The World’s Best Easy Peanut Butter Cookies are soft and chewy, and made with just 3 ingredients: peanut butter, brown sugar and egg. Devilishly moorish, these truly taste of peanut butter and you may never forgive me for introducing this to you!
3 ingredient desserts are handy emergency recipes, like Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars. Everybody loves them and they’re so quick to make!
Peanut Butter Cookies
Having dictated this recipe to 3 people at the dog park in the past week, and having had all 3 approach me afterwards with varying forms of love/hate gestures (“THIS is YOUR FAULT!” one lady wailed, showing me her stomach 😉 ), I decided I had better move this up the posting schedule.
3 ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies are not a new thing, certainly not my invention. I’ve no idea how long they’ve been around for, but what I do know is that every recipe I have seen calls for peanut butter, an egg and WHITE sugar.
It is quite amazing, how much difference it makes just switching white for brown sugar. While I’d never turn down a 3 ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies made with white sugar, they are quite crumbly and crisp. The texture is not really to my taste, and I do feel it’s one of those 3 ingredient recipes where you are compromising on quality quite a bit for the sake of convenience.
But use brown sugar instead… and wow! The difference is astonishing. The cookie is soft and chewy and it has more flavour too, that slight caramel-y flavour that brown sugar has.
Here’s my attempt to capture how chewy and soft these cookies are!
How to make Peanut Butter Cookies
Mix 1 cup peanut butter (the commercial spread stuff, not pure peanut butter), 1 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, flatten 1 tbsp balls on tray, bake 10 minutes at 350F / 180C.
Yes, it’s really that easy!
And here’s a peek into the inside. It’s not dense and gluey which one might expect because they are flourless.
Peanut butter lovers, this recipe is dangerous knowledge to have, especially because it’s so ridiculously simple to remember.
1, 1, 1, 10
1 cup peanut butter.
1 cup brown sugar.
1 egg.
Bake 10 minutes.
It’s stuck in your head now, isn’t it? Go, go! Go make these now! – Nagi x
For the Peanut Butter Obsessed
Peanut Butter Caramel Pie – dangerously easy, outrageously decadent
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars – just 3 ingredients!
And for Cookie Monsters 🙋🏻♀️
Byron Bay copycat cookies – Choc Chunk, White Choc Macadamia and Chewy Choc Fudge
Watch how to make it
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World’s Best Easy Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup / 265 g peanut butter , smooth or crunchy – commercial spread, NOT pure peanut butter (I use Bega) (Note 1)
- 200 g/ 1 cup , packed, brown sugar (Note 2)
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Place ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine. It will be soft, too soft for scooping. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C / 350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan / convection).
- Line 2 trays with parchment paper.
- Place 1 tbsp scoops of the dough onto the trays (I use a cookie scoop) 5cm/2″ apart.
- Dip a large fork in a bowl of hot tap water (stops fork sticking to dough). Press down on the dough, then press 90 degrees the other way (watch video) so the cookie is 1 cm / 2/5″ thick. Re-dip fork in water as required.
- Put both trays in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, swapping the trays halfway through, or until light golden on the surface and golden on the edges. (Or longer if you want crisper cookies)
- Leave to cool on the tray. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 – 5 days.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
He was so focussed on the peanut butter cookie in my hand, he didn’t realise I left the other half on his head when I gave him a pat….. 😂 SO MEAN!!!!
Hi Nagi, would this recipe work if I sub Mayvers cacao super spread instead of peanut butter? I am fully aware it’s silly to sub the main ingredient in a 3 ingredient recipe 😉 but I have to use a jar of this spread and it ‘feels’ it will work!
I have no idea Roopali – would love to know if it works though! N x
It worked great.. a nice and chewy cookie.. I did add a few tbsp of peanut butter to make a full cup.. this is my go to recipe now to play with any nut butters/spreads! Thanks!
can i use skippy peanut butter?
Very good and simple!
Thanks Amy ❤️
Really easy and delicious. I added a pack of chocolate chips just to make them slightly naughtier
I Love this idea!! N x
I have tried many of your recipes and they are all AMAZING! As someone who is gluten-sensitive and with a partner who is sensitive to dairy (yes, we make the perfect couple! hah), this recipe makes the perfect match for us both. 5 stars!
That’s wonderful to hear Nicole!! ❤️
These should be known as the devils cookies, once you start eating them it’s hard to stop without a lot of self control! Mine ended up very soft (falling apart) and needed a bit of extra time in the oven, maybe 3 mins, so bloody delicious! I also added choc chips to mine because….I just wanted to hit that diabetic coma hard.
😂 I know EXACTLY where you are coming from!
Would be nice if you put how long they cook for!!!
Wow Joy that’s pretty rude. It’s not Nagi’s fault you can’t read a recipe properly.
Hi Joy – The info you’re after is in step 6!
Made these on a Sunday cos I was really wanting some peanut buttery goodness and this has been on my ‘to-make’ list for a while. And you’re right Nagi, I may never forgive you for introducing these into my life! 😂
Brought some into work the next day as I really don’t need the temptation of having a whole batch at home to myself. People could not believe it when I told them it was just three ingredients!
Wow, these are a 120% full-on peanut butter and sugar hit! Made them just for the hell of it because they were so quick and they are really delicious but this is definitely a “one cookie at a time” recipe for me. I added a handful of both dried cranberries and chopped toasted macadamias which are a great addition.
Sounds delicious Mike, I’ll have to try it!!
Peanut butter cookies look good
Thanks so much Lorraine!
They are great love them
Awesome Caren 🙌
Peanut butter cookies yum yum r
Easy
R
I’m so glad you loved them Jude!
can i use skippy peanut butter?
This is a quick summer time hit at my house! Always have eggs ,sugar and peanut butter!! And they are so eazy to make. It’s a great 1st recipe for a little girl to remember also.
I’m so glad you love them Kathy!
Hi Nagi! Should I use dark or light brown sugar for this recipe?
Hi Maria, just light brown will be fine – N x
I wasn’t sure how these would turn out – but WOW! They are SO easy and SO yummy. I love how they’re crispy on the outside but soft on the inside, divine. I used half regular peanut butter and half natural and they turned out perfect.
That’s great to hear Monique!!
I am loving your site!!!
Thanks so much Margo!
Cookies are delicious! Your humor so refreshing! Great combo! Thank you Nagi 🙂
Thanks so much JT!
I signed up previously to your website … but I haven’t received your free ecookbooks. I would like very much to have them. Could you help me out please?
Hi Kathleen, not a problem at all, let me know your email address and I’ll send them through, alternatively the links are in every new email I send out ☺️
May i know this peanut butter how many days can keep in container? Tq
Ok. I was sceptical of this one.
I thought maybe you had posted this after a couple of glasses wine but I went ahead anyway. Who knew? Well obviously you did but Wow! Delicious,beautiful biscuits. Three cheers for Nagi!
Woo!!
Hi Khairany, the peanut butter or the cookies?
My cookies didn’t look like this!! They flattened out, and you couldn’t see the fork marks…not sure what I could have possibly done wrong…
Hi Gynene, that doesn’t sound right at all! Can I ask what brand of peanut butter you used?