If you don't press down peanut butter cookies, they will stay in the exact same shape they were in when you started to bake them.

Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.

Homemade cookie dough should be stored in small containers in the refrigerator for two to four days or freeze for two months. Alternatively, small quantities of dough can be frozen and thawed in the refrigerator as needed.

While the fat content is lower, the total calories aren't that much different. Real peanut butter has two ingredients -- peanuts and salt! There's no need for sugar or extra oils.

From a simple list of ingredients such as flour, liquids, fat, sugar and sweeteners, eggs, leavening agents, and flavorings, you can make and endless variety of baked goods.

ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDISCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRAIL, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, PEANUT BUTTER (PEANUTS, FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL [RAPESEED, COTTONSEED AND SOYBEAN OILS]), CANOLA AND/OR SOYBEAN AND/OR PALM OIL WITH TBHQ ADDED TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, GRAHAM FLOUR ...

Group #1: Basic Ingredients

Cookies contain four basic ingredients: fat, eggs, sugar, and flour. Each cookie recipe is simply a variation of these four. Some cookie recipes have different amounts of each of these ingredients. Some incorporate one or more of the ingredients differently into the cookie dough.