Soft And Chewy Whole Grain Peanut Butter Cookies
Wonderfully soft and chewy whole grain peanut butter cookies made with brown sugar, honey and whole wheat are a great snack or dessert, with or without the optional chocolate. Check out more delicious recipes on the Simple Cookie Recipes page.
We like our cookies soft around here- not cakey or crisp, which means I usually stick to one of our tried-and-true chocolate chip cookies. I know they will be just right, plus they are everyone’s favorite. But one of my favorite cookies is peanut butter, which I love right out of the oven while they are still soft. Since they don’t really stay soft, though, I never really make them very often.
So you can imagine how happy I was to discover a recipe for a truly stay-soft peanut butter cookie in a Farm Chicks cookbook a number of years ago. The recipe uses honey instead of white sugar, which I like – I wonder if it helps to keep them soft?
I adapted a few things to make these my own, including using 100% whole wheat – and of course adding chocolate chips because, hello? Chocolate. They are totally optional, though, and if you’re looking for a good afternoon snack, leaving the chocolate out might be the way to go. But still.
Believe me, these are so soft and wonderful, I think you will love them! The texture will remind you of your favorite chocolate chip cookie instead of a traditional crisp peanut butter cookie- but you get all that peanutty flavor and goodness. I do think this recipe will work with almond butter or other nut butters, so if you have an allergy, definitely try an alternative.
Besides the ingredients, another key to keeping these soft and chewy is not cooking them too long. Cook just 8-9 minutes until the edges are just starting to brown and take them out of the oven even if they look undone. You won’t be sorry, I promise.
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Soft And Chewy Whole Grain Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup natural peanut butter crunchy or creamy
- 1 cup packed brown sugar natural brown, sucanat, and coconut sugar all work, though with slightly different flavorings
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 large eggs
- 3 cup whole wheat pastry flour OR white whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups chocolate chips or chopped chocolate optional
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease two large cookie sheets.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and peanut butter with the sugar and honey until well blended. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix well until light and fluffy.
- Stir in the flour, soda and salt until combined, then add the chocolate chips.
- Drop by large tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes until just browning on the edges. The centers may not look done, but will firm up when cooled. Let stand on sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
Need more soft & chewy cookie recipes?
Soft & Chewy Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies
Fudgy Grain Free Chocolate Truffle Cookies (grain-free, dairy-free)
Cranberry & Walnut Whole Grain Oatmeal Cookies
Note: this recipe for soft and chewy whole grain peanut butter cookies was originally published in May of 2011 and has been updated with all new photos, clearer formatting and printable recipe.
I made these using fresh milled spelt and soft white on the bread setting on my Wondermill. Followed the directions exactly only I did refrigerate my dough as milling the grain makes the flour warm and I wanted to make sure the butter was able to firm up some. Cookies came out great!
That’s wonderful to know how they work with fresh milled flour, Kerry – thanks!
I’m new to baking, but I tried these anyway. I’s frequently amazed how so many recipes leave so much to experience or guessing. I wanted to make some healthier cookies for my doctor. I was shocked how much butter this recipe called for, too. Anyway, I chilled the dough overnight, then the next morning I cooked them. The dough was great tasting and the cookies looked perfect. I wasn’t sure if I should add time to the cooking time because the dough was chilled? Do you have any suggestions for making these with less saturated fat and less refined carbohydrates?
I’ve never chilled the dough first, but I would guess they may need another 1-2 minutes, depending on your oven.
Soft and chewy cookies usually have butter – you can try a applesauce-substitute cookie if you need to avoid it, though it will be cakey.
That said, each cookie only has a teaspoon of butter in it, which is less than many recipes you’ll find.
Not sure what you mean by less refined carbohydrates – this does use whole wheat flour which is less refined and give options for less refined sugars.
Have you tried making them with fresh milled wheat? I’m not sure if that’s what you mean by whole grain? I’m new to Milling my grains and looking for more recipes.
Thanks,
Barb
I used whole wheat pastry flour from the store for this recipe, Barbara. I’m pretty sure you can use milled wheat (use a soft wheat for these, not hard wheat that you’d use for bread), though start with a tablespoon less to see about the consistency.
My teens say these are perfection and marked all their peanut butter cookie craving boxes. They said they are chewy and perfectly textured. They are sugar addicts and everything even good is an art to them so they dusted powdered sugar on top after they came out too. We used white whole wheat flour
How fun! Thanks for reviewing – I’m glad you found these!
Anonymous- In cookie recipes (most anyway) I find that AP and ww pastry are interchangeable without much noticeable differences. Go for it, if it’s all you have. I just try to up the health quotient a bit is all. 🙂
yummo! I’m going to print this recipe and make it during the week for my kids. I usually freeze my cookie dough, so I’ll try freezing a portion of it and see how it comes out. Hopefully still chewy! 🙂
Silly question–but can I sub AP flour for the pastry flour? These sound yummy and I love soft cookies but have never found a soft peanut butter cookie recipe. Anxious to try this recipe. Thanks!
Looks yummy…printed the recipe and it will be on my “must try” list for next week!
Thanks Jami.
These cookies look amazing:) I might have to make some, I love that it calls for Honey also!