Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies
My Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies are soft and chewy cookies filled with quick-cooking oats and plenty of peanut butter. No chill-time means you can make these in about 20 minutes from start-to-finish.
If you love easy cookie recipes, don’t miss my Chocolate Chip Cookie Cereal and Cut-Out Sugar Cookies!
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I think it’s so important to have a handful of easy “anytime” cookie recipes. I’ve been disappointed too many times by store-bought cookies that are dry and lacking in flavor. Nothing hits the spot like a homemade cookie!
My recipe for Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies is easy and reliable. I don’t have any patience for peanut butter cookies that are dry or crumbly, so I’ve carefully tested this recipe to avoid those pitfalls!
These cookies are quick to make (no chilling required) and use pantry staples for ease. They only take about 20 minutes from start-to-finish and you’ll only need one bowl!
Tip: Watch the flour! I always recommend weighing ingredients, but particularly the flour because if you add too much you’ll accidentally create dry crumbly cookies instead of perfectly chewy cookies.
Looking for the Perfect Cookie Scoop?
I have several cookie scoops in my kitchen, but I most frequently use my Vollrath #40 scoop (used in this recipe!) and my Vollrath #12 scoop (used for giant bakery style cookies). I love these because they are color-coded, high-quality, and work consistently without breaking or sticking.
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Recipes by a Real Person in a Real Kitchen
In the age of AI-generated content, I like to share that I’ve created and tested my recipes. My recipes have been hypothesized, baked, taste-tested, and refined by a real human (me!). I only publish recipes I think are awesome.
Ingredients in Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies
Before you start baking, check out these notes on some of the ingredients used in the cookies:
Unsalted Butter – I always use unsalted American butter in my recipes (most often I’m using Costco’s unsalted Kirkland butter).
Light Brown Sugar and Granulated Sugar – using two types of sugar creates a perfectly balanced soft and chewy cookie.
Creamy Peanut Butter – skip the natural or organic varieties here and use a standard jar of conventional peanut butter such as Skippy or Jif. If you’d like to experiment, always feel free, but know that the recipe has only been tested with conventional pb!
Egg – one large egg.
Vanilla extract – use your favorite.
All-Purpose Flour – I use all-purpose flour in my baking. It’s very very important to measure your flour correctly. Never pack flour into a measuring cup. Use a scale for best results.
Quick-Cooking Oats – This recipe uses quick cooking oats for a wholesome chewy cookie.
Baking soda – be sure to grab baking soda and not baking powder. They are not interchangeable!
Salt – just regular table salt. Peanut butter is already salted so you don’t need much salt for these cookies.
How to Store & Freeze Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies
Store cookies at room temperature in an air-tight container for up to three days. Freeze in freezer-safe packaging for up to three months (note: I have found that the length of time cookies stay fresh when frozen really depends on your freezer!).
Tips for Perfect Cookies
Here’s a few small suggestions for even better cookies!
- Bake a test cookie: Every oven is a little different. If you can try baking one or two cookies first, it’s easy to make sure everything is working as expected. I always do this to dial in the exact timing when I want to pull the cookies from the oven so they are perfectly soft and not overbaked.
- Add chocolate chips for a fun variation: A quick addition of chocolate chips (I love milk chocolate and I suggest using about 3/4 cup) gives these a little cookies extra pizzazz.
- Avoid a sticky mess when measuring peanut butter: My favorite way to measure peanut butter is by weight. No messy measuring cups required. Place the bowl you are using onto your scale, zero it out and then add spoonfuls of peanut butter until you get to the perfect weight (4.5 ounces to make this recipe as written!).
More Recipes for Peanut Butter Fans
Try more of my favorite peanut butter recipes including decadent Peanut Butter Cup Cookies, Mini Peanut Butter Cookies, and Peanut Butter Cookies Stuffed with Oreos!
If you loved this recipe, leave a quick comment and a 5-star rating!
Thanks so much for trying one of my recipes!
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp 4 ounces
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed 3.5 ounces
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar 2.3 ounces
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter (see notes) 4.5 ounces
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour 3.75 ounces
- ½ cup quick cooking oats 2 ounces
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, use a hand mixer with beaters to cream together the softened butter and sugars. Beat until totally combined, smooth, and a bit fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
- Sprinkle the flour, quick oats, baking soda, and salt over the mixture and beat until just combined, then use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and incorporate any remaining streaks of flour. The dough will be soft and a bit sticky.
- Use a 1.5 tablespoon scoop (a #40 scoop) to scoop cookies and arrange them on the lined baking sheets (keep the scoops of dough about 1.5-2” apart). Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 10-11 minutes until the cookies have a lightly crackled top and the edges are just beginning to turn golden. Don’t overbake or the cookies will dry out.Cool on the cookie sheets for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.Note: If you would like to to bake two cookie sheets at a time, simply rotate sheet pans and switch pans from top to bottom and bottom to top at the halfway point of baking.
