If you like soft, chewy cookies and the thought of a pb&j sandwich gives you fond memories of childhood lunches, you're going to love these Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies, Peanut Butter Jelly Cookies
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.
Baker's 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. 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.