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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4.58 from 61 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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My cookbook is all about peanut butter! Peanut Butter Comfort contains 100+ peanut butter recipes

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.

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Welcome to AverieCooks! Here you’ll find fast and easy recipes that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!

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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. I didn’t have the best of luck with these. They are easy to make and I added a half bag of chocolate chips that were left over from a previous recipe.

    1 had exactly 2 dozen cookies. The first batch seemed to overcook within the time in the recipe. I know my oven cooks faster and usually I don’t leave cookies, this time I heard a work email pop in so I went to take care of that email so I counted that as my fault. The second batch I didn’t leave and even with checking them and reducing the oven heat they still got too done very quickly.

    Having said that, they still tasted good and I love that this is an edible dough since there is no egg. I MAY keep this recipe on hand if for no other reason than to make cookie dough again and freeze it in smaller pieces to make our own cookie dough ice cream… or on hand for a day that I need a sweet treat in a single portion size. (Assuming these would freeze well)

    1. Thanks for trying the recipe. It sounds like your oven runs hot. For the future, if you know this, on recipes like cookies which are sensitive, you may consider turning it down by 25 degrees – although it sounds like you did do that although I don’t know by how much.

      And/Or check early.

      Or getting your oven calibrated would be the best!

      Yes these freeze well.

  2. 5 stars
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  3. 5 stars
    INTERACTIVE FLAT PANEL
    Interactive LEDs give you full mouse control of your PC or MAC from the large LED touch screen. Control any application that
    is running on your computer and use our software to annotate, collaborate cast and more. Onboard Android gives you access
    to 100s of Apps to install onto the LED from the TouchIT App Store. The LED comes with 10pt Multi-Touch, 3 Year On Site
    Warranty (USA & Canada) and a 50 000 hour lifespan.

  4. 4 stars
    I have tried this recipe with a different baking mix and these cookies turned out just fine. However, I did use a pretty cheap mix in my most recent attempt and they turned out tough and burned on the bottom no matter what I did. I had also used what was labeled as a “no sugar added peanut SPREAD” made by Jif. Maybe that contributed to the problem? I usually don’t use Bisquick because it is overly salty and almost everything I have made with it turned out dry and chewy and overly “bready”.

  5. 4 stars
    I have tried this recipe with a different baking mix and these cookies turned out just fine. However, I did use a pretty cheap mix in my most recent attempt and they turned out tough and burned on the bottom no matter what I did. I had also used what was labeled as a “no sugar added peanut SPREAD” made by Jif. Maybe that contributed to the problem? I usually don’t use Bisquick because it is overly salty and almost everything I have made with it turned out dry and chewy and overly “bready”.

    1. Between using a cheap imitation mix and the peanut spread, that is probably why the cookies were less than perfect for you, although glad they were overall fine. I understand about Bisquick however for this recipe, that is what I have found to work the best.

  6. Can i make these 4 ingredient cookies with another baking mix if I don’t have Bisquick in the house?

    1. Something that behaves like Bisquick is fine, i.e.storebrand competitor to Bisquick or something like that.