These soft peanut butter cookies are very easy to make. They don’t contain any flour, butter, or eggs. The cookies come out very soft and melt in your mouth. They take less than 20 minutes to make, including baking time.
I’m excited to share this super easy peanut butter cookie recipe today. The cookies come out puffy and soft and will stay soft for days. I previously shared another 2 ingredient peanut butter cookie recipe which I also love but I had several people ask me for a soft cookie version, so here it is! If you prefer soft-baked cookies, definitely give this one a try.
Ingredients
- Creamy Peanut Butter
- Powdered Sugar
Creamy peanut butter: I used natural unsweetened creamy peanut butter but you can also use regular creamy peanut butter.
Powdered Sugar: This recipe works best with powdered sugar. If you don’t have powdered sugar, you can blend white granular sugar in a food processor or blender until it becomes a powder consistency. Powdered sugar will firm up the cookie dough. Using regular sugar will cause the dough to be very liquidy. Powdered sugar will also melt as the cookies bake. When I made these with regular granular sugar, the sugar crystals did not melt and left some crunchy bits inside the cookies.
How to Make Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
- The peanut butter is mixed with the sugar. This should take less than a minute and then your cookie dough is done!
- Scoop the dough with a cookie scoop and place it onto a baking sheet. The cookies are then ready to go into the oven to bake.
Texture of Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
These cookies bake up puffy and soft. When you bite in, the cookie almost melts in your mouth. Because the cookies don’t contain eggs, they lack a binding agent so the cookies do crumble more easily than traditional cookies. You can still pick them up to eat them, but you have to be more gentle with them.
How to Store Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
Cookies can be stored at room temperature. You can store them in an airtight container, but if you have room, I recommend leaving them on a baking sheet and covering the baking sheet with plastic wrap. Because these cookies are more delicate and crumble easier, it’s best not to stack them if you want to keep them whole.
More Peanut Butter Recipes
- 2 Ingredient Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies
- 2 Ingredient No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
- 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Bread
2 Ingredient Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (128 g) creamy peanut butter
- 4 tbsp (24 g) powdered sugar (can add 1-2 more tbsp for sweeter cookies)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl add peanut butter and sugar. Stir until sugar is completely incorporated into the peanut butter. You can taste the dough and if you don't think it is sweet enough, you can add 1-2 tbsp more sugar.
- Use a 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop and scoop up cookie dough. Release it onto prepared baking sheet. Repeat with rest of the dough. Use your fingers to gently smooth the surface of each dough ball.
- Bake cookies for 13-15 minutes or until edges turn a darker shade of brown and surface of the cookies are dry and slightly cracked. Let cookies cool completely on cookie sheet before removing them with a cookie spatula.
Notes
- This is a small batch recipe. The cookies are quite rich in peanut butter flavor, so it's hard to eat more than one at a time. If you want more cookies, you can double the recipe.
- These cookies are very soft. Because there is no egg acting as a binding agent, the cookies will crumble more easily.
- I used natural peanut butter but it can be made with regular peanut butter. This recipe works best with powdered sugar. You can make your own powdered sugar by blending white sugar in food processor or blender until it becomes powder consistency. See post for why powdered sugar is used in this recipe instead of regular granular sugar.
- Storage tips are discussed in the post.
- Recipe inspired from Shape.
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.
made these cookies didn’t seem to bake and this did not work it was just warmed lumps of peanut butter. don’t know what i did wrong,. kudos to those that got it right
When you say lumps, do you mean the cookies didn’t spread when you baked them? Are you sure you baked them long enough at the right temperature?
I don’t understand how this recipe worked for others. I can’t form any balls. The “dough” is extremely runny and when I tried to scoop it, it’s just like runny natural peanut butter. I used a brand new back of powdered sugar. What am I doing wrong??
We’re sorry you had trouble! The dough should definitely not be runny – what brand of peanut butter did you use, and did you stir it first?
I used Peter pan peanut butter and baked for almost 30 mins and was runny afterwards never fully set
It should work fine with regular peanut butter, and the cookies shouldn’t need that much baking time. The cookie dough shouldn’t be runny at all – it will be soft, but peanut butter is thick, and the powdered sugar thickens it even more. Are you sure you didn’t add anything?
We made them for a Christmas party tonight and they were to die for yummy for sure
We’re so glad they were a hit!
Can you use almond butter?
We wanted to make peanut butter cookies, but almond butter should work. The cookies will just have a different flavor.
We tried it and it worked well! Thank you for the recipe!
Oh, that’s great! Thanks for letting us know.
Can you add an egg of you wanted for better firmness
We intentionally made this an eggless recipe so we haven’t tested it with eggs.
I made it last night like she said very delicate cookies so I let it rest for a while and they are delicious I put them in my fridge and today they taste much better more firm.. I will make them again.
Thanks KIRBIE !
You’re welcome! We’re happy you loved the recipe.
I am not a fact checker but this a grand cookie.love the peanut butter cookie ….well ? done…And takes very little time.
Glad you enjoyed it!
could this work with sunbutter instead? My 3 yr old can’t have peanut butter, and I am missing peanut butter cookies something fierce!
It’s often used as a substitute for nut butter, but we haven’t tried it in this recipe since it’s a peanut butter cookie. If you try it, let us know how it worked for you.
Actually it’s 120 grams in a half cup and 240 in a cup
Do I need to press down or flatten the ball of dough when I put it on the baking sheet? Or do I leave it as a ball and it will flatten itself somewhat during the baking process?
Use your fingers to gently smooth the surface of each dough ball when you place them on the baking sheet. Hope that helps!
Can you use Splenda or other artificial sweeteners?
This recipe works best with powdered sugar – it hasn’t been tested with artificial sweeteners.
wow, awesome recipes!! I like quick and easy recipes especially when you don’t have alot of time!
Ty for your time and recipes!
Happy to hear you’re enjoying the recipes!
HAVE YOU MADE THESE WITH STEVIA OR SWERVE POWDERED SUGAR???
We haven’t tested it with those options.
Delicious and easy to bake ? Strongly recommend ?
I’m so glad you enjoyed!
Wondering if fake sugar will work
You might like our Keto Peanut Butter Cookies.
Wow, thanks for the recipe not looking for mistakes just GOoD cookies. I can’t wait to try them.
Hope you like them!
Y’all made a mistake, go look at the ingredient part and tell me if it’s a half cup of peanut butter (64 grams) or a full cup of peanut butter (128 grams). Get a proof reader please, or just do it yourself.
there is no mistake. 1/2 cup of peanut butter equals 128 grams.
I’m pretty postive 1/2 cup is indeed 64 grams. Please give this another look.
I did give this another look. I checked with a scale, a nutrition label and the internet.
Kirbie is right 128 grams is 1/2cup
I just checked my two PB jars and not surprising that Kirbie and recipe are correct. 2TB PB is 32g so 1/4c is 64g and 1/2c is 128g.
I agree with you
Can I use brown sugar in your two ingredient peanut butter cookie receipt?
The recipe works best with powdered sugar – we didn’t try it with brown sugar.
I did the put the brown sugar through a blender thing, and it worked awesome! They do start caramelizing and almost looking burnt but I also use cooking spray, so…
Thanks for letting us know that you tried it!