Unlike most peanut butter cookies, which tend to be soft, these cookies are crisp and melt in your mouth with a shortbread-like texture. If you can, freshly grind your own peanut butter with a coarse setting, leaving a few big peanut pieces for extra crunch. We use a meat mallet to cross-hatch our cookies.–Meg Ray
LC Not Your Mom's Peanut Butter Cookies Note
Meg says it like it is. These little lovelies are unexpectedly crisp for a peanut butter cookie. They’re essentially shortbread-like, melt-in-your-mouth, crumbly goodness. Not like Mom’s classic peanut butter cookies. Actually, not like any other peanut butter cookie you’ve had. And not likely to last very long once you’ve had a taste.
Crisp Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons creamy or chunky peanut butter (sadly, natural peanut butter that you get from that cool crank machine at the health food store does not work as well here as the mass produced kind that comes in a jar)
Directions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- 2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
- 3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed, beat together the butter, granulated and brown sugars, and vanilla until light and fluffy, something like 4 to 5 minutes. Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the peanut butter and mix until everything is smooth and uniform. Add the flour mixture and mix just until combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and mix again a few times by hand.
- 4. To make small cookies, roll scant teaspoon-sized portions of dough into 3/4-inch balls. To make larger cookies, roll 1 1/2-tablespoon portions of dough into balls. Place the dough balls 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the cookies slightly and imprint the traditional cross-hatch marks using the back of a fork or meat mallet. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake in batches until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in airtight containers for up to 2 weeks.
Hungry for more? Chow down on these:
- Chocolate Chunk Peanut Cookies from Bake or Break
- Gluten-Free Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies from Elana's Pantry
- Almond and Walnut Macaroons from Leite's Culinaria
- Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Milk Chocolate Filling from Leite's Culinaria
Crisp Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe © 2011 Meg Ray. Photo © 2011 Frankie Frankeny. All rights reserved.
[Judy Okawa] I love the products Miette offers at its San Francisco Ferry Building location, so I had to try this recipe. (Plus, I just bought the book!). The peanut butter cookies were perfect. Enough said. All of my coworkers loved the taste and texture. I made mine a bit larger (about two inches in diameter) so the recipe yielded 50 cookies. I would actually make them smaller to yield 100 cookies as the recipe indicates; I think this would be such a perfect size. I loved the idea of using a meat mallet to make the cross hatching…another great touch!
[Sandy Hill] These cookies definitely lived up to being “crisp and melt in your mouth with a shortbread-like texture.” I’ve always made soft peanut butter cookies, but the shortbread texture was delicious. I made the cookie balls from 11/2 tablespoons of dough, and the 10-minute cooking time seemed perfect for being lightly browned. I rolled my cookie balls in granulated sugar before baking; I like that better than sprinkling with granulated sugar, because that sometimes causes the sugar to burn on the parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. It’s also just a personal preference, because my family loves the “sugar crunch” all over the cookie. I’ll definitely keep this recipe close by!
[Lydia Brimage] This recipe was easy to follow and quick to do. The cookies turned out as the author described: crisp on the outside and shortbread-like in the middle. My larger-sized cookies cooked in the 10 minutes given in the recipe, although they were quite pale, so I let them go a little longer to achieve a more golden color. I thought the author’s suggestion of using a meat mallet to cross-mark the cookies was good, as the fork I used did not give a completely symmetrical pattern. I will be making these cookies again.
[Jyoti D.] These were delicious peanut butter cookies. Crisp exterior, soft chewy interior. I did buy freshly ground, slightly crunchy peanut butter for this recipe, and it was well worth it. I used a 11/2 tablespoon scoop and baked the cookies for 12 minutes.
[Elsa M. Jacobson] I’ve now made these more than once, the first time with the idea that they’d be not only popular but also easily adaptable for a snack at a presentation I was giving, which had a sustainable, green theme. All the ingredients were available in either organic or natural versions, and the cookies were a hit: they disappeared even before the brownies someone else had baked! The second time, I made them for a bake sale, knowing from their first outing that they’d be a big seller, and they were indeed! I liked the idea of crunchy or chunky peanut butter, which made them seem extra peanut-y, but I’m sure the suggestion to make them with creamy peanut butter would work just fine. I also think the suggestion of making the chocolate chip variation would be great, though I’ve liked the cookies enough in this version to not try it out just yet. I have to confess that although the ingredients list clearly prohibits “natural” peanut butter, I did use natural the first time. I didn’t have any troubles with the cookies. They’re easy to make, with no steps to hold up having cookies ready quickly: just mix together, scoop and roll, crosshatch with a fork, bake, and eat! The directions are exquisitely correct. Both the timing and the number of cookies were accurate as written. As with many successful desserts that could be stored, these never last long enough to prove it to be true! Nor have they ever lasted long enough to make sandwiches with ice cream spread between them. Someday I’ll make a special batch of them, just to make the sandwiches. When I do, I’ll make mini-sandwiches with a variety of ice cream flavors — vanilla, chocolate (regular or dark), peanut butter chocolate chip, and strawberry all come readily to mind.
David,
I read all these recipes and your blog daily. Today I must tell you that the easiest and quickest peanut btter cookie is the one I make. Sooooooo easy:
1 cup peabut better ( Not the chi chi but plain old cheapest)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Mix then drop by the teaspoon on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 375° for 10 minutes.
THAT’s it No flour. Let me kow what you think!
Gary, first, thank you for being such a loyal LCer. We appreciate it. I”ll try your cookies soon. And all you other LCers, have at it!
I love the no flour cookies, they’ve been my peanut butter cookie of choice for years.
Thank you for featuring this recipe. Do you know how difficult it is to find a recipe that deliberately produces a crisp peanut butter cookie? They are rare! I do like a little bit of gritty texture to mine so I roll them in sugar as another respondent mentions, but also dab the top with a water dampened finger to produce a sugar-crackled top. Can’t wait to try this version.
Susan, and we can’t wait for you to try them, too. Please let us know what you think!
Yes! “We use a meat mallet to cross-hatch our cookies.” I’ve been doing this for years, and I keep a little bit of sugar on a plastic lid to dip the mallet in if it picks up any dough.
Brilliant, Terri K. Actually, that nifty little trick is what drew us to this recipe. Well, let’s just say it’s one of many things that drew us to this recipe. We appreciate your tip on dipping the mallet in some sugar… feel free as you’re perusing other recipes on the site to weigh in with more tips…!
I, too, like the idea of using the mallet for a different look to the cookies. I traditionally use a fork. I also roll the dough balls in white sugar first and then smash them with the fork. I also dip my fork in white sugar between marking the cookies to stop the cookies from sticking to the fork. I am going to try the mallet, though, and dipping it into sugar between marking the cookies.
Let us know how it goes, Janet. Like you, I swoon to the extra crunchiness of the sugar dip–why even bother to make peanut butter cookies unless you include this component?–so I’m curious to hear what you think of dappling the mallet…
These cookies turned out great. How come I never thought of using the mallet before? Brilliant and highly entertaining. The cookies were just as described, crisp on the outside and shortbread-like on the inside. Mine baked for about 11 or 12 minutes. I used whole wheat white flour, they turned out great.
Laurie, so glad you enjoyed them. And I love the pattern on top, too.
Lovely and “biscuit like.” We used white spelt flour due to allergies. We found that 15 mins was just right, I guess the spelt takes longer to cook.
Ray, how lovely to hear that this worked just as well with spelt flour. So appreciate you letting us know…