I’m always on the look-out for the best peanut butter cookie. I’ve tried many a recipe, but they don’t always come out as perfectly as I had hoped. They’re always too flat, too crunchy, or too dry. These, however, are a completely different story.
These are honestly the BEST peanut butter cookies that I’ve ever made or tried in my entire life. They’re light and delicate, but they still stay together and are moist and chewy. I opted to use crunchy peanut butter because I love the added texture it brings to a peanut butter cookie, but the recipe did call for honey, which really made these the best. It lends its light, sweet flavor to the salty, crunchy peanut butter and gives the cookies a melt-in-your-mouth quality. If you don’t make these cookies, you’re really going to be missing out!
Your ingredients.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
Beat together the shortening, honey, and peanut butter together, then add in the eggs one at a time.
Gradually mix in the flour until just moistened.
Place your granulated sugar in a small bowl (I used whatever turbinado sugar I have left -not much- and granulated sugar combined).
Roll the cookies into balls and then roll in sugar. Place on a lined and/or greased baking sheet, make criss-crosses with a fork, and bake at 350 degrees F for 9-11 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies (mine took about 9 1/2-10 minutes).
Allow to cool and enjoy! These are seriously my favorite peanut butter cookies ever.
Honey Peanut Butter Cookies
Print this recipe
from What’s Cooking in The Orange Kitchen
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup crunchy peanut butter (the original recipe called for creamy, but crunchy is SO much better)
1 cup honey
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
sugar for rolling (preferably raw sugar, but granulated works well too, it’s what I used)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt, and set aside. In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or a mixing bowl and hand mixer), beat the shortening, peanut butter and honey together for 3-5 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well. Next add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and mix well, just until moistened (don’t over beat! It’s better to do the last bit of mixing by hand than to beat too much air into the dough).
2. Roll the dough into 1″ balls and roll in the sugar. Place on greased and/or lined baking sheets, make criss-crosses with a fork, and bake for 9-11 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly on cookie sheets. Remove and place on a different surface to finish cooling. Store tightly covered. Makes 20 cookies.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
My boyfriend would love these! I dont like peanut butter and these pictures make me want to try them!
Oh, yum, I bet these were the best! Kinda like honey roasted nuts which we all know are insanely good!
Hey, Sydney! How about we see how well they travel? I can sacrifice for the greater good on this one.
~ingrid
Those look REALLY good. I think I need them in my life.
these look so so good, but could i possibly use butter instead of shortening?
Michele: Shortening melts at a higher temperature than butter, so the cookies will retain their shape better (and not fall flat) while still remaining soft and chewy. If you want to use butter, I really suggest using half butter and half shortening.
Your cookie recipes are always phenomenal. Just reading your impressions of the recipe and looking at the pictures makes me hungry.
Kate: Thank you so much! It really means a lot.
These are wonderful! I was making them for my nephew, who prefers creamy peanut butter, so I made it with creamy. I have to agree, it would have been better with crunchy! I always love trying the recipes on this website. I can honestly say I’ve never been disappointed with the results. Thanks for passing this one along!
I made these recently- and though I love the strong peanut butter and honey flavors, I can’t help but wonder if they would be better with butter. These are good, but it just seems like the overall taste of the cookie would be fuller with butter.
Thanks for the beautiful photos and recipe.
Sarah: Butter will make the cookies more flavorful, but the shortening makes them retain their shape better (fluffier, more ‘perfect looking’ cookies) because shortening melts at a higher temperature than butter. I would recommend using half butter and half shortening to solve your problem.
Crisco makes a butter-flavored version that might do nicely in these cookies for those missing the butter flavor. I agree that there are times when shortening has its benefits over butter or margarine. In fact, that’s probably why the cookies I made with butter and stamped with a cookie stamper prior to baking did not turn out as beautiful as I had hoped.
There are DELICIOUS! I just made them and I found them super easy and super tasty. However, I ended up with WAY more than 20 cookies.. 48 in fact. So you might want to half the recipe, unless you actually have that many people to feed..which I don’t. Just something to keep in mind. YUM!
I would love to try this and understand that shortening holds the shape better but from a person who finds lard a tad disgusting, are there any other tips on substituting butter for lard.
Shirese: You can just replace the shortening with butter, but they won’t be quite the same. Crisco shortening is actually made from vegetable oil, so there’s no animal fat in it at all, if that’s your problem. I really suggest using it.
Just stumbled onto your blog – you have a very thoughtful collection of recipes, thank you for sharing them!
Christine: Thank you for the kind words and the Stumble!