Soft Peanut Butter Cookies - The Recipe Rebel (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making cookies soft and chewy? ›

Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.

If the dough seems too soft, chill it for 10 to 15 minutes before baking. Use shortening instead of butter or a combination of the two if you don't want to sacrifice that buttery flavor. The dough was too wet. Using the wrong size egg could also add extra liquid, resulting in too much spreading.

Peanut butter

Peanut butter cookie / Main ingredient

Room temperature butter is just the right consistency to incorporate air when it's creamed with sugar. These trapped air pockets result in risen, fluffy cookies. If the butter is any warmer, it won't incorporate enough air and your cookies will have less rise.

Light corn syrup is another ingredient that you can add to cookie dough that will help it stay softer longer. The corn syrup you buy at the grocery store is not the high-fructose corn syrup that soft drinks are made with; it's a sugar that is liquid at room temperature and helps other sugars say liquid at high heat.

Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.

Add a bit of cornstarch to the dough. Cornstarch helps to absorb moisture and keep cookies soft and tender. Make sure you're using the right type of flour. All-purpose flour will give you a softer cookie than whole wheat flour.

If you enjoy your cookies soft and chewy, chances are likely the recipe contains a common ingredient that serves a very specific purpose. No, it's not granulated sugar, nor the butter. It's not the egg, all-purpose flour, or even the vanilla extract. The simple, yet oh-so-necessary component is cornstarch.

So it looks like that there are utilitarian reasons for the cross-hatching—to allow for even cooking—but it might have been passed along for nearly a hundred years for primarily aesthetic reasons, where the cross-hatching is more to identify the cookies as peanut butter ones, rather than to cook them well.

Why do you press down peanut butter cookies? ›

Peanut butter cookie dough doesn't spread while baking like other cookie doughs do, so you have to flatten 'em down to make sure they bake evenly (sounds like you're okay with that part).

Peanut Butter: It's best to use a processed peanut butter like Jif creamy or Skippy creamy. I do not suggest using natural style, oily peanut butter. Crunchy peanut butter adds peanut chunks as well as a more crumbly texture.

Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.

Butter keeps cookies fluffy in two ways. First, creaming cold butter with sugar creates tiny, uniform air pockets that will remain in the dough it bakes up. Second, cold butter naturally takes a longer time to melt in the oven.

Because baking powder and baking soda have a similar makeup, baking powder will last about six months on the shelf once it's opened, and three years in an unopened package.

Bread Method:Place the cookies in an airtight container with a slice of bread. Seal the container and let it sit overnight. The moisture from the bread will transfer to the cookies, softening them. Apple or Potato Method:Place the cookies in an airtight container with slices of apple or potato.

The ingredients you use and how you shape your cookies both play an important role in whether your cookies turn out crispy or chewy. The type of flour and sugar you use, if your cookie dough contains eggs, and whether you use melted or softened butter all factor into the crispy-chewy equation, too.

Water in the butter will aid in leavening the cookie during baking and any remaining water after baking will contribute to moistness in the cookie's texture. The higher butter cookie has slightly more spread than the low butter and control. The biggest difference is in the flavor and mouthfeel of the cookie.