A high altitude recipe for crunchy peanut butter cookies that have crisp, crumbly edges with slightly soft, chewy centers, and a perfect sweet and salty flavor.
You might also love these recipes for the best soft peanut butter cookies, peanut butter and jelly cookies, and flourless peanut butter 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.
Crisp and Chewy. I’ve based today’s recipe on my original soft and chewy peanut butter cookies. But with a few adjustments to the ingredients and a longer bake time, you’ll get much more crisp edges with a crumbly texture and chewy centers.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
Instructions
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then remove from the heat. In a bowl, whisk together the hot melted butter with the peanut butter until smooth.
- Whisk in the sugar and the vanilla extract, then whisk in the egg and egg yolk until well combined.
- Separately, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir the dough until all the flour is incorporated.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Use a large cookie scoop (2 1/2 – 3 tbsp capacity) to scoop 16 balls of dough. The dough may be a bit crumbly; just press it into the cookie scoop. Use the tines of a fork to slightly flatten each dough ball in a classic criss-cross pattern.
- Place the dough balls 3 inches apart on the baking sheet and bake on the center oven rack for about 16 minutes.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. If you like, lightly sprinkle the tops of the cookies with cinnamon sugar and flaky salt.
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
Store leftover cookies 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 a drippy all-natural peanut butter (which contains only peanuts and salt, with no other oils), you should increase the flour by a couple of tablespoons to keep the cookies from spreading too much.
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High Altitude Crunchy 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.
Equipment
- Large Cookie Scoop with Release Lever (2 1/2 – 3 tbsp capacity)
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk (save the extra white for another use)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 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, then remove from the heat. In a bowl, whisk together the hot melted butter with the peanut butter until smooth.
- Whisk in the sugar and the vanilla extract, then whisk in the egg and egg yolk until well combined.
- Separately, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir the dough until all the flour is incorporated.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Use a large cookie scoop (2 1/2 – 3 tbsp capacity) to scoop 16 balls of dough. The dough may be a bit crumbly; just press it into the cookie scoop. Use the tines of a fork to slightly flatten each dough ball in a classic criss-cross pattern.
- Place the dough balls 3 inches apart on the baking sheet and bake on the center oven rack for about 16 minutes.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. If you like, lightly sprinkle the tops of the cookies with cinnamon sugar and flaky salt.
Notes
- Store leftover cookies 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 a drippy all-natural peanut butter (which contains only peanuts and salt, with no other oils), you should increase the flour by a couple of tablespoons to keep the cookies from spreading too much.
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