Easy 4-Ingredient Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies

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4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies — These 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies are made with a secret ingredient…and lots of peanut butter, of course! These are so easy and fast to make!

Easy 4-Ingredient Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies - Soft, chewy, and made with an ingredient you'd never guess! It works and they're perfect!!

4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

These are some of the easiest peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made. And a total new favorite. And in writing Peanut Butter Comfort, I’ve made one or a bazillion peanut butter cookies.

These 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies are super soft, very moist, and extremely chewy. As a bonus, these peanut butter cookie accidentally contain no egg.

The peanut butter cookies are packed with rich, bold, peanut butter flavor. If you’re looking for very peanut buttery cookies, try these.

I loved the cookies and couldn’t stop nibbling on them. The old-fashioned crisscross fork patterns, crinkles, and crevices just lure me in.

The cookies are a tiny bit oily, but just think of all those healthy fats you’re getting from the peanut butter. I kept telling myself that as I was pulling off crinkly chunk after chunk. Beyond good. Perfect, actually.

Easy 4-Ingredient Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies - Soft, chewy, and made with an ingredient you'd never guess! It works and they're perfect!!

Ingredients in 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies 

These 4-ingredient cookies are widely different than anything I’ve ever tried. It’s a one-bowl, no-mixer recipe that happens to be egg-free, butter-free, uses no brown or granulated sugar, and uses an ingredient you’d never guess: Original Bisquick™ mix.

Think of it as a 1-1-1-1 recipe. Combine the following:

  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup Bisquick

You’d never suspect that these are Bisquick peanut butter cookies, nor that they’re eggless — just wait until you tell someone as they’re biting down into a cookie that said cookie is made with pancake mix. The look on their face is priceless!

Easy 4-Ingredient Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies - Soft, chewy, and made with an ingredient you'd never guess! It works and they're perfect!!

How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies with Bisquick

It’s SO easy to make peanut butter cookies with 4 ingredients. Follow these simple instructions:

  1. Stir together all the ingredients (the dough will be very thick) and then scoop the dough into balls.
  2. Use the back of a fork to flatten the dough balls about halfway, then place on baking tray and cover with plastic wrap.
  3. Let the cookie dough chill for at least 2 hours before baking. 
  4. Once the Bisquick peanut butter cookies have chilled, preheat the oven and bake the cookies until the edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center. Do NOT over bake these cookies. Remember: the residual heat will finish cooking them in the center as they cool on your countertop. 
Easy 4-Ingredient Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies - Soft, chewy, and made with an ingredient you'd never guess! It works and they're perfect!!

Make-Ahead Instructions

You can make the cookies in advance, or what I like to do is mix up the dough and keep it chilling in the fridge for up to 5 days before baking or it keeps in the freezer for months.

Then, when you’re ready for totally oven-fresh cookies, pop a few dough balls in the oven and bake.

Easy 4-Ingredient Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies - Soft, chewy, and made with an ingredient you'd never guess! It works and they're perfect!!

Recipe FAQs

Is There a Bisquick Substitute I Can Use? 

If you don’t have Bisquick, I recommend making my Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Reese’s Pieces Soft Peanut Butter Cookies, or Inside-Of-A-Peanut-Butter-Cup Cookies for options that taste similar to these, as there is no substitution for Bisquick in this recipe.

Can I Use Another Type of Nut Butter? 

I’ve only made these 4-ingredient cookies with peanut butter, so I’m not sure if a substitute like almond butter or sun butter would work here. If you make these Bisquick cookies with something other than peanut butter, please leave me a comment to let me know how they turned out! 

Can I Use a flavored peanut butter?

Sure, why not! I bet a honey roasted peanut butter could be delicious here.

Why does the cookie dough need to be chilled?

If you don’t chill the cookie dough, the 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies will spread like crazy in the oven and the texture will be off. 

4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies — These 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies are made with a secret ingredient...and lots of peanut butter, of course! These are so easy and fast to make!

Tips for Making 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies 

Bake time: Note that these peanut butter cookies take a few minutes longer than most cookies to bake. I suspect that’s because it’s a very moist dough from the peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk.

Vanilla extract: Some readers have commented that 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract seems like a lot — you’re welcome to scale back the amount of vanilla you add to these cookies, if desired. I like a bold vanilla flavor and always add at least 2 teaspoons to any baked good. But add a little less if you prefer less vanilla. 

Mix-ins: These peanut butter Bisquick cookies are perfect as is, but you’re welcome to add 1/2 cup of any mix-in you’d like, such as chocolate chips, chopped nuts, etc. Or, press a Hershey’s Kiss into the center of the cookies while they’re still warm!

Easy 4-Ingredient Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies - Soft, chewy, and made with an ingredient you'd never guess! It works and they're perfect!!

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4.56 from 59 votes

4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

By Averie Sunshine
These 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies are made with a secret ingredient…and lots of peanut butter, of course! These are so easy and fast to make!
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 13 minutes
Chilling Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 18 minutes
Servings: 11 cookies
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Ingredients  

  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter, Jif, Skippy, or similar; not natural – too runny, oily, and can separate
  • one 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup Original Bisquick™ mix

Instructions 

  • To a large mixing bowl add the peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and stir to combine.
  • Add the Bisquick and stir to incorporate. Mixture will be very thick.
  • Using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or your hands, form approximately 11 equal-sized mounds of dough, roll into balls, and flatten about halfway by making crisscross marks using the tines of a fork. Dough may ‘crack’ a bit after you’ve pressed them down, it’s okay.
  • Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 5 days. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
  • Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for about 13-14 minutes (for super soft cookies, or longer for more well-done cookies) or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool.
  • Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
  • Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 297kcal, Carbohydrates: 32g, Protein: 9g, Fat: 16g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g, Cholesterol: 17mg, Sodium: 174mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 28g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Peanut Butter Comfort by Averie Sunshine

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Betty Crocker via Burst Media. The opinions and text are all mine.

4.56 from 59 votes (56 ratings without comment)

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Please note: I have only made the recipe as written, and cannot give advice or predict what will happen if you change something. If you have a question regarding changing, altering, or making substitutions to the recipe, please check out the FAQ page for more info.

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Comments

  1. Super interesting ingredient list! I would have never thought to use Bisquick and sweetened condensed milk. I’m so intrigued!

  2. These cookies do look incredible Averie! So soft and chewy – just how I like ’em :) Pinned!

  3. Sometimes I realize that as a food blogger, I probably think in terms and words and phrases the average person doesn’t. For example when I saw these cookies I thought, “Wow, the chewiness factor in these cookies has got to be mind-blowing!” Ha! So thick and soft, I’m dying to make these – gorgeous Averie! Pinned!

    1. Wow, the chewiness factor in these cookies has got to be mind-blowing <---- OMG YOU ARE SO RIGHT!! They are some of THE chewiest cookies I've ever made! PB cookies tend to be soft. Or hard/crumbly. But rarely with true chew factor. These are soft AND chewy. Like REALLY realllly chewy. And we think alike b/c I'm always going to blogs thinking things like that in my head, too :)

  4. These look so good. I’ve made chocolate chip cookies with Bisquick and really like those, so I will absolutely be trying these!

  5. SCM in peanut butter cookies? NOTHING GETS ANY BETTER. Oh my, this is my new favorite recipe!! Pinned, of course.

    1. You know I am supremely picky about PB cookies after writing a cookbook basically dedicated them, and these, I kid you not woulda coulda shoulda been in that cookbook! PB cookies tend to be soft. Or hard/crumbly. But rarely with true chew factor. These are soft AND chewy. Like REALLY realllly chewy. The texture thing, mmm, you would ADORE them! I had no idea Bisquick and SCM could do all that, but I’m hooked!

  6. So many peanut butter cookie recipes … so little time …

    While I like to make cookies totally from scratch, I also find it’s really helpful to have a few “I need to be able to whip something up quick” recipes–cuz life is sometimes unpredictable! I don’t have a super-quick PB cookie recipe so now I have a new one I can add to my arsenal!

    1. And I think that these are from scratch, well in my mind they are :) They just use Bisquick rather than flour + baking powder + salt for the dry ingredients, and the SCMilk takes care of basically creaming butter and sugar together (and almost the egg too!) without actually have to use butter, eggs, or sugar per se. Although of course SCM is full of sugar :)

      But seriously though I am in LOVE with these and would put them up against far more complicated recipes and seriously they’d hold their own. I am 100% in love! The other totally scratch PB cookie recipe that’s super easy is linked in this post, the PB Chocolate Chunk ones. Those are very easy and only a few ingredients, too!

      1. I have a bar chocolate chip recipe using a yellow cake mix as the base. I think of it as “mostly home-baked” and it’s my fall-back “I need cookies NOW” recipe. But I like variety and this recipe looks totally up my alley.

  7. Loving these puffy, thick cookies and the ease of remembering 1-1-1-1! I have fond memories of making Bisquick pancakes with my best friend growing up, but haven’t used it in quite some time. What an excellent idea!

  8. What a great idea to use bisquick and sweetened condensed milk! I love peanut butter cookies, so I’ll definitely have to try this :)

  9. These cookies couldn’t be more easy! I think my girls will have tons of fun making them for the holidays! Pinned!

  10. There’s something so satisfying about having a delicious cookie made in just a few minutes. Love this friend!

  11. I remember being super jazzed when Bisquik started making a GF version. I went on a baking binge, and I did some pb cookies, but not with condensed milk. I made some crumbles and crisps also.

    It’s actually pretty good, and I didn’t taste a difference between the regular version.

    1. Not even kidding that these are in the top 5 PB cookies I’ve ever made and I probably have 100+ versions of just PB cookies. LOVED THEM. They are truly chewy. Most Pb cookies are super soft. Or rock hard and crumbly. These are super soft AND super chewy. If you need a holiday baking project, THESE! But you can’t use natural PB and I know you like to but for these, nope!