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Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

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Cook Time 12 minutes
Course Desserts
Cuisine American
Servings 17

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups All-purpose Flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
  • 1 ½ cups light brown sugar you can also use dark brown sugar
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter you can also use crunchy
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract optional, but recommended
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar for rolling cookies
  • ½ cup Reese's Pieces, peanut butter chips or chocolate chips optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat your oven to 350°F. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer, cream together the butter well for a few minutes. Gradually add in the brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix until the mixture is lighter in color and fluffier. It should only take a couple of minutes.
  • Next, add in your eggs one at a time while mixing at the lowest speed. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl and paddle well before starting the mixer again and adding the peanut butter, vanilla, and almond extract. Mix everything for a couple of minutes until the mixture is uniform in color and texture.
  • Stop the mixer and dump in the dried ingredients all at once carefully. You would add in any add-ins you have at this point as well.  Mix on low speed for another couple minutes until the mixture is just combined and most of the flour is absorbed. You can finish the job off with a rubber spatula, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl well, along with the paddle attachment.
  • Use a medium-sized ice cream or cookie scoop to scoop out two balls of dough and place them in your bowl of sugar. Combine the balls of dough into one and roll it in the palm of your hands until a dough ball forms then toss the dough in the sugar well. 
  • Use a fork to form a crisis cross pattern on top of the cookie and then place the cookie on your greased parchment-lined cookie sheet or baking tray. It should fit six cookies on a medium-sized tray. Leave some space in between as these cookies do expand. Place the tray of cookies in the fridge for ten minutes. 
  • After ten minutes in the fridge, bake the cookies in your preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Mine are typically perfect at ten minutes. Pull them out of the oven and allow them to cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before using a spatula to move to a wire rack to cool. Continue this process until you use up all the dough you want to use. You can freeze any leftover dough in an airtight container or a storage bag that's well-sealed.

Video

Notes

  •  I made both the OG cookie as well as one with Reese's Pieces. You can add in chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or anything else you'd like. To get a bakery-style look, make sure you put the add-ins in the dough as well as on top of the dough prior to baking.
  • You can freeze leftover dough in an airtight container or a storage bag or store it in the fridge for up to a week. Freezing the dough will last up to six months.
  • Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to five days.
  • Almond extract is optional, but highly recommended.