My Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies

I know. Like you really need another peanut butter cookie recipe to try.

I thought the same thing a mere two weeks ago. In fact, if I’m being completely honest, straight up classic peanut butter cookies rank pretty low on my list of cookies that speak to me in my dreams.

I like peanut butter in cookies (these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, for instance, or this oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip version) but just plain ol’ peanut butter cookies haven’t ever been my thing.

Until now.

These peanut butter cookies are incredible. And I’d love to tell you why (stick with me here).

Even though peanut butter cookies may not be my all-time fave, others of you probably adore them (hence the fact that I get a lot of requests for a classic version) so I decided to set out and figure out what my favorite version would be if I lived in a peanut butter cookie loving world.

I tried almost all the recipes that come up when you google “best peanut butter cookies in the history of ever” and they were either too greasy, too crispy, too thin…too many things I didn’t want.

In the end, I ended kind of where I started.

With this delicious peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe. Because I wanted soft and chewy and maybe slightly cakey, and because I was also after the perfect, creamy texture with slightly less sweetness, I decreased the sugar, omitted the milk, and played around with a few other ingredients in that recipe.

My inner rebel knew from the start I would not be pressing cookies before they baked like many classic peanut butter cookies call for.

I’m not really sure why – my rebelliousness exerts itself at the weirdest times. The problem is that after my variations, the cookies didn’t flatten by themselves very well in the oven – but when I messed with the ingredients (less flour, more butter, adding the milk back in), I didn’t get that amazingly soft and creamy peanut butter cookie I wanted.

So, since I like to live life on the edge, when I pulled the next cookie sheet out of the oven and noticed the puffy cute little cookies, I decided I would give them a teeny little press with a flat-bottomed glass after baking to get a perfectly even thickness.

Please continue to Next Page (>) for the full list of ingredients and complete cooking instructions.