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Nothing beats classic peanut butter cookies. So easy to make too.
Classic Peanut Butter Cookies
Since these cookies are so easy to make, you’ll definitely make them often.
The key here is to use a top-quality peanut butter because that’s the main flavor here. Creamy peanut butter is the standard for use, but I’ve also tried these with chunky peanut butter and they are very good too.
Classic peanut butter cookies bake up in no time at all. I usually bake mine for about 6 minutes because I like them a bit on the chewy side–which works pretty well even now right after dental surgery!
Easy Mix
The reason these are so easy and mix beautifully is that there’s no softening of anything here.
These cookies use vegetable shortening which is at room temperature already so there’s no waiting for any ingredient to come up to the ambient temperature.
Honestly I’m not one much for vegetable shortening, but it works here because it really lets the flavor of the peanut butter shine through. It’s the traditional kind–not the butter-flavored one. That stuff is nasty!
Don’t worry about the egg. That you can use straight out of the refrigerator with no consequences but it you’d like to have it at room temperature, just drop it in a bowl of warm water (it’s still in it’s shell FYI) while you measure out everything else.
Now And Later
I rarely bake the entire yield with these because they are so quick cooking you can make them fresh when you want them.
The dough keeps well. I’ve kept it for at least two weeks in the fridge without any bad effects. So I make what I want and save the rest of the dough for later.
If you do small batches, they’d probably be good made in the air fryer. I haven’t tried this yet but I would make sure to use the parchment liners and maybe a small rack on top in case they fly around. I’d go with the same temperature as the oven but I’d check these for doneness after about 4 minutes.
The Recipe
Classic Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
- 3 tbs milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 3/4 cuo flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375F/190C. Combine peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Add egg. Beat just until blended.
- Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended. Drop by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls of dough 2-inches apart onto greased baking sheet. Flatten slightly in a crisscross pattern with tines of a fork.
- Bake one baking sheet at a time for 6 to 8 minutes, or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove cookies to cooling rack to cool completely.
