These are the best peanut butter cookies ever! Use your favorite store-brand peanut butter and a combination of white and brown sugar. For the best cookie shape, let the dough chill for at least three hours before baking.

Photography Credit: Elise Bauer

If there is a Hall of Fame for cookies, peanut butter cookies hold a place of honor, along with chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin. They also happen to be my mother’s favorite cookie, the one cookie she requests when I’m in a cookie making mood.

The cross-hatch pattern on top is the defining touch for a peanut butter cookie. One look and you know what the cookie is, right?

Who invented the peanut butter cookie?

The peanut butter cookie recipe that most resembles modern peanut butter cookies, and introduced the now familiar cross-hatch pattern, first appeared in Ruth Wakefield’s Toll House Tried and True Recipes in 1936. Over the years, similar recipes followed, including Betty Crocker’s peanut butter cookie recipe.

Our recipe most closely follows Betty Crocker’s proportions, but as in Ruth Wakefield’s, we are using all butter instead of a combination of butter and shortening.

These peanut butter cookies are super easy to make, with no fancy ingredients. What’s in peanut butter cookies? Just peanut butter, flour, butter, sugar, egg, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Video! How to make peanut butter cookies!

Tips for the Best Peanut Butter Cookies

There are a few tips that will help you make the best cookies.

Use a name brand peanut butter like Skippy, Jif, or Peter Pan. I usually buy a natural version of peanut butter for my PB&Js, but the natural brands (the ones that separate) yield a cookie with a grittier texture, and spread too much. That said, if you have a natural brand of peanut butter that works for you, use it! I just find I get better results with the name brands.

like Skippy, Jif, or Peter Pan. I usually buy a natural version of peanut butter for my PB&Js, but the natural brands (the ones that separate) yield a cookie with a grittier texture, and spread too much. That said, if you have a natural brand of peanut butter that works for you, use it! I just find I get better results with the name brands. Chill the dough. Chilling the dough for a few hours will help the peanut butter cookies maintain their shape, and not overly spread when cooked.

Chilling the dough for a few hours will help the peanut butter cookies maintain their shape, and not overly spread when cooked. Dip the fork in sugar. To help keep the fork from sticking when you make a cross-hatch pattern on the cookies, dip the tines in a little granulated sugar between cookies.

To help keep the fork from sticking when you make a cross-hatch pattern on the cookies, dip the tines in a little granulated sugar between cookies. Use a lower oven temp for chewier cookies. If you want chewy cookies, bake a little longer at a lower temperature.

Fun peanut butter cookie variations

Roll in sugar. Roll the cookie dough balls in sugar before pressing with a fork.

Roll the cookie dough balls in sugar before pressing with a fork. Add a Hershey’s kiss. Skip the fork marks (don’t press, but leave as a ball). Roll the cookie dough balls in granulated sugar and bake as instructed. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, press in a chocolate Hershey’s kiss (out of the wrapper of course). Here’s the full recipe.

Skip the fork marks (don’t press, but leave as a ball). Roll the cookie dough balls in granulated sugar and bake as instructed. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, press in a chocolate Hershey’s kiss (out of the wrapper of course). Here’s the full recipe. Use almond butter. Swap out the peanut butter with almond butter for an easy almond butter cookie.

How to Store and Freeze Peanut Butter Cookies

Baked cookies can be stored in an airtight container for about 5 days before drying out.

To freeze before baking, line a sheet pan with foil and then add the balls of cookie dough. Press with a fork to make cross-hatch marks, and then freeze until solid. Transfer the frozen cookies to an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake as directed, adding on a few extra minutes of baking time.

More Ideas for Peanut Butter Treats