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Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies With Honey

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The best peanut butter cookie recipes are made with honey! This easy recipe comes together quickly, with no chilling time or room temperature butter needed, and makes the best soft and chewy peanut butter cookies!

A close up of peanut butter cookies with honey. Coffee cups and teapot in the background.

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So the next time you need an afternoon pick me up or a tasty after school snack for the kids, Make these peanut butter honey cookies! They make a wonderful treat for any time of day!

Why You’ll Love These Peanut Butter Honey Cookies:

  1. Deliciously Simple: Whip up a batch of these cookies with basic pantry staples and simple ingredients in under 30 minutes. Perfect for satisfying a sweet tooth without spending hours in the kitchen! No softening butter and no chill time required!
  2. Perfectly Balanced Flavor: The combination of peanut butter and sweet honey is not too sweet or overpowering. The chunks of peanuts in these cookies help the peanut flavor shine!
  3. Chewy & Soft Texture: These cookies are delightfully soft without being cakey, and melt in your mouth. 
  4. Naturally Sweetened: This recipe uses honey as the primary sweetener, offering a healthier alternative to regular white sugar while still delivering satisfying sweetness. Perfect for those looking for a more mindful treat.
  5. Customization Possibilities: Get creative! Add chocolate chips, chopped nuts, coconut, or a drizzle of melted chocolate for a personalized touch. Make them your own and have fun experimenting!

Bonus Reason: These cookies are perfect for sharing or gifting. Bake a batch of cookies for your family members, neighbors, or colleagues, and spread a little kindness around town!

How To Make Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

Full Ingredient amounts and step-by-step instructions can be found on the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Ingredients for honey peanut butter cookies.
  • Crunchy peanut butter: If you don’t have crunchy peanut butter, use smooth peanut butter and mix in crushed peanuts.
  • Unsalted butter, cold
  • Honey: The honey not only adds sweetness and flavor, but adds moisture and makes for a chewy cookie. The honey also keeps these cookies from drying out too fast!
  • Light or Dark brown sugar
  • Large Egg
  • Vanilla Extract
  • All-purpose Flour
  • Baking soda
  • Kosher Salt: I like coarse Kosher salt since it’s not as salty as table salt. If you’re using table salt, reduce the quantity of salt by half. Omit the salt entirely if you’re using table salt and salted peanut butter.

Tip: Use natural peanut butter for thicker peanut butter cookies! 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º and line two to three cookie sheets with parchment paper. Adjust your oven racks to the middle position.

cream the unsalted butter and peanut butter until smooth.

Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the unsalted butter on medium low until smooth. Add in the chunky peanut butter and mix until the butters are fully incorporated.

Honey and brown sugar added to creamed butters.

Step 2: Next, add your brown sugar and honey to the peanut butter mixture. Beat with the mixer on medium low until all ingredients are well combined. Stop once to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Vanilla extract and egg added to cookie dough in a mixing bowl.

Step 3: Crack in your egg and add the vanilla. Mix until thoroughly blended.

Dry ingredients added to cookie dough in mixing bowl.

Step 4: Add in the dry ingredients.

Cookie dough in a bowl.

Step 5: With the mixer on low, stir until all ingredients are just combined, stopping once to scrape the sides of the mixing bowl.

Cookie dough on a sheet pan. A bowl of flour with a fork next to the pan.

Step 6: Using a small cookie scoop or a tablespoon, scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheet, keeping the dough balls about 2 inches apart.

A fork flattening the cookies.

Step 7: Gently flatten the centers of the cookie dough using the back of a fork dipped in flour, making a crisscross pattern.

Cookies flattened with a crisscross patter on a cookie sheet.

This will give the cookies their classic peanut butter cookie look and help them bake evenly.

Baked cookies on a cookie sheet.

Bake cookies in a 350º oven for 8-10 minutes. The edges will be just starting to turn brown and the centers of the cookies will be puffed. The tops will look pale, but the bottoms will be golden brown.

Allow the baked cookies to sit for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving to a wire rack to cool.

Substitutions

  • Peanut butter: you can use commercial or natural creamy peanut butter in place of the chunky peanut butter. Alternatively, you can crush up 1/4 cup of dry roasted peanuts and stir them into the batter. You can even use your own peanut butter if you have some homemade on hand!
  • Brown sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar in this recipe. 

Variations

  • Add 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips to the honey peanut butter cookie dough, or drizzle a little bit of melted chocolate over the top of the cookie after baking.
  • Stir in a teaspoon of cinnamon for extra warmth and flavor.
  • Make peanut butter sandwich cookies by spreading peanut butter frosting or berry jam in between two cookies.

Storage

When kept in an airtight container, these peanut butter honey cookies will last up to one week.

Leftover cookies can be frozen for even longer storage. After baking, let the cookies cool completely and store in a freezer safe bag for up to 3 months.

Peanut butter cookies on a wire cooling rack.

Pro Tips

  • Flatten the cookies in the center to bake evenly.
  • Keep in mind that honey will brown faster than regular sugar, so keep an eye on the cookies while baking. It’s better to underbake these cookies than overbake! Underbaking will ensure the cookies are soft with a chewy texture!

FAQs

The fork marks help to flatten the cookies in the middle to bake more evenly. The crisscross pattern also give the peanut butter cookies their classic look.

Old fashioned peanut butter cookies are made with peanut butter, a combination of sugars, eggs, butter, and a little bit of flour and leavening like baking soda and/or baking powder. Some minimal peanut butter cookie recipes contain no flour or leavening, and just rely on simple peanut butter, eggs, and sugar.

Peanut butter cookies can offer some protein and healthy fats from the peanut butter, and the honey in this recipe is a better option than refined sugar.

However, they are still a treat and shouldn’t be considered a health food. Enjoy them as part of a balanced diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Equipment You May Need

A close up of peanut butter cookies with honey. Coffee cups and teapot in the background.

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

Yield: 33 Cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 38 minutes

Soft and chewy peanut butter cookies made with honey! This easy recipe makes a generous batch of the sweetest and most melt-in-your-mouth cookies!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup crunchy peanut butter*
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold.
  • 1/4 cup of packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup of honey
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350º and move the oven rack to the middle position.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the peanut butter and unsalted butter on medium low until smooth.
  3. Next, add in your brown sugar and honey. Beat with the mixer on medium low until all ingredients are well combined.  Stop once to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
  4. Crack in your egg and add the vanilla. Mix until thoroughly blended.
  5. Add in the flour, salt and baking soda.
  6. With the mixer on low, stir until all ingredients are just combined, stopping once to scrape the sides of the mixing bowl.
  7. Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, scoop the cookie dough onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Keep cookies about 2 inches apart.
  8. Gently flatten the centers of the cookie dough using the back of a fork dipped in flour, making a crisscross pattern.
  9. Bake in a 350º oven for 8-10 minutes. The edges will just start to turn brown and the centers of the cookies will be puffed.
  10. Allow cookies to sit for 5 minutes before removing the cookies from the pan. They will flatten as they cool.

Notes

*If you only have creamy peanut butter on hand, use that and crush up 1/4 cup of dry roasted peanuts or omit the nuts entirely!

**For a thicker cookie, use Teddie brand natural peanut butter.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 33 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 99Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 10mgSodium: 111mgCarbohydrates: 10gFiber: 1gSugar: 6gProtein: 3g

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7 Comments

  1. I love PB anything so I’ll have to give this a try! Honey is so good too. I can imagine how good this will be!

  2. Your photos are so beautiful and I love the additional information about honey. I definitely will try your recipe! We love peanut butter and honey around our farmstead! Thank you.

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