These soft peanut butter cookies have a wonderful melt-in-your-mouth sensation when you eat them. They are just 2 ingredients and don’t require any flour, eggs or dairy to make them. They can be made ahead of time and store well, so they are great for gifting or bringing to a party.
These easy peanut butter cookies are going to be part of my holiday cookie box this year. I love how easy they are to make and they taste delicious. They are just 2 ingredients and you don’t need a mixer. The cookies are ready in about 20 minutes including baking time.
I call these meltaway cookies because they just melt in your mouth as you eat them. Usually meltaway cookies contain cornstarch, but it isn’t needed for these cookies.
Ingredients
- Peanut Butter
- Powdered Sugar
Peanut Butter: This recipe uses unsweetened natural peanut butter. Natural peanut butter is the kind of peanut butter that needs to be stirred before using and does not contain any added oils. The only ingredients should be salt and peanuts.
Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar not only provides sweetness for these cookies but it thickens the peanut butter to a cookie dough consistency. It also helps create the melt-in-your-mouth sensation when you eat the cookies.
How to Make Peanut Butter Meltaway Cookies
The peanut butter is mixed with the sugar until a thick cookie dough forms. The dough is then scooped out onto a cookie sheet. Gently smooth the surfaces of each cookie ball and then they are ready to be baked. The cookies don’t take long to bake, only about 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool and dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Cookie Texture
These cookies feel firm when you pick them up but they are soft on the inside and quickly melt in your mouth as you eat them. The cookies are sweet and full of peanut butter flavor. Even though they are made with just peanut butter and sugar, they do have the texture of a cookie.
More Peanut Butter Recipes
- 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Brownies
- 3 Ingredient No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- 2 Ingredient Peanut Butter Fudge
- 2 Ingredient Peanut Butter Honey Cookies
2 Ingredient Peanut Butter Meltaway Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (242 g) unsweetened natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp (70 g) powdered sugar plus additional for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl add peanut butter and sugar. Stir until sugar is completely incorporated into the peanut butter and a thick dough forms.
- Using a 2 tsp cookie scoop, scoop the dough and release onto the prepared cookie sheet, spacing dough balls one inch apart.
- Using your fingertips or the back of a metal spoon, gently smooth just the surface of the cookie balls, but be careful not to flatten them.
- Place cookies in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes. The surface of the cookies should no longer look wet and they should be slightly cracked. Let cookies cool completely before removing them from the cookie sheet. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Notes
- You don't want to use clumpy powdered sugar for this recipe because it will be hard to mix out the clumps. I recommend using a fresh box/bag or if your powdered sugar is clumpy, run it through a fine mesh strainer or blender to break up the clumps before using.
- I have only tested this recipe with natural peanut butter. I don't think it will work the same with regular peanut butter (peanut butter that has other oils added to it). I used salted and unsweetened natural peanut butter. Unsalted should also work but your cookies won't have any salt flavor.
- I used this 2 tsp cookie scoop.*
- *This product link is an affiliate link. This means I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
I do not want to knock anyone’s creation, but this was not a good recipe. The “cookies”, I use this term loosely were not cookies at all but small volcanic drops of lava. For the gathering, I proceeded to my local Walmart. I am sure others will have good luck but, this in my opinion is not it.
We’re sorry you had trouble – it sounds like a problem with the dough. Did you use natural peanut butter? How thick was the dough when you mixed it?
How many cookies does one batch make?
20 cookies – this info is listed in the recipe card at the end of the post.
Um….mine were in the oven for 10 minutes. Still wet. I put them on again increments of 5 minutes. At the 30 minute mark they were pretty much the same. I let them stay in the oven while it cooled so they’d get residual heat and maybe show the cracks you said would indicate they’d be ready….still no cracks. They are cooling out on the counter now. I have no illusions that I’ll be able to share these with the neighbours as I’d hoped. They taste like hot globs of peanut butter but to be fair I haven’t dusted them with icing sugar yet. I mean how can they NOT taste like hot globs of peanut butter?! Did I need to put more icingbsugar in to make a stiffer “dough? This may have been my mistake. My natural peanut butter was room temp for easy mixing and quite runny. I prob should have put twice the required quantity of icing sugar in them as called for in the recipe because of this. Anyway they LOOK like cookies but are still too hot to dare try to remove from the pan. Worst case I’ll have sweetened pb for our toast for the next few weeks!
Was your oven set to the correct temperature? They definitely don’t need long to bake at 350°F. Also, when you mix the peanut butter and powdered sugar they should form a thick dough that is easy to scoop. It might have been the consistency of the peanut butter, so your idea to add more sugar is probably the best thing to do. Don’t add a lot of extra all at once – add a little at a time until you get the thick dough consistency.
By natural peanut butter do you mean the one where the oil separates & needs refrigeration and stirring to incorporate the oil?
Yes, we use natural peanut butter that needs to be stirred before using and does not contain any added oils. The only ingredients should be salt and peanuts.
Can you use a lowcarb/keto powdered sugar for this recipe?
You should try our Keto Meltaway Cookies!
Really good.
We’re happy you liked them!
Can’t wait to try! How many carbs per cookie.
All of the nutrition info is at the bottom of the recipe card.
I just made these for an event tomorrow. Is there any special way of storing them? Feel free to email me. Thanks!!
I store mine in an airtight container at room temp
Has anyone done these with a sugar substitute like stevia or monk fruit? Love PB cookies, but need to cut back on the sweets
Great cookies easy to make and taste
Delicious. Thank you
I’m glad you liked them!
I am allergic to peanuts. Can you substitute with almond butter??
I think it should work with almond butter
Yum! Sounds like a buckeye minus the chocolate then baked! Gonna try these today! Thanks:)
We hope you enjoy them!
Chunky or smooth peanut butter?
Smooth peanut butter works best.
Looking for red to making these cookies easy I love easy thank you
We hope you like them!
Yest I made this recipe in oven I made recipe as directed loves to cook try out new recipes but put a new twist I had mixed up cinnamon, brown sugar, toasted chopped pecans in a previous recipe I had make sprinkle in batter with splash vanilla. Stir batter took a spatula fold in ingredients ! Got go cookies done !
Thanks for sharing your adjustments!
Greetings from a -26°F Alberta, Canada ?? morning!
Sorry, but I have a bunch of questions.
How should these cookies be stored? And how long can you store them, by whatever the method? Can they be frozen?
Thanks in advance!
They should keep well at room temperature for several days – just store them in an airtight container. We haven’t tried freezing them, but it should work. Don’t freeze them with the powdered sugar – wait until they are thawed to add that on top.
Really lovely. Being diabetic I used a substitute sweetener.
Thanks for letting us know!
Can I use a natural sugar substitute, like Stevia or Monk Fruit? Please let me know. Regards, Maria B.
We haven’t tried a sugar sub.
I have peanut flour need some ideas
We haven’t tried peanut flour before – maybe other readers have some ideas for you!