These Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies are crispy around the edges, chewy in the center, and full of peanut butter flavor. They are great to send off in the kids lunch box or as an afternoon snack.
These peanut butter cookies are what I grew up with and are scored in my memory forever as one of my favorite cookies that were on the crispy side.
🍪 Why I Love This Cookie Recipe
The Feeder's Digest is a local cookbook put together by the Hermon-Dekalb community in New York back in the 70's. It was a local fundraising cookbook that my mom and grandmother had in the home. This cookbook offers up a lot of old fashioned recipes that people loved to make back then.
This Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookie was and still is one of my favorite recipes in that cookbook. Made the old fashioned way equal amounts of crisco shortening, butter, peanut butter and two types of sugar, these cookies bake up with a delicious crisp outside with a chewy center.
🥘 Ingredients
Vegetable shortening. My mom swears by this brand. It is the only one she uses to make her famous Buttermilk Doughnuts.
Creamy peanut butter. The peanut butter should not be all natural peanut butter, rather, use a peanut butter similar to the brand I use.
Granulated sugar and brown sugar. The brown sugar will aid in making the cookies chewy in the center and adds a deeper flavor to the peanut butter cookie.
Large eggs at room temperature.
Flour, baking soda, and salt. The flour will aid in binding the cookies together and the baking soda reacts with the molasses in the brown sugar to help leavening and will allow the cookie to puff up a little.
🍽 Equipment
2 large mixing bowls, one for the flour mixture and one for the shortening mixture.
An electric hand mixer helps to cream the wet portion of the peanut butter cookies in a more efficient manner than stirring with a spoon.
Rubber spatulas for scraping the dough from the sides of the bowl.
Small cookie scoop
Large rimless insulated baking sheet
Parchment paper for lining the baking sheet
Cookie spatula to remove the cookies from the baking sheet to the cooling rack.
🔪 Instructions
Step 1:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a small mixing bowl mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Step 2:
- In a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer, blend together the Crisco, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy. Mix in the eggs and vanilla until creamy.
Step 4:
- With a mixing spoon, stir in the flour mixture until combined.
- Set the cookie dough in refrigerator to cool; approximately 1 hour.
Step 5:
- Scoop 1 tablespoon size of the cookie dough and roll into ball shape. Roll the cookie ball in granulated sugar and place on cookie sheet about 1" apart.
- Press into the cookie dough with tines of a fork to make a crisscross design. Decorate with mini candy coated peanut butter candies (if using).
Step 6:
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies are browned around the edges and are no longer wet on top.
- Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before moving to cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.
💭 Top Tips
- Be sure to use room temperature eggs to prevent coddling of the shortening mixture.
- Dipped the fork to make the criss cross into the sugar mixture to prevent sticking.
- Store completely cooled baked cookies in an airtight container.
- Freeze the cookies for up to 1 month.
📖 Variations
- Sprinkle a little cinnamon into the sugar mixture before rolling the cookie dough.
- Substitute chunky peanut butter for the creamy peanut butter.
- Top the cookies with mini chocolate coated candies in place of the peanut butter candies.
- Stir ¼ cup of mini chocolate chips into the cookie dough.
More Old Fashioned Cookie Recipes
Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup Crisco
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 2 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon soda
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a small mixing bowl mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer, blend together the Crisco, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy. Mix in the eggs and vanilla until creamy.
- With a mixing spoon, stir in the flour mixture until combined.
- Set the cookie dough in refrigerator to cool; approximately 1 hour.
- Scoop 1 tablespoon size of the cookie dough and roll into ball shape. Roll the cookie ball in granulated sugar and place on cookie sheet about 1" apart.
- Press into the cookie dough with tines of a fork to make a crisscross design. Decorate with mini candy coated peanut butter candies.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies are browned around the edges and are no longer wet on top.
- Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before moving to cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.
Shad Dixon
Gonna try these. The family loves PB cookies.
Shad Dixon
Looks good.
Diana's Cocina
Peanut butter cookies are my husband all time favorite. This sounds yummy!
Amanda
these look yummy!! I have a favorite PB cookie too and they are very similar to this! I have all the same ingredients except mine uses all brown sugar, no white, and a little milk. I love PB cookies!
Maria
You can't beat a good pb cookie!
Bellini Valli
We love peanut butter cookies around here Shelby!!
Coleen's Recipes
My Hubby LOVES...double loves peanutbutter cookies, thanks for sharing.
Debbie
Who doesn't like peanut butter and chocolate!?
These look great.
I'll be trying to follow some more of your more healthy recipes starting tomorrow tho....
Mags
Ahhh Crisco.... one of my guilty pleasures. I don't use it often, but geeze, it still makes the best cookies.
teresa
oh my gosh, i'll take ten!
Jamie
Peanut Butter cookies are one of my favorites. Now you have me wanting to make some. Not a bad idea though 🙂
Jessie
you just stirred up some major craving for these cookies, I love the classic peanut butter cookies
Lynda
I love these cookies-I'm sure they were the perfect gift!
I love old cookbooks like this, where you know many of the people and may have also eaten their food before.
Barbara @ moderncomfortfood
Cookies with a double whammy of peanut butter? Yes! What a great idea, and thanks for sharing it.
pegasuslegend
awesome cookie, cant ever go wrong with a classic peanut butter! my kids will love these~
The Sugar Queen
Those look great ..... now I'm craving one!
Cristine
I love a good peanut butter cookie and these look great with the Reeses on top. Mmmm!