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These peanut butter and jelly cookies have all the flavor you loved as a kid in a delicious cookie form! With a peanut butter cookie base and filled with raspberry jam, these thumbprint-style cookies are sure to become a family favorite.
Are you a peanut butter fan?
There’s something about peanut butter that always makes me feel like a kid, even when it’s not just in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Peanut butter dip, peanut butter pie, and peanut butter cake are all big favorites around here. But there is something extra special about pairing nutty peanut butter with your favorite jam or jelly, like in peanut butter and jelly bars.
This peanut butter and jelly cookie recipe takes all of the nostalgia of a good PB&J and puts it in cookie form. They’re as much at home as part of an after-school snack as they are on a holiday cookie platter and are sure to become a family favorite.
Peanut butter and jelly thumbprint cookies
Stephie and I went through a real journey in working on this recipe. We tried these cookies a few different ways, but ended up going with a thumbprint-style cookie because it had the best cookie-to-jam ratio.
After all, we can’t call these “peanut butter and jelly cookies” without there being plenty of jelly (or jam) involved!
My family’s peanut butter blossom cookie recipe served as the starting point of this cookie dough, with a few tweaks along the way to add elements of our favorite thumbprint cookies.
All of the friends and family members who tried these peanut butter and jelly cookies raved over them. They loved how they tasted just like the sandwich but in a sweet cookie form.
How to make these peanut butter and jelly cookies
Don’t be fooled by the thumbprint centers—these cookies are totally easy to make.
Ingredients you’ll need
To make these peanut butter and jelly cookies, you will need:
- ½ cup softened unsalted butter
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup lightly packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar, plus ⅓ cup for rolling
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup raspberry preserves
Before you start baking, make sure you know how to measure flour correctly. This will help your cookies turn out perfect every time.
You will need softened butter for this recipe. If you forget to set yours out ahead of time, check out my tips on how to soften butter quickly.
A combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar gives the cookie dough the perfect flavor and chewy texture. If you’re out of brown sugar, you can make a quick brown sugar substitute.
Don’t panic if your brown sugar hardened in the pantry. Learn how to soften brown sugar and save a trip to the store.
Raspberry jam is my personal favorite flavor for these cookies, but feel free to use your favorite fruit preserves instead! Grape, strawberry, or blueberry would all be delicious.
Making these cookies
To make the peanut butter dough, use a mixer to cream together the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until smooth and well combined.
In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add this to the wet ingredients until combined.
Use a small (1 tablespoon) cookie scoop to portion the dough. Roll each portion into a ball and then roll the balls in the remaining granulated sugar.
Set the dough balls on lined baking sheets. Make sure to leave about 2 inches between each cookie.
Use your thumb or the bottom of a rounded 1/2 teaspoon to gently press an indentation into the top of each dough ball. Set the baking sheets in the refrigerator for 1 hour to chill the cookies before baking.
When you’re ready, bake the cookies at 375°F for 8 minutes. Take the pans out of the oven but leave the oven on.
Some of the indentations you made might have puffed up slightly; if this happens, just use the 1/2 teaspoon to gently press it down.
Fill the center of each cookie with 1/2 teaspoon of your fruit preserves, then bake the cookies for an additional 3 minutes.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Cookie storage
Store these peanut butter and jelly cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days. You can also freeze them for up to 1 month.
If you need to stack the cookies, I recommend separating the layers with pieces of waxed paper or parchment paper.
Freezing the dough
I love freezing cookie dough because then I can bake as many cookies as I want whenever I get a craving for them.
If you want to freeze the dough for these peanut butter and jelly cookies, make the dough, form the dough balls, and make the indentations as directed.
Place the cookie sheets with the indented dough in the freezer for 1-2 hours, or until the cookies are frozen solid. Transfer the frozen cookies to a zip-top freezer bag or an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
When you’re ready to bake, take out as many of the frozen cookies as you’d like and bake as directed, adding 1-2 minutes to the total baking time since the dough was frozen.
Frequently asked questions
You can you almost any creamy peanut butter in these peanut butter and jelly cookies. I don’t recommend crunchy peanut butter due to the thumbprint style of these cookies.
I have made this recipe with Kirkland Signature Organic Peanut Butter, which is a thinner natural peanut butter, and traditional Skippy peanut butter, which is thicker. Both worked great.
I don’t usually recommend using the peanut butter that you grind yourself in the grocery store. The texture is usually grainier and not as great for baking.
If you’re allergic to peanut butter, feel free to use creamy almond butter or your preferred alternative nut or seed butter in these cookies instead. The flavor will change but they will still be totally delicious.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup lightly packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar plus ⅓ cup for rolling
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup raspberry preserves or your favorite fruit preserves
Instructions
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar until smooth. Add in the egg and vanilla, mixing until well combined.½ cup unsalted butter, ½ cup creamy peanut butter, ½ cup lightly packed light brown sugar, ½ cup granulated sugar, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to the peanut butter mixture until well blended.1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- Portion the dough using a small (1 tablespoon) cookie scoop. Roll each portion into a ball, then roll in the remaining granulated sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Using your thumb or the bottom of a rounded ½ teaspoon measuring spoon, gently press an indentation into the top of each cookie.
- Place pans into the refrigerator to chill the cookies for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Bake cookies in preheated oven for 8 minutes. Remove the cookies from oven. If the indentation you made has puffed up slightly, gently press into the cookies again with the ½ teaspoon. Fill each indentation with ½ teaspoon of raspberry preserves. Place pans back into the oven and bake for an additional 3 minutes.1/2 cup raspberry preserves
- Allow to cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
