Peanut Butter Cookies with Homemade Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

These are the softest, chewiest, yummiest little peanut butter cookies ever! And they’re made with homemade peanut butter made from honey roasted peanuts. Bam!

Yes — these deliciously salty, sweet, honey roasted peanuts — in peanut butter form.

I think I’m in love.

Now let me tell you about this peanut butter. First things first — everything I learned about homemade peanut butter, I learned from Erin. I would’ve never tried it if it weren’t for her post. But I did read her post, and two days later, my life was changed. It is easy, easy easy. You literally take a can of peanuts and dump it in a food processor.

And blitz it for four minutes. That’s it. And you get the thickest, creamiest, most melt-in-your-mouth delicious peanut butter ever.

My 16-ounce can of peanuts made a cup and a half of peanut butter. You’ll need a cup of it for this recipe…

And trust me, you are going to want to have some leftovers to keep on hand!! I could drink this with a straw. I so wish I were kidding. It really is the best peanut butter ever. Now let me just put things into perspective here. I’m not really a huge fan of natural peanut butters. The texture and oil just don’t do it for me. And let’s be honest — the smooth, creamy texture and flavor of Jif is hard to beat. But this… I love. And I’m not saying it’s natural or anything — just that it’s good. Really, really, good. :)

Now, here’s what you’ll need for the cookies. I used Shelly’s peanut butter cookie recipe from her Homemade Nutter Butters, because I love how dense and chewy her cookies turn out.

To make, beat together the butter, sugars, and creamy, dreamy homemade peanut butter.

Add the eggs.

And entire tablespoon of vanilla. I usually just add it to the eggs and dump them all in at the same time.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then add to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until just combined.

This is some of the thickest cookie dough ever! I love it. Use a medium cookie scoop to drop spoonfuls of cookie dough on a cookie sheet. But don’t bake them yet — you don’t want to skip this next step :)

The finishing touch is a crispy, crunchy, cinnamon sugar crust.

Add just a dash of cinnamon to a third cup of sugar, and toss to sprinkle the cookie dough with sugar.

It is amazing biting down into a crisp sugary shell, with a soft, chewy, peanut butter cookie middle!!

Now, for some reason, whenever I made those fork tine impressions on my peanut butter cookies, they never end up showing up in the final cookie. They puff out. Maybe I just don’t press hard enough. So I just use the end of this meat tenderizer. Saves a step, because then you only have to press it once, instead of twice, like with a fork. And they look like little waffles :)

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes until the edges just start to turn golden, like this.

Man oh man.

This is not your average peanut butter cookie. Even the folks at Kevin’s work could tell there was something special, something extraordinary about the peanut butter in these cookies! I did my usual make a batch of cookies, save two for me and Kevin, and send the rest with Kev to work. And I immediately regretted it. And I immediately turned around and made an entire new batch. This one’s just for us.

You’ll notice earlier that I made half a batch on a Pampered Chef baking stone, and half on a regular cookie sheet (lined with parchment paper). The cookies on the baking stone turn out thicker and chewier, while the ones on the baking sheet are more flat, but still very soft and chewy. I prefer the thick, chewy cookies, but Kevin likes these thin ones.

Either way, I wouldn’t say no to one of these cookies. :)

Hope you try these!! I am a believer in homemade peanut butter now. :)

Peanut Butter Cookies with Homemade Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

1 (16 oz) can honey roasted peanuts
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 whole tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar + a dash of cinnamon for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Add the peanuts to the workbowl of a food processor and process for 4 minutes until smooth. Add salt to taste if desired.

2. Beat butter, sugars, and 1 cup of homemade peanut butter on medium-high speed for 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt then add to wet ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

3. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough into balls, roll in cinnamon sugar and use a fork to press flat. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes until edges just start to turn golden.