Brown Butter Peanut Butter Cookies

Old fashioned cookies with a modern twist, these no-chill brown butter peanut butter cookies add an extra layer of flavour with the caramelized butter. The perfect balance between a chewy and short texture and a mix of white and brown sugar make for a delicious nutty, quick to make cookie.

Why You'll Love Brown Butter Peanut Butter Cookies

• They're like a classic peanut butter cookies, but with added depth from the brown butter - a more grown up cookie. See how to make brown butter
• The cookies are sweet, rich, and a little salty, with an extra toasted note
• This recipe uses standard no-stir peanut butter
• With just 9 ingredients, it's a great simple cookie that can be frozen and baked right from the freezer

Ingredients You'll Need and Why They Work

You need just 9 ingredients for this recipe. You can find the precise recipe below in the recipe card, but here are some helpful notes from Kelly's testing process.

• Peanut butter: use a standard no-stir peanut butter with oil and sugar added, like Kraft. We haven't tested this recipe with natural peanut butter or crunchy peanut butter.
• Brown sugar: this adds chewiness and extra flavour to the cookies. We don't recommend switching it out for all white sugar.
• Flour: all-purpose is best. Pastry flour makes the cookies too crumbly. You could try using a little whole wheat flour, but note that the cookies will be tougher.
• Butter: use salted butter for that extra bit of salt, since these are a salty-sweet cookie. If you only have unsalted, add an extra pinch of fine salt to the dry ingredients.

Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.

How to Make the Cookies

Step 1: brown the butter until golden and cool for a few minutes. Adding the brown butter when it's too hot will make the egg curdle, so make sure to let it cool slightly.

Step 2: add the sugars, peanut butter, and egg. If measuring with cups, spray the measuring cup with a little oil before measuring out the peanut butter to prevent sticking.

Step 3: mix until combined. It won't cream due to the brown butter but that's normal - you're not looking for a creamed butter and sugar, and the volume won't increase.

Step 4: add the dry ingredients. If your baking soda or powder are lumpy, sift them before adding to prevent clumps in the finished cookie dough.

Step 5: mix to combine. The dough will be fairly stiff, this is normal.

Step 6: roll the dough into balls. It won't be sticky so no need to rinse your hands between each dough ball.

Step 7: press each dough ball with a fork into a crosshatch pattern. For the cookies pictured, Kelly dipped the fork into flour to prevent sticking.

Step 8: bake until the cookies look dry and the edges are just lightly golden. If the centre still looks shiny or wet, the cookies aren't quite done.

Why Use a Fork for Peanut Butter Cookies

We all grew up eating peanut butter cookies like this, pressed with a fork into a crosshatch pattern. When we started baking professionally, we asked why it's done - and here's the answer.

Peanut butter cookies are made with a firmer dough, without chilling, so that it can be rolled into balls. The nut butter means that they spread less in the oven than, say, our brown butter chocolate chip cookies. It's shorter cookie, too (more crumbly).

If you don't press the dough down before baking, they'll spread a little, but you'll end up with a kind of mound that's a bit more like peanut butter shortbread. Not only does the fork make a pretty pattern on the tops of the cookies, it has a more practical purpose: the cookies bake evenly and have a better texture.

Top Tips

• Brown butter: here's our guide on how to make brown butter, with step-by-step photos and extra instruction, if you've never done it before.
• Mix while warm: it's not a bad thing for the brown butter to still be warm when you add it to the peanut butter. It helps it blend into the sugars.
• Avoid plastic: don't use a plastic mixing bowl for the brown butter. The heat can cause it to warp or melt.
• Dip in sugar: if you prefer not to use flour, dip the tops of the cookie dough balls in sugar instead before pressing with the fork.
• Measure before browning: the amount will change slightly after browning, so be sure to measure the amount of butter needed before browning it.

More Peanut Butter Recipes

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Peanut Butter Truffles
• Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
• Peanut Butter Brownies