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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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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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. These were NOT a hit in my house :(

    When I read the description saying that it was going to be a big PB taste I was excited but sadly these cookies do not. The 3 ingredient recipes out there are much better with big PB taste. Honestly the taste was not good (for our family) & when we gave some to a couple of friends & family members they didn’t like them either. Sorry :(

    1. Thanks for trying the recipe and everyone has different tastes. I have multiple recipes for the 3-ingredient PB cookies you’re referring to and those cookies always are great. These are unique in that they use Bisquick. The recipe is from their site and I used their recipe and linked to it at the bottom of the recipe section of my post under the directions.

  2. Hi! I made the cookies about a week ago and thought they were delicious! I ate them all lol! However, is there a way to tone the peanut butter taste a tad? Can i add more vanilla, bisquick or less peanut butter? Thanks again for the recipe!

    1. Well there’s really nothing to these cookies other than the PB so they definitely do have a strong PB taste! I wouldn’t alter the ratio of Bisquick to PB because the cookies could become too dry/crumbly. You’d probably want to make another PB cookie recipe of mine. I wrote a cookbook with 100 PB recipes in it https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1620876213/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1620876213&linkCode=as2&tag=lovvegyogruna-20 or check some of these out https://www.averiecooks.com/category/dessert/cookies

  3. I made the peanut butter cookies last night but didn’t have the Bisquick so I used Aunt Jemima pancake mix and they turned out very good. Needless to say, I need to make more cause they all went. Hope that helps if anyone doesn’t have Bisquick.

    1. Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you even with another mix. Thanks for sharing that as it will probably help someone else who doesn’t have Bisquick but has another pancake mix on hand!

  4. Thank you for clearing that up! Thats exactly what I did. I used 2 pans the second time instead of one. I bet thats what the others did as well. I’ll pass it on. Thanks again and I look forward to your new and delicious recipes!

  5. Hi Avery, I have made alot of your cookies and I must say they are the best! The first batch of the 4 ingred PB cookies were awesome!!, after that, the taste was the same but the bottoms are getting to dark. I didn’t change anything and the other friends I sent the recipe to are also having the same issue. We are using parchment and/or silpats. Any suggestions?

    1. I would say just bake a little less time then. And if you’re worried the cookies won’t cook through if you bake a bit less time, then I’d make the dough mounds slightly smaller and/or flatten them more.

      And of course, make sure you’re not baking tray #2 on the same tray you used to bake tray #1 on. I always bake 1 tray in the oven at one time, never 2. Neither cook the way I like if I try 2 at once; take a bit longer, but worth it in the end. Also, I STRONGLY prefer Silpats to parchment for cookies.

      Thanks for trying so many of my cookie recipes and I’m so glad you like these – minus the browning aspect on the bottoms. I think you can easily remedy that though!

  6. I removed this recipe from my cookie board after trying this recipe rather than a traditional peanut butter cookie recipe for Christmas. With six teenagers in the house yesterday, I asked for their honest opinion. My 18 year old took one bite and suggested kindly giving the rest to the squirrels.

    1. I’m sorry your family didn’t like them. My family loved them – we all have different tastes. Thanks for trying the recipe.

  7. These cookies were fun and easy to make. They looked goopy at first but firmed up nicely to shape into balls. I may have cooked them a bit too long and I may use just under a cup of Bisquick next go round. Overall outcome….delicious!

    1. Glad they came out great for you and that you’re pleased – and yes with cookies like these, based on the types of PB everyone has, and their climate, ovens, etc. baking time and exact down-to-the-penny amount of Bisquick can vary slightly and with some minor tweaks, you’ll know exactly what’s perfect for your oven, etc!

  8. Hi! These look so delicious!! Are you absolutely sure there isn’t anything I can substitute the Bisquick for? I’m in Europe (Estonia, actually), and we don’t have it here. We do have different cake mixes, though. Maybe some would work? What does it resemble the most?
    Now I have to have someone shop for Bisquck in the US. Usually I order pecans (which are crazy expensive here), and maple syrop, looks like I have to extend the list.

    1. I haven’t tried making substitutions so I have no idea what to recommend to you. Good luck in trying to find the ingredients where you live!

  9. My youngest son loves peanut butter! I can’t wait to make these cookies! I never thought to use Bisquick. Such a great idea and I always have some on hand for pancakes. Thanks for the great recipe!

  10. I just mixed everything together. Mine are very goopy. Should I add a little more bisquick, or refrigerate for a little while? I followed the recipe exactly. I am having a hard time shaping into balls.

      1. Ok great! I was going to say, because PB varies from brand to brand, and so does the SCMilk, if you needed to add a little more Bisquick, do it. You definitely don’t want the dough ridiculously loose. It should be like standard cookie dough, but on the oily side from all the PB :)

        LMK what you think of the cookies!

  11. These are *perfect* for a party I’m gping to this weekend! However, it’s pirate-themed and I’m curious if these are sturdy enough to support a chocolate coin on end, as a pirate nod.

    1. I think that would be fine and would look great! Just make sure the cookies are mostly cooled before you set it on them. Not sure if you were just going to lay it flat on the center or if you were going to stand the coin on its edge, but if the cookies are 95% cooled, just the tiny bit of leftover heat will be enough to barely melt the coin so it sticks, but not so much it turns to a puddle of chocolate. LMK how it goes!

  12. These cookies turned out great. I used chunky peanut butter by accident and really enjoyed the little but if crunch in contrast to the rich chewiness. Thanks for a keeper!

    1. Glad they came out great for you and I can see how crunchy PB, along with the chewiness, would work great together! Glad they’re a keeper :)

  13. These look like dream PB cookies, girl!! I love that you used Bisquick in them!! Pure genius! :) Pinned!

  14. These look so beautiful inside – cakey almost. I can’t get bisquick over here in the UK (well, I don’t think …) but I’d like to check out some of your other pb cookie recipes!