Puffy Peanut Butter Chip Cookies — Rich vanilla cookie dough is studded with peanut butter chips and baked to puffy perfection! The ultimate soft peanut butter chip cookie with zero frills, just delicious flavor!
Ultra Soft Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips
These cookies turned out so puffy that they caught me by surprise. And they’re so vanilla-ey, but that was by design because I’m a vanilla fiend.
They are a little bit peanut buttery even though I didn’t add peanut butter to the actual cookie dough.
Instead, I used peanut butter chips and they gave a subtle peanut butter flavor, yet not so much that the vanilla flavor was lost.
I was going to add white chocolate chips, too, but I know not everyone is as crazy about white chocolate as I am, so I refrained.
I did add something to them that I almost never bake with. Good ole Crisco.
I read cookie making guides and online websites devoted to The Perfect Cookie and never tire of the epic food science quest in finding what makes cookies puffy, flat, chewy, crispy, you name it.
Many people swear by some lard to keep things moist and puffy. Scientifically, that makes sense.
And boy, puffy is what happened.
That would be pufffffyyyy.
Not using butter is a smidge of a sacrifice in the flavor department because there is nothing that can replace the flavor of butter in baking. However, in terms of puffiness, chewiness, and softness, these babies were perfectly puffalicious and right on point.
Ingredients in Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
You need very few ingredients to make cookies with peanut butter chips. Here’s the ingredient list:
- Vegetable shortening
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- Baking soda
- All-purpose flour
- Peanut butter chips
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
This peanut butter chip cookie recipe is one of my easiest yet! Here’s an overview of how the recipe is made:
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the shortening, sugars, egg, water, and vanilla.
- Add the cinnamon, salt, baking soda, flour and mix until just combined. Fold in peanut butter chips by hand.
- Cover and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes, or freeze for 15 if you’re rushed.
- Using a cookie scoop, form 1-inch balls and place on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Bake until barely brown. Remove cookies from oven when they look slightly under-baked.
- Allow cookies to cool and firm up on cookie sheets for at least 5 minutes before moving to cooling racks.
Can I Use Coconut Oil Instead of Shortening?
A few readers have suggested using coconut oil in place of the Crisco. In theory, that’s a good idea. However, coconut oil melts when warm, which will result in thin cookies.
However, if you’d looking for a coconut oil cookie recipe, try these coconut oil chocolate chip cookies. Just sub peanut butter chips for the chocolate chips!
Can I Use Butter Instead of Shortening?
Go for it! Make sure your butter is at room temperature and isn’t melted. Just note that your cookies won’t turn out quite as puffy as mine.
Tips for the Best Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
I like vanilla-flavored foods. Actually, I am passionately in love with vanilla-flavored most anything, and I usually use twice the recommended amount of vanilla extract in any recipe.
The way I wrote this peanut butter chip cookie recipe, you don’t need to do that, but if you’re really wanting to go nuts with vanilla flavor because you’re obsessed like I am, you could possibly add one more teaspoon or perhaps some vanilla bean paste to knock your vanilla socks right off.
Also note that instead of peanut butter chips, you could use any baking chip you’d like. Butterscotch, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, you name it.
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Puffy Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup Crisco, or vegetable shortening
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup peanut butter chips, or butterscotch, white chocolate, chocolate chips if preferred
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F and line two cookie sheets with Silpat liners, parchment paper, or spray with cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together Crisco, sugars, egg, water, and vanilla, until batter is creamy.
- Add the cinnamon, salt, baking soda, flour and mix until just combined.
- Fold in peanut butter chips by hand.
- Cover and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes, or freeze for 15 if you’re rushed. Do not skip chilling the dough if you want puffy cookies because cold dough results in puffier cookies.
- Using a cookie scoop, form 1-inch balls (or roll balls by hand) and place on prepared cookie sheets, allowing for adequate spacing (these cookies do not spread much, but like all cookies, they spread some; and the colder the dough, the less they will spread).
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until barely brown. Remove cookies from oven when they look slightly under-baked and allow cookies to cool and firm up on cookie sheets for at least 5 minutes before moving to cooling racks.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Easy 4-Ingredient Perfect 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!
Big Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Crinkle Cookies — These soft peanut butter cookies are the peanut butter version of a molasses crinkle. They’re soft, supremely chewy, and have an old-fashioned peanut butter cookie flavor!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies — These peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are hands down the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made. Know that I don’t say that lightly! They’re melt-in-your mouth soft and chewy, and extremely moist!
Soft Peanut Butter Chip Sugar Cookies with Peanut Butter Frosting — Similar to Lofthouse Soft-Frosted Sugar Cookies, but these are for peanut butter fans! I added peanut butter and frosted them with peanut butter buttercream.
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Chip Cookies – Super soft, perfectly chewy, BROWNED BUTTER cookies that are LOADED with two kinds of chips!! An EASY one-bowl, no-mixer recipe for irresistibly DELISH cookies!!
Triple Peanut Butter Cookies — PB is used 3 different ways in these melt-in-your mouth cookies! Batch size of just 8 cookies when you don’t ‘need’ dozens laying around!
I made these didn’t look nothing like the picture flat not fluffy but crisp and chewy. The cookie was great but when you bit into the banana part it I didn’t care for it . Would think you would have to eat them right away cause the banana wouldn’t keep long inside the cookie. Loved the taste of the cookie. I will make it again but without the banana.
Your comment doesn’t make sense to me since there was no banana called for in my recipe!
Thank you for a great recipe! Mixed up the dough last night using a few tsp cornstarch with the flour and mixed peanut butter and butterscotch chips. Refrigerated overnight and baked them this morning. They are excellent! Great texture, both crisp and chewy, and nice puffiness as promised!! Keep up the good work!
So glad to hear they were a HIT!!! Interesting about the corn starch; I would have never thought to add that but yes, the overnight refrigeration is KEY! LMK if you make other things :)
Can I use butter instead of crisco? Even though the cookies will not be as puffy. Did you add PB chips when they came out of the oven. There are some that are not melted in the photo.
Yes I’m sure you can use butter. All chips were added prior to baking; that’s the nature of chips…some melt, some don’t. It’s the stabilizers in chips that cause that. Without stabilizers, you’d have soupy chocolate, or soupy PB, and so this is advantageous when baking and you don’t want soup, but want chips.
Thank you! The cookies look fantastic. Do you think I would use the same measurements for butter as cisco?
It would be a good starting place….
So I made these last night, they are to die for but mine came out flat and crispy! What did I do wrong??
there are so many variables with cooking baking but I’d surmise your dough was not well-chilled or chilled enough, cookies were placed too “flat” on the baking sheet and not domed up enough to begin with, your baking soda was no longer fresh/active, you didn’t add enough flour…but I’d go with dough temperature. LMK if you re-try and what works!
I just made these after finding them on Pinterest and they are amazing!!!
I blogged about them, thanks for posting!
Thanks so much for blogging about them and if you like pastel colored M&Ms in things, and peanut butter, try these on for size :)
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/01/deep-dish-chocolate-chip-cookies-with-pb-cups-pb-mms.html
Hi! These look wonderful. I do have a question I’ve been curious about: are you now able to tolerate gluten?
yes, I’ve blogged about it before but the cliff’s notes version is here
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/popular
I am in love with this combination of flavors Averie, they sound awesome! Puffy cookies are my favorite so these are right up my alley :)
My mom always used shortening in cookies growing up, so I know puffy cookies!! My typical chocolate chip cookie is the Toll House recipe, but with half butter and half shortening. That way you get some of the flavor from the butter and some of the texture from the shortening. Now I want cookies!
Everyone in the know seems to do the 1/2 butter & 1/2 shortening trick. Where have I been?! I need the best of both worlds!
Do you know I have NEVER baked with Crisco? I feel like I was raised in the generation where Crisco became a bad word. But based on these cookies, I should give it a try!
Couldn’t have said it better myself…our generation missed it and it was a bad word but hey, we can change that :)
psh. crisco makes the best cookies. :) Also, I just realized you changed your banner! :) Love it.
Glad you concur and thanks!
i feel like a little bit of lard isn’t so bad – plus if you’re having a cookie you might as well go big, right? :) i love your blog so much!
Exactly….may as well go big, go lardy, or go home :)