3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

The easiest peanut butter cookie recipe you'll find.
Tayler Tayler (75)
15 minutes

Sometimes all you need in your life is a peanut butter cookie. Thankfully, peanut butter cookies can be some of the easiest to make, and you'll likely have all of the ingredients in your kitchen! With just three ingredients, you can make a simple and fast dessert that is sure to please everyone in your household.

The peanut butter that I used was the household standard Jiff peanut butter. I've used nonfat peanut butter before, but I used the full-fat peanut butter this go around and I couldn't tell a difference.

I'm sure you could also use crunchy peanut butter if you want a little more crunch in your cookies. They're also tasty if you press some chocolate chips into the surface of your dough before you pop them into the oven. This recipe will cover the bare minimum three-ingredient recipe, but here are a few things you can add!

  • A splash of vanilla extract to the dough
  • Chocolate chips for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
  • Peanuts
  • Cinnamon
  • A sprinkling of powdered sugar on top as they come out of the oven
  • A swirl of Nutella
  • Anything your heart desires

When a recipe is this simple, it's easy to customize the recipe to fit your tastes! Grab your peanut butter and let's dive in!

Kitchen tools
1 eacookie sheet
1 eaWooden spoonWooden spoon
1 eaMixing bowlsMixing bowls
1 eafork
1 eaCooling rackCooling rack
Ingredients
1 cuppeanut butter
1 cupsugar
1 eaEgg

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Cookie sheet.
Don't be like me and overline your cookie sheet so that the too-long pieces of parchment paper are touching the burners of your oven. No fires, thankfully, but the intense smell of burning was alarming.

Before you start mixing the ingredients together, go ahead and preheat your oven! You can also take your cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper.

Peanut butter cookie ingredients

Into a large bowl, use your measuring cup to combine the ingredients in this order:

  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 cup of peanut butter
  • 1 egg
Peanut butter cookie dough

Using a spoon, stir until everything is thoroughly combined into a cohesive dough. Make sure you stir more than you think you need to ensure that you get everything mixed together.

Peanut butter cookie dough

How large you want your cookies to be is entirely up to you. Using the same spoon I mixed the dough together with, I formed the dough into little balls about 1/2" in diameter and placed them onto the cookie sheet an inch apart from each other.

Peanut butter cookies scored

Using your fork, press lightly against the top of the cookies, with the prongs facing in one direction. When you've pressed against all of the cookies, rotate the cookie sheet, and repeat the step, with the prongs of your fork crossing through the lines you've just created.

Since this dough won't really rise or expand too far, this step will help give your cookies that standard circular shape and make them look pretty post bake!

Into the 350˚ Fahrenheit oven your cookies go for anywhere from 6 to 9 minutes. 6 minutes will give you chewier cookies and 9 minutes will give you cookies that are crunchier.

Peanut butter cookies.

After extracting them from the oven, let them cool for five minutes before you attempt to move or eat them. Even if you let them bake for 9 minutes, they'll be more likely to fall apart on you if you try to move them while they're too hot.

I like to set the entire pan on a cooling rack for at least five minutes before indulging!

If you like to save your dough for later consumption, you can freeze your dough for anywhere from 9 to 12 months!

I like to place the cookies, already scored, on a lined cookie sheet before wrapping it tightly in plastic and popping it in the freezer. When I'm ready for cookies again, I can just take it out of the freezer and pop it into the oven. Cookies whenever you please!

We have lots of great recipes that you can make with only 3 ingredients, like:

We know you love each of these and add them to your go-to repertoire!

They taste so amazing that even dad will sneak one!
Michael Michael (175)
30 minutes

As a new father, I looked to find ways to help my wife during this stressful and sleepless time. Support can come in many ways. And finding little ways to treat a new mom is certainly one of them.