Easy peanut butter cookies: 3 & 4-ingredient recipes made with biscuit mix - Click Americana (2024)

FAQs

Why are my 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies falling apart? ›

The wrong type of peanut butter may cause them to fall apart. Or using old eggs may create crumbly cookies. How long do peanut butter cookies last?

Peanut butter

Peanut butter cookie / Main ingredient

Peanut butter is a food paste or spread made from ground, dry-roasted peanuts. It commonly contains additional ingredients that modify the taste or texture, such as salt, sweeteners, or emulsifiers.

Wikipedia

The reason is that peanut butter cookie dough is dense, and unpressed, each cookie will not cook evenly. Using a fork to press the dough is a convenience of tool; bakers can also use a cookie shovel (spatula).

One reason could be that you overcooked them. Another reason could be that you didn't add enough moisture to the dough. Finally, your peanut butter cookies might be dry and crumbly if you used a natural peanut butter that doesn't have any added oil.

If you find that the dough is too dry (without the fat) then simply hold back some of the flour and add it near the end of mixing when you add the fat/butter If this helps to hold your baked cookies together, fine. If not then add a few more minutes of mixing.

While there may be countless variations, each cookie at the core has four ingredients – butter, sugar, flour & eggs. The proportions of ingredients and the methods of mixing are what define our cookies. Dough spreads – Inside the hot oven, the butter starts to melt and the dough gradually starts to spread out.

Peanut butter: Creamy peanut butter is ideal for this recipe because crunchy peanut butter creates an overly crumbly cookie. You can use processed peanut butter such as Jif or Skippy, or natural-style peanut butter.

The baking company shared that the reason has to do with the consistency of the dough. Because peanut butter cookie dough is dense, using a fork helps flatten it into the ideal shape and thickness, allowing it to bake evenly.

Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls; roll in sugar. Place, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets; flatten balls in criss-cross pattern with fork dipped in granulated sugar. Bake 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Remember that baking soda is 3-4 times stronger than baking powder, so you'll need a lot more baking powder to get the same leavening action. As a general rule, triple the amount of baking powder for the amount of baking soda called for in a recipe. For example, 1 teaspoon baking soda = 3 teaspoons baking powder.

Should you refrigerate peanut butter cookie dough before baking? ›

Prep your Peanut Butter Cookie recipe up to 24 hours in advance, cover it and refrigerate it so you are ready to bake at a moment's notice. The kids can even help you scoop, roll and flatten the cookies. If the dough is too firm to scoop, let it stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

The fork marks also encourage the cookies to bake more evenly and brown evenly. If we skipped that step, these cookies would be so thick that they'd barely spread, and they may not bake all the way through.

Peanut butter cookies don't spread as they cook, so you have to flatten them before hand. This ensures that the middle will cook through before the outside burns. As for the pattern created, it actually creates slightly more surface area, so you'll get more browning at the extra edges that you create.

Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly. You should use unsalted butter to control the salt content, but if you only have salted on hand, reduce the amount of added salt accordingly. Sugar sweetens the cookies and makes them an enticing golden brown.

Dough being too stiff to spread is a common problem. If you find yourself in this situation, chances are good that you've added too much flour to your dough. In order to fix this, try adding in some more liquid (milk, water, or softened butter) one tablespoon at a time until your dough is slightly looser.