Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

36 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Cooling 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies are sweet and chewy with smooth peanut butter, brown sugar, and peanut butter cups, ready in under 45 minutes!

Peanut butter is practically its own food group in this kitchen, and right now we’re loving these Peanut Butter Blossoms, Peanut Butter Cookies, and Buckeye Balls!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies on serving plate with peanut butter cups

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies are such an easy and fun dessert that will soon become your family’s favorite. These cookies are soft, chewy, and topped with an indulgent gooey peanut butter cup. They’re made with brown sugar and peanut butter, which adds a rich flavor to the cookie while also adding a really nice texture. The result is a softer cookie, just like Chocolate Chip Cookies and Turtle Cookies!

If you’re loving these peanut butter cookies, you’ll also love Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies! They’re a lot like our Peanut Butter Cookies, but without all purpose flour.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies Collage of dough preparation steps

Frequently Asked Questions

What else can you top this Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Recipe with?

This recipe naturally uses peanut butter cups, but here are a few more topping ideas just in case you want to try something new! Try pressing in Marshmallows, chocolate chips, Caramels, rolo’s, or white chocolate.

What kind of peanut butter works best for Peanut Butter Cookies?

Always make peanut butter cookies out of regular peanut butter, not natural peanut butter, because there are other ingredients in it that help it hold together better, and the sweetness goes really well with these cookies.

How do I keep my Peanut Butter Cookies chewy?

Make sure you keep the brown sugar in the recipe, because it’s adding a lot to the texture of the cookie. I don’t recommend substituting for this ingredient, unless you’re ok with sacrificing some chewiness. Also, don’t substitute the butter, because the moisture and solids you’re getting here also contribute to the chewy texture of the cookie.

How do I keep from over baking Peanut Butter Cookies?

Watch carefully the baking time and temperature so you don’t over bake. Set an oven timer, and double check that it’s baking correctly with an oven-safe thermometer.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies Collage of baking steps

 

More Delicious Cookie Recipes

Tips for Making Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

  • This recipe calls for a mini muffin pan, but you can use a non-stick baking sheet if you don’t have a mini muffin pan available.
  • These cookies hold their shape because of the muffin pan, but if you’re making these on a baking sheet you should refrigerate the dough for 20-30 minutes before baking. Cooling the dough helps to prevent the dough from spreading too much when it drops in the oven.
  • Use a small ice cream scoop to make sure the dough balls are all the same size, to get more uniform cookies.
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies on serving plate and hand picking one up

How to Store Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

  • Serve: Once cooled, serve Peanut Butter Cup Cookies slightly warm.
  • Store: Homemade Peanut Butter Cup Cookies will last in an airtight container at room temperature for about a week. I don’t recommend storing them in the refrigerator because it’ll cause them to harden and they’ll lose some of the chewiness. You can also add a slice of bread to the container to absorb any moisture from the air and keep the cookies chewy for longer.
  • Freeze: You can freeze these peanut butter cup cookies either before or after baking. If you’ve already baked them, just add them to an airtight container, layering with parchment paper so they don’t stick together, and freeze up to 2 months. If you haven’t baked them yet, roll the cookie dough into balls and freeze on a baking sheet. Then transfer the cookie dough to a plastic bag. When you want to make the cookies, you can take the cookie dough straight from the freezer to a baking sheet in the oven. Then follow the recipe as usual.
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies on serving plate

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Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies are sweet and chewy with smooth peanut butter, brown sugar, and peanut butter cups, ready in under 45 minutes!
Yield 36 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter , softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar , packed
  • 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 1 large egg , beaten
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons whole milk
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 36 miniature peanut butter cups , unwrapped

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease your mini muffin tins.
  • In your stand mixer beat together the butter, sugar and brown sugar on medium high speed until lightened in color and fluffy, then add in (one at a time) the peanut butter, egg, vanilla and milk until fully combined.
  • Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and add to the stand mixer on low speed until just combined, then roll into 36 balls (refrigerate any you can't bake in the first batch).
  • Put the dough into the muffin tins and bake for 8-10 minutes then immediately put a peanut butter cup into the middle of the cookies when they come out of the oven and remove from the pan after letting cool for 15 minutes.

Notes

Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.
Tip: Freeze the peanut butter cups so they don’t melt into a puddle and they help cool the cookies faster.

Nutrition

Calories: 124kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 110mg | Potassium: 61mg | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 90IU | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 0.5mg
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies Collage

Photos used in a previous version of this post.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Reese's Peaut Butter Cup Cookies
PB Cup Cookies
PB Cup Cookies

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. Place a 1/2 pecan on top of peanut butter cup while chocolate warm so nut sticks to chocolate. Put in tiny paper candy cups.