As has been mentioned on other posts, I find many recipes because I get an idea and I go searching online. In this case, I had some sunflower seed butter that I needed to use up and so I went looking for a basic peanut butter cookie recipe to adopt. After finding my recipe, I realized I needed to check Smitten Kitchen and stumbled on the Ovenly three-ingredient peanut butter cookie.
I made a test batch with real peanut butter, just a half recipe, and I really enjoyed it. However, the molasses flavor was so prevalent that I thought the cookie was too sweet and the peanut butter a little bit muted.
You see, I only stock dark brown sugar in my pantry, because I feel like if you want the molasses flavor you really want the molasses flavor. In every other recipe, I find that light and dark are pretty interchangeable. In this recipe, however, the substitute led to the molasses flavor overwhelming the peanut butter, which ended up reading as too sweet.
I decided to do another test where I used full sugar and where I used reduced sugar, to see if I like the cookie better. Also, being the peanut butter-holic that I am, I decided to see if crunchy peanut butter would work even better.
Enter my master testing. I made four different half batches. Two batches used smooth peanut butter, one with full sugar (unmarked) and one with reduced sugar (marked with an X). Two batches used extra crunchy peanut butter, again one with full sugar (unmarked) and one with reduced sugar (marked with an X).
I brought my four sets of cookies to work and the farmers market, and proceeded to deputize people as official taste testers. Out of ten people, six preferred the original sugar level (four of these preferred smooth and two crunchy) and four preferred the reduced sugar level (three of these preferred crunchy and one was a toss up). Smooth versus crunchy was split about even.
Several people found little difference between the full and reduced sugar, although those preferring less sugar found the original sugar too sweet.
Peanut butter preference largely came down to which peanut butter the person generally preferred, smooth or crunchy. Several said they liked the texture contrast of the chunks of peanut, including one who preferred the smooth peanut butter overall.
One friend, who preferred the full sugar smooth peanut butter cookie, said “I can’t say it’s a definite favorite, because like i said, they were all amazing.” She also said “they were all so amazingly soft… and perfectly peanut buttery.”
Another friend said “Yum!!!! They are all delicious!” A third friend, who preferred the reduced sugar crunchy peanut butter cookies, said “I think you might be able to drop the sugar even more.”
I’ve put both sugar levels in the recipe below. Feel free to try either one, or even to split the difference. I would recommend using either smooth or chunky depending on your personal peanut butter preference. The smooth peanut butter will yield a super smooth, almost creamy-textured cookie, whereas the crunchy won’t really show the creamy texture but does have the difference in texture between the smooth cookie and the chunks of peanuts.
Pillowy Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1-1/4 OR 1-3/4 cup light brown sugar (see note)
- 2 eggs
- 1-3/4 cup (~16 ounce container) peanut butter (see note)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Whisk sugar and eggs together in a bowl until uniform. Add peanut butter and again whisk until it is uniform and has come together.
- Using a #40 cookie scoop (like this one or this one), place scooped cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and freeze for at least 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Remove cookie sheet from freezer and place in oven. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, just until the edges have browned but the center is still soft.
- Leave to cool on the cookie sheet.
- Note: use the sugar level that you will prefer, or split the difference. If you only have dark brown sugar, I suggest using half dark brown sugar and half granulated sugar. Commercial peanut butter is best for this recipe, not an all-natural style. Crunchy or creamy is up to your preference.