Peanut Butter Cookies

These deliciously rippled cookies are full of peanut butter flavor and have the best texture from the pan-banging technique: crisp, buttery edges and a chewy center! They’re made with creamy peanut butter, and you can add chocolate if you’d like.

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes
Servings: 12 to 13 cookies

Ingredients

• 14 tablespoons [196 g] unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups [300 g] granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup [50 g] brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 cup [107 g] creamy peanut butter, see notes
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons water, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 3/4 cups [250 g] all-purpose flour
• 3 oz [85 g] semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped, or chips, see notes

Equipment

• Half Sheet Pan

Instructions

• Line three sheet pans with aluminum foil, dull-side up, or parchment paper.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the granulated and brown sugars and salt and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the peanut butter and vanilla and mix again on medium speed until fully combined. Add the egg and water and mix on low speed until combined, then add the baking soda and mix again. Add the flour and mix on low speed until combined. Add the chocolate, if using, and mix on low until distributed evenly.
• Form the dough into 3 oz [85 g] balls (1/4 cup) and place 4 dough balls an equal distance apart on a prepared pan and transfer it to the freezer for 20 minutes while the oven preheats.
• Adjust an oven rack to the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350F [180C].
• After you put the first baking sheet in the oven, put the second one in the freezer.
• Place the chilled baking sheet in the oven and bake until the dough balls have spread flat but are puffed slightly in the center, about 10 minutes. Lift one side of the sheet pan up about 4 in [10 cm] and gently let it drop down against the oven rack, so the edges of the cookies set and center falls back down. After the cookies puff up again in 2 minutes, repeat lifting and dropping the pan. Repeat a few more times to create ridges around the edge of the cookie. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes total, until the cookies have spread out and the edges are golden brown but the centers are much lighter and not fully cooked.
• Transfer the pan to a wire rack. If desired, spray a fork with pan spray and gently make a criss cross pattern in the center of the cookie. Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes, then move from the pan to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days (or refrigerate for up to 3 days).

Notes

I used Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter for these cookies. I have not tried them with a natural peanut butter, and don’t know if it will work in this application. I recommend using a processed peanut butter here. 

You can freeze the dough balls and bake off up to 2 weeks later. You may need to add more time to the baking the longer they are frozen. 

For peanut butter and jelly version, Place 1 teaspoon of jam in the top of the cookie scoop and use the back of spoon to spread it slightly over the inside of the scoop. Fill the scoop with cookie dough and proceed with the baking instructions. 

Throughout my recipes posted on this website, 1 cup of flour equals 142g. Please note that 1 cup of flour can range anywhere from 120g to 142g, depending on the baker or website. I found that after weighting many cups of flour and averaging the total, mine always ended up around this number. Weighing your flour instead of using cup measurements is the surest way to get the result I intended when developing the recipe.

Baking times are suggestions! Every oven bakes different, so please use your senses and intuition when figuring out when the cookies are done. If your oven is larger, many things will take longer to bake then a smaller oven.