Easy Fudgy Peanut Butter Cookies

Hello and welcome! I wanted to make some holiday cookies that aren’t super Christmasy, don’t require a ton of effort (i.e. frosting and decorating), but that I would be proud to bring to a cookie exchange. Hello Easy Fudgy Peanut Butter Cookies! These cookies are dense and fudgy with real peanut flavor; they flatten out enough during baking to get slightly crispy edges, while the centers are moist and chewy. Let’s Bake!

I came across the original recipe for these cookies on the NYT Cooking site, but I have made a couple changes. The recipe calls for natural peanut butter, which is just roasted peanuts and salt, so there is a very forward-peanut flavor. The other thing that makes these cookies special is they have whole, lightly salted peanuts in them. Such a great texture variation!

Easy Fudgy Peanut Butter Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and adjust the oven rack to the center position. Line two sheet trays with parchment paper.

Everything comes together really quickly and easily in a mixing bowl, so cleanup is pretty simple. The whole roasted peanuts are optional, but I highly recommend you add them to the mix! We have only 1/2 cup of flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking powder, vanilla, an egg, fine sea salt and of course, unsalted butter.

First, add the sugars and very soft butter to the mixing bowl. Mash and cream the butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy. Then add the peanut butter and mix until smooth.

A Note on the Natural Peanut Butter

You can use chunky or smooth, just be sure it’s a natural peanut butter containing only roasted peanuts and salt. My favorite brands are Trader Joe’s or Santa Cruz Organic. With natural nut butters, you want them to be at room temperature and stir them well before using to fully emulsify the natural peanut oil that has often separated from the nut butter.

When the peanut butter is fully incorporated into the sugar and butter mixture, add the egg and the vanilla. Mix until fully incorporated. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the salt, baking powder and flour.

Then add the dry ingredient mix to the wet mixture all at once, then gently fold the dry mix into the wet mix. Gently fold until there are no more dry bits.

Here is where I diverted from the original recipe. The original recipe calls for peanut butter chips to be added now, but peanut butter chips taste fake to me, so I omitted them. We will add the whole, roasted, lightly salted peanuts now.

Gently fold in the whole roasted peanuts until they are evenly distributed into the batter.

Time to Form and Bake!

Use a small (1.5 tbsp.) cookie scoop, or measuring spoon to scoop the cookie batter onto the lined sheet trays. Space them out evenly to get 12 cookies per sheet for a total of 24 cookies. Don’t flatten them out, leave them as little cookie batter balls. You can do one tray first and pop it in the oven and do the second tray while the first one bakes. Bake the first tray of cookies for 10-11 minutes. They will flatten out and get only slightly golden, so don’t over-bake them!

Now here is where it gets more fun, for my second tray of 12 Easy Fudgy Peanut Butter Cookies, I popped a Hershey Kiss in the center of each cookie dough ball. Totally optional but it makes for some nice variety.

Bake the second tray for 10-11 minutes. Cool the sheet trays on wire racks. These Easy Fudgy Peanut Butter Cookies have crispy edges with soft centers that are like wonderful bites of peanut butter fudge. And those whole peanuts really give this little cookie great texture and crunch. So good! We had them with coffee in the morning – they are a perfect little cookie!

Thank you all so much for joining me today for these Easy Fudgy Peanut Butter Cookies! The salty/sweetness of peanut butter cookies is such a great combination, and with the super peanutty flavor of natural peanut butter, these cookies have a rich and true peanut flavor. I have one more holiday bake coming next week, but if you missed last week’s bake, we made Cranberry Clafloutis – another sweet treat that is great for breakfast! Take care and be well, friends. xo Kelly

Print Recipe

Easy Fudgy Peanut Butter Cookies

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

Loading...

Dessert, Cookie, Snack – American

By Adapted from Genevieve Ko, NYT Cooking – Serves: Makes 24 Cookies

Prep Time: 15 Minutes – Cooking Time: 10-11 Minutes – Total Time: ~25 Minutes

Natural peanut butter gives these cookies a rich and true peanut flavor. Toss in some whole roasted peanuts and you have one helluva cookie!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
• 3/4 tsp. Fine Sea Salt
• 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, softened
• 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 cup Natural Salted Peanut Butter, at room temperature
• 1 Large Egg
• 2 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Lightly Salted Roasted Peanuts (optional)
• 12 Hershey Kisses (optional)

Instructions

1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two sheet trays with parchment paper.

2

Add the sugars and butter to the mixing bowl. Mash and cream the butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy.

3

Then add the peanut butter admix until smooth.

4

When the peanut butter is fully incorporated into the sugar and butter mixture, add the egg and the vanilla. Mix until fully incorporated.

5

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the salt, baking powder and flour.

6

Then add the dry ingredient mix to the wet mixture all at once, then gently fold the dry mix into the wet mix. Gently fold until there are no more dry bits.

7

Now add the whole roasted peanuts to the batter, gently fold them in until they are evenly mixed into the batter.

8

Use a small (1.5 tbsp.) cookie scoop, or measuring spoon to scoop the cookie batter onto the lined sheet trays. Space them out evenly to get 12 cookies per sheet for a total of 24 cookies.

9

Don't flatten them out, leave them as little cookie batter balls. You can do one tray first and pop it in the oven and do the second tray while the first one bakes.

10

Bake the first tray of cookies for 10-11 minutes. They will flatten out and get only slightly golden, so don't over-bake them!

11

For the second tray place a Hershey Kiss in the center of each dough ball, if desired.

12

Bake the second tray for 10-11 minutes.

13

Cook the sheet trays on wire racks.

Notes

A Note on the Natural Peanut Butter: You can use chunky or smooth, just be sure it's a natural peanut butter containing only roasted peanuts and salt. My favorite brands are Trader Joe's or Santa Cruz Organic. With natural nut butters, you want them to be at room temperature and stir them well before using to fully emulsify the natural peanut oil that has often separated from the nut butter.