Six-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Fact: Americans eat an average of six pounds of peanut butter per person per year with children being the largest consumers.

Fact: Peanut butter is tasty, heart-healthy, and protein-packed.

Fact: Peanut butter is one of the greatest food inventions of all time.

Peanut butter covers all the food craving groups: salty, fatty, and sweet. It can be used for sweet or savory purposes in baked goods, in frostings, in stir-frys, spread on toast or fruit, or in a classic peanut butter & jelly sandwich. My favorite way to eat peanut butter, besides by the spoonful? In these cookies.

I love these cookies because they are super simple to make, and you probably have all the ingredients on hand. I made them with ingredients I already had in my dorm room.

You really have no reason not to make them, because even if you don’t have an oven, you can at least make the dough and eat it all (since it’s vegan so no fear of salmonella!). Or better yet, you can try to make them in the microwave by microwaving balls of dough for a minute. They won’t taste as good as the oven version though. The microwave can’t give you those crispy edges like the oven can.

Give these cookies a try! Peanut butter lovers will rejoice at this sweet, delectable, and soft yet crispy cookie (p.s.- my article first appeared on Spoon University).

Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

Makes around 20 cookies

• 1 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix together the peanut butter, brown sugar, and vanilla until creamy. This will take around a minute of quick mixing.
3. Add in the flour a 1/3 of a cup at a time. Mix the batter after each 1/3 cup is added.
4. Mix in the baking soda.
5. Mix in the water. If batter seems extremely thick, add in a Tbsp more of water.
6. Roll the cookie dough into 1 inch balls and place them on a cookie sheet.
7. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until golden-brown and firm.
8. Once cookies are out of the oven, flatten them with a fork in 2 different directions to give the classic criss-cross pattern.
9. Let the cookies cool for at least 5 minutes before taking them off the pan and enjoying them.