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Brown Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies

Brown Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies

When you’re talking about cookies, it is often said that using brown sugar will result in a chewier cookie. This is partially true, as brown sugar does have a higher moisture content than regular sugar and that can help a cookie stay more moist – and therefore, chewier. It is not the only thing that can make a cookie chewy, however, as the amount of sugar, number of eggs, amount of butter and/or other fats and ratios of various other ingredients can also come into play. In other words, it helps but it’s not the only way to get there.

This peanut butter cookie happens to use brown sugar and bake up to be nice and chewy. It uses brown sugar to help with the chew and add a little bit of a molasses flavor to the cookies. What really makes them chewy, however, is the baking time and temperature. They are baked at a lower temperature than many other peanut butter cookie recipes (at least, most of those that I make) and are baked until just set, not until browned. The cookies turn out with a nice chew to them. Don’t worry if you overbake them, however, as they shouldn’t turn out hard, though they might be a little on the crisp side.

I used dark brown sugar to get the most molasses flavor into the cookies and a national brand of crunchy peanut butter (Jif extra crunchy). I like the crunch that some pieces of peanut add to the cookies. If you don’t have dark brown sugar, any type of brown sugar is a fine substitution.

Brown Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter (crunchy, national brand)

Preheat oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg, followed by the vanilla and peanut butter. Gradually add in dry ingredients, mixing on low speed until just combined.
Drop rounded spoonfuls – approx 3/4- or 1-inch balls – of cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 11-13 minutes, until cookies are set around the edges but not quite browned. Cool cookies on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes approx 2 1/2 dozen

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17 Comments
  • patti
    August 31, 2009

    Perfect timing- I wanted to make a little treat for my son who is home sick from school but I wasn’t sure what to make him. These sounded great so I just mixed up a batch and popped them in the oven. Thanks for the inspiration!

  • heather peskin
    August 31, 2009

    These look wonderful. Am putting them on my “must copy” list to bake for BakingGals next week.

  • sharon
    September 1, 2009

    Having nothing to do one day, I was reading the peanut butter labels. Some have sugar, some don’t. Does having sugar in the peanut butter affect the cookies in any way?

  • baguette
    September 1, 2009

    i love it…this 3 words are enough.

  • Kerry
    September 1, 2009

    Do you write menus for any restaurants? You should. I love how you describe each recipie, and certain choices you made and how your alterations affect the final product. AND, all the recipies I’ve made from this blog turn out FANTASTIC. Thanks for sharing!

  • MollyCookie
    September 1, 2009

    I think this recipe sounds great. Ever since I tried brown sugar ice cream I’ve been a little obsessed with brown sugar. These cookies look like a great way to calm my craving.

  • Kerry
    September 1, 2009

    brown sugar ice cream….that sounds delicious…..especially sandwiched between two brown sugar peanut butter cookies….

  • Ashley
    September 1, 2009

    Mmm I love peanut butter cookies. And chewy cookies. And all cookies. These look so good!

  • casinos casino
    September 1, 2009

    I come to your site because it keeps me entertained and aware of new things.

  • Jamie
    October 3, 2009

    one question i could never get the answer to is why not use baking powder instead of baking soda? i always want to make stuff but dont have the soda but i got the powder. i am actually going to make this and use the powder anyway and see what happens.

  • sara
    March 14, 2011

    Hi there, No offense to the person who posted this recipe, but I would suggest to maybe use half the salt that is suggested b/c I found these cookeis to have a very strong salty aftertaste.

    thanks

  • Britt
    November 22, 2011

    I would also rework this to cut down on the dry ingredients. I was not a fan of the consistancy of these cookies.

  • Yana
    October 24, 2012

    Best peanut butter cookies I ever made. I took the advice of previous commenter and cut down the salt to 1/4 tspn instead of 1/2, even then it still had the salty aftertaste.

    Then I remembered that the peanuts are already somewhat salted so next time I’m just going to omit the salt entirely.

    Other than that, amazing cookies

  • Alexa
    September 4, 2013

    I’ve made peanut butter cookies in the past many times but decided to try this recipe out because I was all out of regular sugar but had plenty of brown sugar on hand. I really must be honest and say that I found them to be very bland. I liked the consistency and I didn’t have the salty taste issue that others seem to have had. However, I could hardly taste the actual peanut butter, they were not very sweet at all in fact. I don’t think quite so much flour is needed. I do like the consistency, so I might tweak it a bit and try again. Otherwise, I think I’ll just stick to my normal recipe.

  • BakingLady
    December 8, 2013

    In my opinion these cookies hardly had a peanut butter taste. They smelled like peanut butter but tasted like flavorless dough. The consistency was nice but the flavor just wasn’t there.

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