Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanuts

Homemade peanut butter cookies with peanuts made from scratch – these are some of our favorite cookies.

These peanut butter cookies with peanuts are everything a peanut butter cookie should be: easy to make, tasting of peanuts, with small bits of crunchy nuts inside. And on top of everything, they will be ready in less than half an hour.

I remember the first time I had peanut butter. I was in my early 20s and I knew this American girl, who’s name I don’t remember, who was working in my town. We went to her place once and she happened to have a jar of peanut butter in the fridge, brought from home, as such things were totally unavailable in Romania then.

I took a little bit with a teaspoon, put it in my mouth and gagged! I really had troubles swallowing down, had I have been alone I would have spit it out!!! It was such an unexpected taste and consistency, so sickeningly sweet and weird, I thought I would never want to try that again as long as I live! I think that girl was a little offended…

More than 10 years later, time in which I did not give it a second thought, I kept stumbling upon dozens of recipes using it: cookies, cheesecake, noodles, and so on.

I thought, when so many people love it so much, it really cannot be that bad, maybe I should give it another try. One thing I noticed in many of the recipes I was reading was that many people mentioned the pure, unsweetened kind, so I was relieved that nobody was considering cooking peanut butter chicken with the sweet spread.

So, I have made my own butter and never looked back. I absolutely adore it now, the pure homemade peanut butter, which contains no sugar at all, just a little salt. I love that pure on bread or with jelly/ jam on top or with banana slices and honey.

I love to cook with it, to bake with it, I love to put it in smoothies and ice cream, and so on. And I especially love these cookies.

These peanut butter cookies with chopped peanuts are the best of the sort I’ve made until now. I have tried at least 5 or 6 different versions over the years and we loved them all (my husband is a huge fan), but this version has always been our favorite, I keep going back to it.

The recipe is easy to put together, contains just a few ingredients, it can be very cheap if you make your own nut butter.

Ingredients

Peanut butter:

• Make absolutely sure you use pure unsweetened. The cookies are sweet as they are, so I cannot even imagine how sweet they would be if you used the sweetened kind.
• If you want to make your own peanut butter, have a look at this recipe, I’ve posted years ago. All you need is a bag of peanuts and a good food processor.

Sugar:

• Both white granulated sugar and brown sugar. You could take white sugar, if that is all you have, but I have to admit that the brown sugar version is better.

Chopped peanuts:

• I always add some chopped roasted peanuts.
• That was not part of the original recipe (which I found in an old cheap cookbook I bought when we used to live in London), but I added them from the first time and they are wonderful.
• I once replaced them with chocolate chips, which was great as well, you should try that version if you are a chocolate person.
• However, I like peanuts more than chocolate, so I stick to the peanuts nowadays. I save the chocolate chips for some really good American chocolate chip cookies.

How to make?

• Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• Cream the butter and the sugar together. Butter creamed with brown sugar never gets that nice and fluffy as the one creamed with white sugar, the brown sugar is not fine enough. But insist and beat the mixture for at least 3 or 4 minutes with a hand-held mixer (or a stand mixer).
• Add the egg and the vanilla essence and mix well.

• Beat in the pure peanut butter. Fold in the chopped peanuts.
• Stir in the flour mixture. Wrap the dough in cling film/plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until it feels firmer.

• Take out rounded teaspoonfuls of dough and form balls. Use a fork to press the criss-cross pattern on the cookies and to flatten them slightly.
• Bake the cookies for about 12-13 minutes or until only lightly colored. Let set on the trays for about 10 minutes, transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

How to keep?

The peanut butter cookies with peanuts keep well for at least 5-6 days in an airtight container at room temperature. If kept in the fridge, they will be fine for a few more days.

More cookies:

Almond Cookies without Eggs

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

Ginger Snaps Recipe

German Heidesand

Spitzbuben