This high altitude recipe for classic peanut butter cookies makes the best cookies that are so soft and chewy, with a perfect salty sweet balance. The dough is also incredibly easy to make, with just a bowl and spoon, instead of a mixer. And since the dough doesn’t need to be chilled for very long, you’ll be enjoying freshly baked cookies in just a few hours!
Looking for more high altitude cookie recipes? Don’t miss these soft lemon cookies with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts, chocolate white chocolate chip cookies, and caramel stuffed chocolate chip cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No Mixer Needed. Today’s recipe uses melted butter, so you can make the dough with just a bowl and whisk.
Versatile Recipe. You can make these cookies plain, with chocolate chips, dipped in chocolate or sandwiched with dark chocolate ganache. And for a peanut butter blossom cookie, add a Hershey’s kiss on top, or a square of your favorite chocolate bar. I love to sprinkle mine with flaky finishing salt, which looks so pretty and tastes delicious. If you’re looking for a flourless version, try my flourless peanut butter cookie recipe!
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter. Adds flavor, moisture and richness.
- Creamy Peanut Butter. I’ve used many kinds of creamy peanut butter when making cookies. If you use an all-natural peanut butter that needs the oil stirred in, you should increase the flour in this recipe by a couple of tablespoons.
- Brown Sugar + Granulated Sugar. Sweetness.
- Egg + Extra Egg Yolk. Provides structure to the cookies, binding the dough together so it doesn’t crumble.
- Vanilla Extract + Cinnamon. Flavor.
- All-Purpose Flour. Thickens and strengthens the cookie dough.
- Corn Starch. Tenderizes the dough for a soft, chewy cookie.
- Oats. A handful of old-fashioned oats adds subtle texture and crunch.
- Baking Soda. Leavens the cookies so they puff up when they bake.
- Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness and enhances the flavor of the peanut butter.
- Flaky Finishing Salt. Adds the perfect salty finish on top of the cookies.
Instructions
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. In a bowl, whisk together the hot melted butter with the peanut butter until smooth.
- Whisk in both the sugars and the vanilla extract, then whisk in the egg and egg yolk until well combined.
- Separately, whisk together the flour, corn starch, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir the dough together until smooth.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours, to cool the butter back down and firm up the dough enough to scoop into balls.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop 28 balls of dough. Use the tines of a fork to slightly flatten each ball. Chill the dough balls for 30 minutes while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the chilled dough balls 3 inches apart on the baking sheet and bake on the center oven rack for 8-9 minutes.
- Cool the cookies for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Recipe Variations
Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate
You can add chocolate chips directly to the cookie dough, or press a square of chocolate on top of the cookies when they’re warm from the oven. These cookies are also wonderful sprinkled with flaky finishing salt.
Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Ganache
- To make the chocolate ganache, finely chop 4 ounces of chocolate, scrape it into a bowl, and set aside. Warm 4 ounces of cream in a saucepan until hot.
- Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, and stir until smooth. Let cool for several minutes until it’s thickened slightly.
- Turn half the cookies over so the bottom is facing up, and spoon the ganache onto the cookies.
- Place the rest of the cookies on top of the ganache to make a sandwich.
- Refrigerate for several minutes to firm up the ganache.
Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies
After cooling the cookies completely, dip them in melted chocolate (milk, semi sweet or dark). Set on a parchment lined baking sheet and let the chocolate harden again before storing the cookies.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
The lower air pressure at high altitudes causes dough to rise faster. The structure of the baked goods then collapses, resulting in flat cookies, cookies that spread out too much, and cookies that are too sweet from the concentrated sugars.
To compensate, cookie recipes for high altitude usually contain more flour, less sugar, and less leavening. Making these adjustments stabilizes the cookie dough, so we can make beautiful cookies that are soft, thick, and only spread out the perfect amount. I test all of my recipes at Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet.
Yes, just use your favorite measure-for-measure gluten free flour instead of the all-purpose flour.
If your cookies are too dry, then you’ve either over-baked them, or added too much flour. If you’re using the measuring cup to scoop your flour, then you’re likely packing too much flour into the scoop, resulting in a dry, dense cookie dough. Be sure to use the spoon and sweep method to measure your flour.
Another reason is that most recipes call for creaming together the butter, peanut butter and sugar. When peanut butter is whipped, it tends to get dry and crumbly. So in my recipe, I melt the butter with the peanut butter, and then gently stir in all the ingredients. This keeps the cookies so soft, moist and chewy!
You sure can! Natural peanut butter that needs to be stirred is runnier and less stable than other peanut butters that have added oils. When I bake cookies with natural peanut butter, I add a couple extra tablespoons of flour to make up for the thinner consistency.
Corn starch lowers the protein content of the flour, which tenderizes the dough for soft, chewy cookies.
I use Maldon sea salt.
Yes, you can omit the oats, and replace it with the same amount of all-purpose flour.
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Best High Altitude Peanut Butter Cookies
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk (save the extra white for another use)
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- ½ cup old fashioned oats, ground in a food processor or Ninja until powdery
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. In a bowl, whisk together the hot melted butter with the peanut butter until smooth.
- Whisk in both the sugars and the vanilla extract, then whisk in the egg and egg yolk until well combined.
- Separately, whisk together the flour, corn starch, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir the dough together until smooth.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours, to cool the butter back down and firm up the dough enough to scoop into balls.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop 28 balls of dough. Use the tines of a fork to slightly flatten each ball. Chill the dough balls for 30 minutes while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the chilled dough balls 3 inches apart on the baking sheet and bake on the center oven rack for 8-9 minutes.
- Cool the cookies for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Cookies will stay soft and chewy, stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-5 days, or frozen for 3-6 months.
- Peanut butter that’s not labeled “all-natural” is usually best for baking, as it’s more stable. If using an all-natural peanut butter, which is more runny, increase the flour by a couple of tablespoons.
Can I refrigerate overnight, Bring to room temp making into balls chill again. Then bakd?
I’m sure that would be fine!
Can I omit the oats?
You can, but you might need to increase the flour a little, maybe by 1/4 cup. I haven’t made this recipe without the oats.
Will this work @ 9,000 feet?
My guess is you’d probably need to add 1-2 extra tablespoons of flour so they don’t spread too much. You might try a small batch to test it. Happy baking!
Can you tell me what elevation this was made at? Will this work for 4000 to 4600 feet?
Thank you,
Everything on my site is for 5,000 feet, so yes, it should work well for you.
What is this witch craft!! I thought I’d never have fluffy delicious cookies again (high altitude baking 😭) and a quick google search I found them. I didn’t add cornstarch because I didn’t have it. Still turned out amazing. Wtf. So good. Thanks so much!!! Current elevation is 7500
Gina, I’m so happy you love them! 🙂
Haven’t made these yet but am anxious to try cookies from your Christmas Cookie Boxes. I live just north of Atlanta, GA and have to deviate for canning since we are above 1000 ft, but only a little under 1100. Do I need to reduce or add anything?
Sharon, please see my FAQs: https://curlygirlkitchen.com/baking-faqs/
I loved these cookies!!! I have had a hard time making cookies since I moved to Colorado from Texas and this recipe made me feel like I can still bake. The texture and flavor are delicious!! Thank you for your website with high-altitude baking recipes. I’m so thankful to have found you:)
Love your Best High Altitude Choc Chip Cookies! Now mixing up a batch of these luscious looking Best High Altitude Peanut Butter Cookies. Can’t thank you enough for all the high altitude help! 🤗
Hey Heather, I am a very solid cook and am really confident in the kitchen, but I am the world’s WORST baker. Now that I am retired I’ve decided to conquer some basic baked items. I live in Boulder and started to wonder if some of my failures are altitude related, so tried your banana bread-which my husband said was the best I’ve ever made-my past attempts have been either dry or soupy. But your banana bread was perfect.
Today I tried these Best High Altitude Peanut Butter Cookies. I added a bag of Trader Joe’s chocolate chunks. Except for being too chocolatey (next time I will only use half a bag!), they were great. I’m not crazy about the cinnamon and would omit this next time as I felt it overpowered the peanut butter flavor. Have you tried these without the oatmeal? And if so would more flour be needed? Thanks so much for your help!
Yes, you can replace the oats with the same amount of all purpose flour.
Have you ever made this without chopping up the oats (I.e., keeping the oats whole)? I completely forgot to do that and am wondering/hoping it won’t change much?
It works either way.
Thank you!! I absolutely love your site and the fact that you are based in CO!
My cookies were a little dry. Love d the cinnamon that was added in the ingredients. I added sugar on top of the cookies before I baked them
If they were a little dry, it’s possible you measured too much flour, or your eggs were on the small side. Be sure to measure your flour correctly by first fluffing it up in the canister, lightly spooning it into the measuring cup, then sweeping it off the top to level it.
Can the rolled dough be frozen then baked at a later time?