This irresistible sourdough peanut butter cookie recipe is soft, sweet and full of peanut butter flavor. This is the perfect way to use up extra sourdough starter discard.
Sourdough starter isn’t just for sourdough bread. Anything that has flour (for the most part) can be fermented and turned into a delicious recipe.
Some days I think I’ve thought about all the sourdough recipes I can possibly think of, but alas something new comes to mind. One of the many reasons I love homemaking. It allows the time to explore and create and breaks up the monotonous tasks of the day to day.
For me, there is nothing better than being in the kitchen creating new recipes for my family and friends to enjoy.
This recipe is one of those. Super yummy and hard to stop at just one. Everyone will enjoy this sourdough twist to a classic.
Why you will love this recipe:
Soft and chewy: These are the best chewy peanut butter cookies.
Great way to use sourdough discard: These days, I never toss my extra discard — I use them for recipes like these peanut butter sourdough cookies. Need more sourdough discard recipes? Check out a whole list of them here.
Can be made quick, or long fermented for more health benefits. If you can’t tolerate unfermented grains, no worries. These cookies can be long fermented for better digestion.
Tips:
- For easy clean up, line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
- For this recipe, an active sourdough starter or discard will work. It is a great way to use up extra starter, adds slight tanginess, and if long fermented will help break down the grains.
- If you are new to sourdough, check out how to make a sourdough starter here and how to take care of one here.
- Make sure to cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. This makes the cookies soft and chewy.
- If using natural peanut butter, make sure to stir super well or get the no stir kind.
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Ingredients:
Butter – Unsalted butter, soft room temperature. This allows the butter and sugars to cream together until nice and fluffy.
Peanut butter – Preferably creamy peanut butter. I used a natural peanut butter.
Brown sugar – Dark brown sugar has the most flavor, light brown will also work.
Sugar – The combination of white sugar and brown sugar makes these cookies chewy.
Egg
Vanilla extract – Homemade or store-bought
Sourdough starter – sourdough discard or active starter will work for this recipe
All purpose flour
Leaveners – Baking powder and baking soda give the cookies the perfect amount of rise.
Salt
Tools you may need:
Stand mixer with paddle attachment or large bowl and hand mixer.
Parchment paper
Silicon spatula
FAQ:
Why do you put fork marks on peanut butter cookies?
Peanut butter can make the dough a bit dense, pressing the fork marks into the cookies ensures even baking.
Should you refrigerate peanut butter cookie dough before baking?
It is not required to refrigerate peanut butter cookie dough before baking, but it can help reduce the cookie from spreading.
Why can’t you use natural peanut butter in cookies?
You can use natural peanut butter as long as it has been well mixed.
How To Make Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine sugar, brown sugar, butter, and peanut butter. Cream together for a few minutes until light and fluffy.
Add egg and mix until well incorporated.
Add vanilla and sourdough starter and mix until just combined.
In a large mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients together.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients about 1/3 at a time, and mix until just incorporated.
Roll the dough into balls and place on a prepared baking sheet.
Using a fork, gently press the dough ball with the prongs of the fork. Then, turn the fork 90 degrees and press again to flatten and make a criss cross pattern.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown.
Move to a cooling rack to cool. Serve with a cold glass of milk.
Long Fermented Peanut butter cookies:
- The night before, mix together butter, sugar, peanut butter, sourdough starter and flour in a stand mixer bowl and cover. Allow the grains to ferment for 8-24 hours.
- The next day, preheat the oven to 350.
- Add egg and vanilla to the sourdough starter mixture, and mix together well.
- Sprinkle the remaining dry ingredients into the bowl and stir.
- For best results, refrigerate dough for at least one hour or up to 24 hours prior to baking.
- Bake cookies for 10 minutes or until the edges start to turn a golden amber color.
Storage:
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 6 days, if they last that long! Freeze up to 6 month for longer term storage.
Peanut Butter Cookie Variations:
Add chocolate chips! I like using the mini chips. Switch it up and add white chocolate chips.
Peanut butter blossoms. Roll into balls of dough. Stick a Hershey Kiss on top of each dough ball and bake.
Swap out peanut butter for sunflower seed butter to make these nut free.
Mix in candied peanuts for a salty-sweet crunch.
Find More Delicious Cookie Recipes:
- Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Sourdough Sugar Cookies
- Einkorn Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies
- Rustic Granola Cookies
- Cranberry Orange Cookies
- The Best Lactation Cookies
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you could come back and give it 5 stars!
Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, room temp
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine sugar, brown sugar, butter, peanut butter. Cream together for a few minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add egg and mix until well incorporated.
- Add vanilla and sourdough starter and mix until just combined.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients together.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients about 1/3 at a time, and mix until just incorporated.
- Roll the dough into balls and place on a prepared baking sheet.
- Using a fork, gently press the dough ball with the prongs of the fork. Then, turn the fork 90 degrees and press again to flatten and make a criss cross pattern.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown.
- Move to a cooling rack to cool.
Long Fermented Version
- The night before, mix together butter, sugar, peanut butter, sourdough starter and flour in a stand mixer bowl and cover. Allow the grains to ferment for 8-24 hours.
- The next day, preheat oven to 350.
- Add egg and vanilla to the sourdough starter mixture, and mix together well.
- Sprinkle the remaining dry ingredients into the bowl and stir.
- For best results, refrigerate dough for at least one hour or up to 24 hours prior to baking.
- Bake cookies for 10 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden amber color.
Notes
- For easy clean up, line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
- For this recipe, active sourdough starter or discard will work. It is a great way to use up extra starter, adds slight tanginess, and if long fermented will help bread down the flour.
- Make sure to cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. This makes the cookies soft and chewy.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love this recipe! Cookies are just right, crisp outside and a little chewy inside. I added walnuts, just because my husband loves them and I also used brown sugar splenda instead of the regular brown sugar. Still used regular white sugar, so probably didn’t change the carb number much, but it’s the only brown sugar I use.
Easy to make and delicious to eat.
I just put together a triple batch. My only question is …. can these be baked “bakery-sized”? If so, I assume I just bake an extra couple minutes? I made one adjustment. I added a tablespoon of honey as a binding agent to ensure they are a tad chewy.
Using discard, I made a double batch so I can share with friends at church the next day. They loved them. People didn’t even know they were sourdough. One thing I did, I altered the flour. Instead of using 3 cups all purpose, I used 2 cups all purpose and 1 cup scant of Kamut flour. (My understanding of Kamut is that it is not a 1:1 alternative. That is why you see “scant.”) Just wanted to try to see how they turned out. By the rave reviews from my family and friends, I will keep making them this way. I feel the Kamut gave them a even more nutty flavor and crunch. FYI I used smooth natural peanut butter. After I added all ingredients together I did let it sit for about 20 minutes. I felt the dough was a little too wet to roll into balls. By letting it sit the Kamut was able to absorb some of that moisture and make the dough stiffer to work with.
Quick question….can these be made into a bar cookie instead
Yes, that should work!
Wow these are great peanut butter cookies! I used discard and did the quick recipe. I think they are the best I ever made.