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No-fail Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies are a soft peanut butter cookie with a jammy center. A two-ingredient peanut butter ganache drizzle and sprinkle of chopped peanuts on top make them feel like something you’d get at a bakery. Get ready for your new favorite way to enjoy this nostalgic flavor combo!
Who doesn’t love a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? All we can say is it reminds us of childhood, truly a classic flavor combination. We wanted to create a cookie version of one of our favorite sandwiches, and these Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies do not disappoint!
Using creamy peanut butter as the base, we wanted to make the ultimate chewy peanut butter cookie-base with a jam-filled center. It really is the perfect treat.
Plus with a two-ingredient ganache made from peanut butter and white chocolate chips drizzled over the top, these cookies are guaranteed to impress any crowd.
Now comes the age old debate: jam or jelly, strawberry or grape? We went with our favorite, strawberry jam. Feel free to use your favorite jam or jelly in this recipe!
If you love peanut butter desserts, we have some favorites for you to try. Our Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Cookies are truly decadent, while our Peanut Butter Blondies are always a hit. We even have Peanut Butter Jelly Bars similar to this cookie recipe!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy to make. Like the classic sandwich that inspired them, these cookies are easy to make! Perfect for teens and beginner bakers, anyone can make these impressive treats.
- Bakery-style cookies at home! Through numerous recipe tests, we made sure that these taste just like a bakery, but are still approachable for bakers of all skill levels.
- Customize with your favorite fillings. The original recipe uses strawberry jam, but you can use whatever type of fruit jam, jelly, or preserves you like.
- Perfect to make in advance. You can make the peanut butter cookie dough up to a day ahead, and store it in the fridge for easy rolling and baking the next day.
Ingredients
Breaking It Down
Ingredients Explained
In this section I explain the ingredients and give substitution ideas where applicable. For the full recipe (including the ingredient amounts), see the recipe card below.
PB & J Cookies Ingredients
- Unsalted butter: For rich flavor and chewy texture.
- Light brown sugar: Adds a light caramel sweetness to the dough.
- Large egg: Binds the cookie dough together.
- Pure vanilla extract: For flavor and aroma.
- Creamy peanut butter: The star ingredient, this gives the dough classic rich peanutty flavor. Use regular creamy peanut butter (such as Skippy) instead of crunchy peanut butter or natural peanut butter.
- All-purpose flour: Gives the cookie its structure.
- Baking soda: The leavening agent that helps the dough rise and creates a light and tender cookie texture.
- Salt: Seasons the dough so each ingredient shines with flavor.
- Strawberry jam: Our jam of choice here, but you can go with whichever flavor you like best! You can also use jelly, but we prefer jam for its thicker texture and more complex flavor.
- Unsalted dry roasted peanuts: Chopped peanuts are a pretty garnish and give the cookies great texture.
Peanut Butter Ganache Ingredients
- Creamy peanut butter: We also use the star ingredient to make ganache! Stick with the creamy kind for the perfect smooth, creamy ganache texture.
- White chocolate chips: When melted, this makes the smoothest texture for drizzling on top of the cookies. It also lightly sweetens the peanut butter.
How to Make Peanut Butter Jelly Cookies
1. Make the Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
- Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave, or in a small saucepan over medium-low heat on the stovetop. While it’s still hot, pour the butter into a large bowl. Add the brown sugar, and stir well. Stir in the egg and vanilla.
- Stir in the peanut butter.
- Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and stir to combine.
- Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F and line 2 large baking trays with parchment paper.
2. Bake the PB & J Cookies
- Once the dough is chilled, roll it into 2-tablespoon-sized balls and arrange them evenly on the prepared baking trays.
- Bake for 10 minutes (rotating once halfway through), then remove the cookies from the oven and use a 1/2-tablespoon measuring spoon to make an indentation in the center of each cookie.
- Fill each indentation with 1 teaspoon jam.
- Return the cookies to the oven and bake until they’re set and golden on the bottom, about 8 minutes, rotating the trays once halfway through. Cool to room temperature, and then decorate.
2. Make the Peanut Butter Ganache & Decorate the Cookies
- To make the peanut butter ganache, add the peanut butter and white chocolate chips to a small microwave-safe bowl or double boiler.
- Warm them together, stirring gently until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Drizzle the ganache on the cooled cookies.
- Immediately sprinkle on the finely chopped peanuts. Let the ganache set before serving.
Pro Tips
- Make sure you use regular creamy peanut butter, not natural. The natural, runny kind of peanut butter doesn’t work well for this recipe.
- Chill the dough for 20 minutes. It’s just a short chilling time for the cookie dough prior to baking (you can do it while you preheat the oven!). This allows the gluten in the dough to rest momentarily yielding a more tender cookie, and also helps prevent the cookies from spreading too much as they bake.
- Melt the butter for this cookie recipe. This allows the brown sugar to dissolve, which creates the smoothest, as well as chewiest peanut butter cookie.
- You will want to bake the cookies again after filling them with jam. A required step found in recipe testing, not only does this give the cookies enough time to bake, but it also allows the jam to set in the center.
- Use a tablespoon measure or cookie scoop for even sizes. This ensures accurate bake times on the cookies and even browning.
Storage & Freezing
Store these cookies layered between pieces of parchment paper in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. You can also freeze the cookies for up to 2 months, just be sure to thaw them at room temperature for a couple of hours before serving.
You can make the cookie dough up to one day in advance and store it in the fridge.
Variations
The best part about peanut butter jelly cookies is that you can customize them to your heart’s desire! Make several flavors at once or stick with the classic strawberry jam version, all the options will be delicious! Here are a few ideas for variations:
- Switch out the jam. Use your favorite jam that pairs well with peanut butter. We also love fig and even apricot!
- Try using jelly. We prefer jam for its more complex flavor and chunky texture, but you can also use jelly especially if you prefer the grape flavor on your pb&j.
- Add some spices. Add a touch of cinnamon to spice things up.
- Use chocolate hazelnut spread! If you like the peanut butter and Nutella flavor combo, stuff the centers with Nutella. You can’t go wrong.
- Go with another kind of nut or seed butter. As long as it’s not the natural kind of nut butter that’s super runny, you can swap out another creamy nut butter for the peanut butter. Cashew or sunflower butter both work well.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can use either jam or jelly; go with whatever is your favorite paired with peanut butter!
We recommend using regular creamy peanut butter (not the natural kind). Crunchy peanut butter is more difficult to blend into a cookie dough.
Yes, a quick chill of 20 minutes while you preheat the oven is all that’s needed. It allows the dough to hydrate and gluten to rest to make the chewiest cookie ever. And it makes sure the cookies don’t over-spread when they bake!
More Easy Cookie Recipes
- Easy Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies
- Air Fryer Oatmeal Cookies
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
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Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
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Ingredients
Cookies:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter such as Skippy
- 140 grams all-purpose flour (140 grams of flour is about 1 cup + 2 tablespoons)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons strawberry jam or any kind of jam you like
Peanut Butter Ganache:
- 3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons white chocolate chips
Other:
- 2 tablespoons unsalted dry roasted peanuts finely chopped (for topping)
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave, or in a small saucepan over medium-low heat on the stovetop. While it’s still hot, pour the butter into a large bowl. Add the brown sugar, and stir well. Stir in the egg and vanilla, and then the peanut butter. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and stir to combine.
- Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F and line 2 large baking trays with parchment paper.
- Once the dough is chilled, roll it into 2-tablespoon-sized balls and arrange them evenly on the prepared baking trays.
- Bake for 10 minutes (rotating once halfway through), then remove the cookies from the oven and use a 1/2-tablespoon measuring spoon to make an indentation in the center of each cookie. Fill each indentation with 1 teaspoon jam. Return the cookies to the oven and bake until they’re set and golden on the bottom, about 8 minutes, rotating the trays once halfway through. Cool to room temperature, and then decorate.
- To make the peanut butter ganache, warm the peanut butter and white chocolate chips together until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Drizzle the ganache on the cooled cookies, and immediately sprinkle on the finely chopped peanuts.
- Let the ganache set before serving.
Notes
- Recipe Yield and Serving Size: This recipe makes 18 large cookies. The nutritional information given is for 1 cookie.
- If You’re Baking the Cookies 1 Tray at a Time: To bake the cookies 1 tray at a time, it takes about 2 minutes less time to bake them than if you bake both trays the same time. I usually reduce the first bake time (before adding jam) from 10 minutes to 8 minutes, and keep the second bake time (after adding jam) the same.
- Decorating: The peanut butter ganache and chopped peanuts on top are optional, but really take these cookies to the next level!
- Storage: Store these cookies layered between pieces of parchment paper in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. You can also freeze the cookies for up to 2 months, just be sure to thaw them at room temperature for a couple of hours before serving. You can make the cookie dough up to one day in advance and store it in the fridge.
- Make sure you use regular creamy peanut butter, not natural. The natural, runny kind of peanut butter doesn’t work well for this recipe.
- Chill the dough for 20 minutes. It’s just a short chilling time for the cookie dough prior to baking (you can do it while you preheat the oven!). This allows the gluten in the dough to rest momentarily yielding a more tender cookie, and also helps prevent the cookies from spreading too much as they bake.
- Melt the butter for this cookie. This allows the brown sugar to dissolve which creates the smoothest, as well as chewiest peanut butter cookie.
- You will want to bake the cookies again after filling them with jam. A required step found in recipe testing, not only does this give the cookies enough time to bake, but it also allows the jam to set in the center.
- Use a tablespoon measure or cookie scoop for even sizes. This ensures accurate bake times on the cookies and even browning.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximate.
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I’m the writer, recipe developer, photographer, and food stylist behind this blog. I love finding the human connection through something we all do every day: eat! Food is a common ground that we can all relate to, and our tables tell a story. It’s my goal to inspire you to get in the kitchen, try something new, and find a favorite you didn’t know you had.
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