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Whenever I bake these peanut butter cookies, my kitchen will be filled with this enchanting nutty peanut aroma. It’s all about the nostalgia. Peanut cookies remind me of home comfort, and Lunar New Year. Though I always advocate made-from-scratch recipes, I didn’t use raw peanuts in this case and try to roast it and remove the skins. Instead since roast peanuts are so easily available in the supermarkets, I’ll just buy one of those pre-packed roast peanuts, grind it for baking.
There are many different types of peanut cookies out there, for this recipe, I adapted the cookie dough based on this butter cookie recipe. The mixing method starts with whipping the butter and sweetener until it turns pale and fluffy. I also used cake flour instead of plain flour as the former makes the cookies tender.
Tips on making peanut butter cookies
- Whip the butter until it turns fluffy and pale in colour. The butter got to be really soft, but not melting texture.
- I use stevia sweetener instead of sugar in this peanut butter cookie recipe. This type of sweetener has zero calories and carbs, making it a healthier choice. In fact, for most of my recipes on this blog, I rarely use sugar, but mostly unrefined brown sugar, monk fruit sweetener or stevia sweetener.
- After rolling the dough into equal smaller sizes on the baking tray, chill it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. It helps to keep the shape and control spreading during baking.
- Bake for about 9 to 10 minutes, keep an eye to make sure the cookies do not brown too much. Overbaking peanut cookies might ‘burn’ the peanuts, giving it a bitter taste.
Ingredients for making peanut butter cookies
The ingredients are simple. Wet ingredients include butter, egg yolks, whipping cream. While dry ingredients include cake flour, corn starch, milk powder, stevia sweetener.
- Unsalted butter – make sure you use a good brand, it is essential in making butter cookies, especially since this is a butter cookie based recipe.
- Egg yolks – for binding the ingredients together, also giving the cookies a rich and dense texture.
- Whipping cream elevates the buttery-ness of the cookies, and helps keep them soft and rich.
- Cake flour – or you can also use plain flour. Cake flour is extra-fine and has lower gluten than plain flour. It makes the cookies lighter, which makes it easier to achieve lighter and more tender textures for baking pastries.
- Corn starch together with the cake flour keep the shape of the cookies together, and make it soft and chewy.
- Milk powder gives the cookies a rich dairy flavour.
- Stevia sweetener instead of sugar. Of course by all means, you can go ahead to use normal sugar or icing sugar if you prefer.
- Roasted peanuts give the main flavour profile of peanuts.
How to store peanut butter cookies
After baking these peanut cookies, completely cool the cookies on a cooling rack. Then, store the cookies in an airtight container in room temperature for up to three weeks. Stack the cooled cookies between layers of parchment paper and seal tightly. If you would like to store it for a longer period, you can simply chill it in the fridge but the cookies might turn too hard.
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Peanut Butter Cookie 花生饼
Ingredients
- 100 g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 80 g roasted peanuts
- 100 g cake flour, or plain flour
- 50 g stevia sweetener
- 8 g milk powder
- 0.5 tbsp whipping cream, room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
- 25 g corn starch
Instructions
- Grind 80g / 3oz peanuts using a food processor until small bits. Keep some peanuts (about 40-50 pieces) for decoration.
- Remove 100 g unsalted butter from fridge and leave at room temperature until softened. When pressed, the butter makes a dent easily.
- Add 40 g stevia sweetener and softened butter to a mixing bowl. Use a whisk to manual mix them together.Note: This is to avoid the sweetener 'splashing' around when you start whisking in high speed.
- Mix the stevia sweetener and butter with an electric whisk on high speed (or you can use a food mixer) until pale and fluffy.
- The mixture will turn from yellow to almost white.
- Add 1 large egg yolk, 0.5 tbsp whipping cream to the egg mixture.Whisk well on medium speed until well incorporated.
- Sift in 100 g / 3.6oz plain or cake flour, 25 g / 0.8 oz corn starch, 8 g / 0.28oz milk powder.Fold in the dry ingredients manually using a spatula till no traces of flour can be seen. Be sure not to over mix.
- Mix in 80g / 3oz ground peanuts.
- Roll the cookie dough into small balls and place onto a non-stick baking tray, leaving an-inch gap in between each cookie.
- Press a whole piece or half a piece of peanut onto each cookie ball.Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, while pre-heating the oven.Note: If the baking tray is not non-stick, use a parchment on the tray.
- Bake the cookies at 175C / 347F (oven has top and bottom heat with fan) middle rack for 10 minutes until the edges are nicely golden brown.
- Cool the cookies completely on a cooling rack.Best enjoyed after a day, to let the flavours develop.
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