Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

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:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a small mixing bowl mix together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

Step 2:

1. 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:

1. With a mixing spoon, stir in the flour mixture until combined.
2. Set the cookie dough in refrigerator to cool; approximately 1 hour. 

Step 5:

1. 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. 
2. 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:

1. Bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies are browned around the edges and are no longer wet on top. 
2. 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

• Blueberry Cookies with Lemon Glaze
• Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Nanny's Raisin Filled Cookies
• Nanny's Sugar Cookies
• Butternut Squash Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting