This high altitude recipe for classic peanut butter cookies makes the best cookies that are so soft, thick, and chewy, with a perfect salty sweet balance.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Large Cookie Scoop with Release Lever (2 1/2 - 3 tbsp capacity)
Ingredients
½cupunsalted butter,melted
¾cupcreamy peanut butter
½cuplight brown sugar,lightly packed
½cupgranulated sugar
1tspvanilla extract
1 large egg
1large egg yolk(save the extra white for another use)
2cupsall-purpose flour,fluffed, spooned and leveled
1tbspcorn starch
½tspbaking soda
½tspcoarse Kosher salt(if using table salt, use half the amount)
1tspground 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 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, 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.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Use a medium cookie scoop (1 1/2 - 2 tbsp capacity) with a release lever to scoop 28 balls of dough or a large cookie scoop (2 1/2 - 3 tbsp capacity) to scoop 16 balls of dough. Use the tines of a fork to slightly flatten each dough ball in a classic criss-cross pattern.
Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
Place the dough balls 3 inches apart on the baking sheet and bake on the center oven rack for 8-9 minutes for medium cookies, or 10-11 minutes for large cookies.
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
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 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.
Keyword Chocolate, Cookies, High Altitude Cookies, Peanut Butter