Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

Name: Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 cup of extra crunchy peanut butter (substitution: creamy peanut butter); 1 cup or 2 sticks of salted butter - room temperature (substitution: unsalted butter); 1 cup of light brown sugar; 1 cup of granulated sugar; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1-1/2 cups of all-purpose flour; 3 TBS turbinado or raw sugar for dusting cookie before baking (substitution: white sugar); 1 small jar of jelly

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Feel like a kid again with the best peanut butter and jelly cookies you’ve ever tasted.

Crunchy, creamy, sweet – everything you remember in a delicious little three-bite cookie.

a stack of peanut butter and jelly cookies and a spoon of jelly on a cookie rack

The Best Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

These nutty sweet little cookies are made by sandwiching your favorite jelly or jam between two small peanut butter cookies. They are so much fun and so good that you might just find yourself making them over and over. They are easy to make with ingredients you have right in your pantry.

If you’re craving a peanut butter sandwich (and we all do!), make these addicting little sandwich cookies, you won’t be sorry.

Ingredients

Peanut Butter – I use extra crunchy peanut butter in this recipe because I want a little peanut in every bite.

Strawberry Jam – I used strawberry flavored preserves because it’s one of my favorites. I’ve also made these cookies several times using every kid’s favorite, grape jelly.

Turbinado Sugar – Turbinado sugar is also called Sugar in the Raw. It is a rough grain sugar that is colored brown and has a deep molasses flavor, much like dark brown sugar. It’s perfect for topping baked goods to create a crunchy sugar topping.

How To Make These Cookies

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda and set it aside.
Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer, mix butter, eggs, brown sugar, and white sugar until fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add peanut butter and mix again for 1-2 minutes.
Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated.
Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix for 2 minutes.
The dough will be light and fluffy.
Cover the mixing bowl lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 1-2 hours.
Use a 1-inch (very small) cookie scoop and scoop the dough into small balls. These are small bite-sized cookies.
Sprinkle the balls with the turbinado sugar.
Bake for 10-11 minutes.
Cool completely on a wire rack.
When the cookies are completely cool, spoon 1-2 teaspoons of jelly onto the backside of one cookie and then press another cookie to the jelly side making it a sandwich cookie.
I like to store these cookies in the refrigerator because it helps the jelly to stay firm.

Photo showing the steps to make peanut butter and jelly cookies

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use another type of nut butter or creamy peanut butter?

I used extra crunchy peanut butter in my cookies because I wanted that extra little crunch of the peanut pieces. You can certainly use creamy or regular crunchy peanut butter. You can also use almond butter or cashew butter for a little different taste in your cookies. Or better yet, just use what you have in the pantry.

Can I use Jam instead of jelly?

You can use your favorite jam or jelly for this recipe. Jam is made from crushed fruit and pulp while jelly is made from fruit juice. I think they are interchangeable in this recipe. You can get creative and try any flavor: raspberry, orange marmalade, boysenberry, apple butter, and even fig spread.

Why do I need to refrigerate the dough before baking the cookies?

Refrigerating the dough helps the fats in the butter and peanut butter to solidify which causes less cookie spread. If you want to test it yourself, bake a couple of cookies right away, while the remainder of the dough chills, and see how much they spread. If you are OK with the amount the cookie has spread, go ahead and bake them all right away.

How to I know how large my cookie scoop is?

Measure across the opening of the cookie scoop. This will give you the diameter. I used a scoop with a 1 inch diameter.

What if my cookie scoop is larger than the very small 1-inch scoop you recommend?

If you have a 1-1/2 inch or a 2-inch cookie scoop, scoop out 1 scoop of dough and then break it apart into two small balls. Roll those balls between your palms to form to small cookies.

Krazy Kitchen Mom Tip

Freezing cookie dough is one of my cookie tips:

Mix the dough just like you normally would.
Make room in your freezer for a cookie sheet.
Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
Use a cookie scoop to make equal sized cookie balls and line them up on the cookie sheet. They can be close, but make sure they don’t touch each other.
Freeze the cookie dough balls for 8 hours or overnight.
Transfer the frozen cookie balls to a large zip-top bag and store them in the refrigerator.
Whenever you want fresh baked cookies, remove a few from the freezer and bake them as usual.
I bake them at the same temperature as the recipe calls for. In this case 375°.
I start with the same bake time but usually end up baking them for a minute or two longer than the un-frozen cookie dough.