Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
TASTE: The cookie itself is PACKED with PB flavor, and the jam provides bursts of fruity sweetness.
TEXTURE: The cookie is soft and chewy, while the jam brings a fantastic gooiness to each bite.
EASE: Super simple – you don’t even need a mixer for this recipe.
PROS: You might already have all the ingredients on hand!
CONS: None.
WOULD I MAKE THIS AGAIN? Oh 100% yes.
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Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies are like biting into sweet childhood nostalgia.
If you know me at all, you know I adore peanut butter. While I frequently (okay, daily) crave the flavor combination of peanut butter and chocolate, sometimes PB needs to play with its other delicious friends.
Enter, the PB&J cookie! These babies are soft, chewy, gooey, and reminiscent of all the most wonderful memories of childhood in all the best ways.
It’s so exciting to expand my array of peanut butter cookies. I already have classic Peanut Butter Cookies, crazy-popular Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Giant Reese’s Pieces Chocolate Chip Cookies, just to name a few – but these cookies are such a fun new treat.
I cannot overstate how amazing these cookies are! All of Team HTH’s taste testers loved these cookies – one of my team members’ husbands claimed it to be his new favorite cookie EVER!
If you love the combination of peanut butter and jelly, you’ll absolutely love these easy Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies. Perfect for summer BBQs, after-school snacks, or your Christmas cookie platter, adults and kids alike will adore these incredible, unique cookies!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
How to Make Moist, Thick & Chewy Cookies
- Measure your flour correctly: I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale to ensure precision. When measuring with cups, it’s so easy to accidentally compact your flour and add too much, resulting in dry, tough cookies that don’t spread. If you don’t have a scale, use the spoon-and-level method.
- Use bleached all-purpose flour. More on this shocking revelation below.
- Don’t reduce the sugar: Sugar does SO much more than just providing sweetness – it also plays a big part in a cookie’s texture. Learn more about sugar’s role in baking here.
- Don’t overbake: Pull these cookies from the oven when they’re just set at the edges, for perfectly soft cookies. Trust this process! Using a high-quality baking pan also helps – learn more about the best (and worst!) baking pans here.
- Use natural peanut butter: More on this just below.
What Type of Peanut Butter for PB and J Cookies?
- I highly recommend using natural peanut butter in these Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies. My favorite is the Kirkland Organic Peanut Butter from Costco!
- Natural PB helps make these cookies incredibly thick and chewy – kind of reminiscent of a PB&J sandwich!
- In testing this recipe, we also noticed a more concentrated PB flavor when using natural peanut butter – especially if you let the cookies sit overnight. That’s because natural PB doesn’t contain added oils or sugar.
- Be sure to stir your PB very well before measuring, so there are no dry bits or oily pockets. This is essential.
- If you only have conventional peanut butter on hand, that will still work just fine – just note that your cookies may not be quite as thick or flavorful.
- We have not tried this recipe using crunchy PB. Let us know how it goes if you do!
Do I Have to Use Peanut Butter? Can I Use Almond Butter Instead?
We haven’t tested using almond butter in this cookie recipe ourselves, but it should work just fine. Simply swap the peanut butter for the same amount of almond butter. Let us know in the comments below if you give this a try!
What Type of Jam / Jelly for Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies?
- My favorite jam for these cookies is Smucker’s Seedless Strawberry Jam.
- Any variety of strawberry jam, jelly, or preserves will work just fine, but a jam or jelly without chunks of berries throughout makes for the best cookie, and is also easier to scoop out or pipe in.
- The seedless variety is also a hit with kiddos.
- Feel free to use any other berry jam you prefer, but in testing, we noticed that the flavor and texture of strawberry jam balanced best with the flavor of the peanut butter cookie.
- We have not tested these cookies using grape jelly, but if that’s your favorite, feel free to give it a try!
- Note: Use chilled jam for best results. In testing, we noted that room-temperature jam seeped out more than chilled jam as the cookies baked.
Important: Use Bleached All-Purpose Flour For This Recipe
In testing this recipe, my team and I used our go-to Gold Medal Bleached All-Purpose Flour with perfect results. When I went to photograph this recipe, however, my photographer had King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour on hand. The dough made using the King Arthur unbleached flour was crumbly, dry, and much less flavorful! Check out the side-by-side comparison below:
This is likely due to the fact that King Arthur all-purpose flour has a higher protein content than most other all-purpose flour products on the market. Additionally, bleached flour is softer and more absorbent, leading to a softer and moister dough and final cookie. We experienced the same problem with King Arthur Flour drying out our Snickerdoodle cookies, too!
We haven’t tested this, but if you only have unbleached flour, readers have reported that King Arthur Baking recommends using slightly less flour to achieve a less dry, crumbly texture. Try reducing the flour by a tablespoon or two, and let us know how it goes in the comments!
Can I Halve This Recipe? Can I Double This Recipe?
Sure! Simply divide all ingredients in half to yield about 10-11 cookies, or double all ingredients to yield about 42 cookies. No other modifications needed.
How to Assemble Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
Assembling the PB and J cookies is easy, but a little messy. Just have fun with it! Here’s the simple breakdown:
1. Use a large 3-tablespoon cookie scoop and roll large balls of dough between your palms.
2. Create a well in the center of each dough ball with your thumb.
3. Using a teaspoon or a small piping bag, add 1 heaping teaspoon of jam in the well of each cookie.
4. Carefully bring the edges of the dough over the jam pocket with your fingers, keeping some of the jam peeking out.
5. Lightly roll it back into a ball between your palms. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect!
6. If your cookies come out of the oven a little misshapen, use a round cookie cutter slightly larger than the cookies and swirl it around each cookie, to create a perfectly round cookie. Be sure to do this as soon as the cookies come out of the oven before they have a chance to set.
Can I Make Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies Ahead of Time?
Yes! For a thicker, super flavorful cookie, chill the fully assembled Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies inside an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours. Any longer and the jam may begin to seep. Bake as directed below, adding a minute or so to the bake time.
How to Store PB&J Cookies?
Store these cookies inside an airtight container for 2 days. Note that the cookies will be even more flavorful the next day, but they will also soften the longer they sit.
Can You Freeze PB&J Cookies?
Yes! These cookies freeze very well. Freeze the fully assembled cookies on a parchment paper-lined rimmed baking sheet until solid, then transfer to a freezer bag or airtight container. Store for up to one month. When you wish to bake the cookies, thaw overnight in the fridge and bake as directed in the recipe, adding a minute or so to the bake time to account for the cold dough. You may also bake directly from frozen, but know your cookies will be much thicker.
More Peanut Butter Recipes You’ll Love:
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Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (270 grams) creamy natural peanut butter*, very well stirred
- 1 cup (200 grams) packed light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 ¾ cups (349 grams)
bleached all-purpose flour** - ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (240 grams) strawberry jam or jelly, chilled
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, microwave butter in 20-second bursts until melted. Add the peanut butter and stir until well combined. Add in the sugars and whisk together. Set aside to cool until just warm.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- To the butter mixture, add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and whisk very well until thoroughly combined. Add the flour mixture and stir with a sturdy spatula until combined.
- Using a large spring-loaded cookie scoop, form the dough into 3-tablespoon rounds. Roll between your palms to smooth. Using your thumb, create a well in the center. Add 1 heaping teaspoon of preserves and partially seal it with dough. Keep some of the jam peeking out as you lightly roll it back into a ball between your palms. This process is a bit messy, but have fun with it! Place on baking sheet with the visible jam facing up. Repeat with remaining dough balls, spacing about 3 inches apart.
- Bake for about 14 minutes, or until puffed up and lightly brown at the edges.
- Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store cookies in an airtight container for up to two days. The longer they sit, the softer they’ll become.
Recipe Notes
Photos by Joanie Simon.
In the newsletter I received today, you stated that KA is bleached, its not. I refuse to use bleached flour. There has to be a work around.
I’m with you Randi. Bleached flour always leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. The reason they bleach flour is so they don’t have to spend a lot of extra time aging it. Maybe using “less fresh” unbleached flour will produce better cookies? That’s what I’m going to try, anyway. I can’t believe you can’t make fantastic cookies with unbleached flour. We switched to unbleached flour some time ago, and we’ve been making some really good cookies for several years now. I wish you luck with your cookies.
Hi Randi! You are correct, KA all-purpose is unbleached. While we haven’t tried this, Tessa (and King Arthur Baking) recommends using slightly less flour if you plan to use unbleached flour. That should result in similar texture to using Gold Medal bleached 🙂
Right, there is a MISTAKE in her wording in her newsletter. She said that KA is BLEACHED.
Hi Randi, you’re right that there was a typo in the newsletter. Unfortunately, once it’s sent out there’s no going back to edit. Luckily the photos are labeled correctly in the email and all the details are available here in the blog post. I appreciate your understanding that we are human and make mistakes.
I’m looking forward to making these cookies. If they’re anything close to your peanut butter cookies, they will be fantastic!