The World’s Best Easy Peanut Butter Cookies are soft and chewy, and made with just 3 ingredients: peanut butter, brown sugar and egg. Devilishly moorish, these truly taste of peanut butter and you may never forgive me for introducing this to you!
3 ingredient desserts are handy emergency recipes, like Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars. Everybody loves them and they’re so quick to make!
Peanut Butter Cookies
Having dictated this recipe to 3 people at the dog park in the past week, and having had all 3 approach me afterwards with varying forms of love/hate gestures (“THIS is YOUR FAULT!” one lady wailed, showing me her stomach 😉 ), I decided I had better move this up the posting schedule.
3 ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies are not a new thing, certainly not my invention. I’ve no idea how long they’ve been around for, but what I do know is that every recipe I have seen calls for peanut butter, an egg and WHITE sugar.
It is quite amazing, how much difference it makes just switching white for brown sugar. While I’d never turn down a 3 ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies made with white sugar, they are quite crumbly and crisp. The texture is not really to my taste, and I do feel it’s one of those 3 ingredient recipes where you are compromising on quality quite a bit for the sake of convenience.
But use brown sugar instead… and wow! The difference is astonishing. The cookie is soft and chewy and it has more flavour too, that slight caramel-y flavour that brown sugar has.
Here’s my attempt to capture how chewy and soft these cookies are!
How to make Peanut Butter Cookies
Mix 1 cup peanut butter (the commercial spread stuff, not pure peanut butter), 1 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, flatten 1 tbsp balls on tray, bake 10 minutes at 350F / 180C.
Yes, it’s really that easy!
And here’s a peek into the inside. It’s not dense and gluey which one might expect because they are flourless.
Peanut butter lovers, this recipe is dangerous knowledge to have, especially because it’s so ridiculously simple to remember.
1, 1, 1, 10
1 cup peanut butter.
1 cup brown sugar.
1 egg.
Bake 10 minutes.
It’s stuck in your head now, isn’t it? Go, go! Go make these now! – Nagi x
For the Peanut Butter Obsessed
Peanut Butter Caramel Pie – dangerously easy, outrageously decadent
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars – just 3 ingredients!
And for Cookie Monsters 🙋🏻♀️
Byron Bay copycat cookies – Choc Chunk, White Choc Macadamia and Chewy Choc Fudge
Watch how to make it
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World’s Best Easy Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup / 265 g peanut butter , smooth or crunchy – commercial spread, NOT pure peanut butter (I use Bega) (Note 1)
- 200 g/ 1 cup , packed, brown sugar (Note 2)
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Place ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine. It will be soft, too soft for scooping. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C / 350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan / convection).
- Line 2 trays with parchment paper.
- Place 1 tbsp scoops of the dough onto the trays (I use a cookie scoop) 5cm/2″ apart.
- Dip a large fork in a bowl of hot tap water (stops fork sticking to dough). Press down on the dough, then press 90 degrees the other way (watch video) so the cookie is 1 cm / 2/5″ thick. Re-dip fork in water as required.
- Put both trays in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, swapping the trays halfway through, or until light golden on the surface and golden on the edges. (Or longer if you want crisper cookies)
- Leave to cool on the tray. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 – 5 days.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
He was so focussed on the peanut butter cookie in my hand, he didn’t realise I left the other half on his head when I gave him a pat….. 😂 SO MEAN!!!!
Lilly says
Sigh… I tried making these again because I really want to get this right. But again they came out super flat, crispy, candy-like, lace cookie. What am I doing wrong? Maybe I’m not chilling it long enough? I did chill it for 10 minutes in the fridge but the dough was still really soft. Maybe I should be chilling the dough overnight? Help! 🙂
Nagi says
Oh no, sorry you’re having issues, can you tell me what type of peanut butter you’re using?? N x
Lilly says
Hi Nagi! I’m using light peanut butter. Not the natural stuff though, still has the sugar and salt in it, just a bit less calories. Should I chill the dough more? Or use full fat peanut butter? Someone said they used natural pb which is runnier than light and it still worked for her! I’m stumped.
Ella says
Hi Nagi, I love your recipes!! Just wondering if the biscuits harden as they cool down as when I got them out of the oven, they were still soft. Thank you.
Nagi says
Hi Ella, yes they’ll firm up upon cooling! N x
Maria Tamayo says
Hi, Thank you for your recipes just wondering if i can use white sugar?
Nagi says
Hi Maria, it changes the texture of the cookies, but I have heard people using the same weight of white sugar with success 🙂 N x
meazechelle torres dakanay says
Hi Nagi,
I made this with 1 cup of sugar but it’s way too sweet. Will it work if I only put 1/2 cup of sugar?
Nagi says
Hi Meazechelle, they are supposed to be sweet – the sugar is what helps set these cookies so I imagine it won’t work if you reduce the amount sorry! N x
Jasmine says
Hi Nagi ☺️
Just wondering if I can use dark brown packed sugar for this recipe?
Nagi says
Hi Jasmine, I imagine that will work fine! N x
Cyndi Martuscelli says
Can I double this recipe
Nagi says
Hi Cyndi, you can and SHOULD! 😉 N x
Andre J. says
Hello Nagi!!!! I love your recipes. Can I substitute the regular brown sugar with ”Splenda Brown Sugar Blend”? Not sure how it will effect the recipe as “Splenda Brown Sugar Blend” only needs half the amount use compared to regular sugar.
Nagi says
Hi Andre, it won’t work quite the same way unfortunately! N x
Marcela Cotroneo says
I love all your recipes. They are easy to follow and delicious. I can’t tell you how many I have saved on Facebook!!!
Thank you 🙂
Nagi says
You’re so welcome Marcela!! N x
Adele Berndt says
These are awesome. I did use my homemade (pure) peanut butter but they still turned out fine.
Nagi says
That’s great to know Adele, thanks so much 🙂 N x
Lilly says
What did I do wrong??? I got flat crisps with no criss cross marks. Like totally flat. Still yummy but nothing like yours.
Nagi says
Hi Lilly, sorry you had issues here – did you make any changes to the ingredients by any chance? Did you refrigerate the dough prior to baking? N x
Lilly says
Oh and yes, I refrigerated the dough, even set the timer for 10 minutes.
Lilly says
Nope, all exactly the same ingredients, I used smooth LIGHT peanut butter, does that matter? Anyway they were really yummy but super flat and almost candy-like. I would actually make them again!
Kavita says
These were simply AMAZING! Super simple ingredients and very easy to put together. And oh btw they are totally GF to boot! Followed recipe as is and just added some crushed peanuts on top!
Love love love! Thank you!
Nagi says
I’m so glad you loved them Kavita, that’s great to hear! N x
Margie says
Thanks for the recipe…….totally yummy biccies, loved the chewy texture. 🙂
Janie says
I am going to make these today. I have been wanting homemade peanutbutter cookies for a long time and it’s one that I have never made. Just one question, how long did Dozer keep that cookie on his head before he noticed it? So cute!
Roopali says
Hi Nagi, would this recipe work if I sub Mayvers cacao super spread instead of peanut butter? I am fully aware it’s silly to sub the main ingredient in a 3 ingredient recipe 😉 but I have to use a jar of this spread and it ‘feels’ it will work!
Nagi says
I have no idea Roopali – would love to know if it works though! N x
Roopali says
It worked great.. a nice and chewy cookie.. I did add a few tbsp of peanut butter to make a full cup.. this is my go to recipe now to play with any nut butters/spreads! Thanks!
mario says
can i use skippy peanut butter?
Amy Morgan says
Very good and simple!
Nagi says
Thanks Amy ❤️
Barbara Ward says
Really easy and delicious. I added a pack of chocolate chips just to make them slightly naughtier
Nagi says
I Love this idea!! N x
Nicole says
I have tried many of your recipes and they are all AMAZING! As someone who is gluten-sensitive and with a partner who is sensitive to dairy (yes, we make the perfect couple! hah), this recipe makes the perfect match for us both. 5 stars!
Nagi says
That’s wonderful to hear Nicole!! ❤️
Christina Sorrentini says
These should be known as the devils cookies, once you start eating them it’s hard to stop without a lot of self control! Mine ended up very soft (falling apart) and needed a bit of extra time in the oven, maybe 3 mins, so bloody delicious! I also added choc chips to mine because….I just wanted to hit that diabetic coma hard.
Nagi says
😂 I know EXACTLY where you are coming from!
Joy Green says
Would be nice if you put how long they cook for!!!
Stephanie says
Wow Joy that’s pretty rude. It’s not Nagi’s fault you can’t read a recipe properly.
Nagi says
Hi Joy – The info you’re after is in step 6!