Texas Size Peanut Butter Cookies are giant peanut butter cookies with crispy edges and soft centers. I found the recipe on a Texas Monthly forum years ago and have made the cookies off and on ever since with variations.
This is a pretty basic recipe, but it’s also a good one. To make the cookies more exciting, you can throw in some peanut butter chips or salted peanuts. Try adding a little blackstrap molasses (about 5 grams) or liven the cookies up with sea salt. You can also play around with the flours. Bread flour makes the cookies a tad chewier, and if you want a little wheat flavor you can swap out portion of the white for wheat.
The original recipe calls for baking the cookies at 375. For darker edges and soft centers, that works. If you want a slightly more homogenous texture, flatten the cookies a bit and bake for a longer time at 325 F.
Chilling this dough seems to improve the quality of Texas Size Peanut Butter Cookies, but they’re also fine baked right after mixing.
Recipe
Texas Size Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar (100 grams)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- 1/2 cup butter — softened, unsalted (114 grams)
- 1/2 cup peanut butter (130 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, room temperature (54 grams)
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (150 to 170 grams)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In large bowl, combine sugars, butter, peanut butter, vanilla and egg; beat well.
- Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off or just weigh it for best results. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; Add to batter and mix well.
- Chill the dough for at least one hour.
- Using 1/4 cup measure, scoop up dough and shape into a ball. Press down slightly and place on an ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet spacing 4 inches apart. dough (for
- Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F; for 13-16 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool completely on wire rack.
Christine
I made a batch of these cookies today and they were fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe. I was too impatient to wait for the dough to chill so I baked 4 right away and they turned out great. I then chilled the dough and had the same problem that I always seem to have when I bake chilled dough – the bottoms got really dark. Any idea why that happens and how to prevent it? I used a silicone baking mat on my cookie sheet – not sure if that would impact it?
Anna
Val, I sent you this link this morning.
http://www.hungrybrowser.com/phaedrus/m082003.htm#4
There’s an institutional size version and a scaled down version of school cafeteria peanut butter cookies. The school cafeteria version on the link is different. It uses shortening, milk and different proportions.
valchemist
I made the PB cookies yesterday and they are really good. great PB taste and nice texture. to answer the question above, no, they aren’t chewy. as anna said, they are tender, which to me is sort of the opposite of chewy. they are sturdy as she said, but soft and tender and dense inside.
I am still on the hunt, though, for a chewy PB cookie. they all seem to be either sandy or tender/soft. I like both those kinds, it is just that I am hunting for the kind we used to have in my school cafeteria in high school. they were very big and flat and cracked all over and CHEWY but fairly sturdy.
carole
I just sent you a copy of the ad. They made their own syrup (did not specify a brand since they do not have the product
Anna
How funny. It will be interesting to see what happens with the recipe since they’ve re-done the product. I think they did away with the syrup packets. I’m not sure, but I’ve noticed my store sells “whole grain” dunkables and there aren’t any syrup packets.
CindyD
The coupon supplement to yesterday’s newspaper had Pillsbury bake-off recipes, including yours! It was neat that I sort of know you through your blog.
hippydippy
are these nice and chewy? The chunks I’m seeing are from chunky pb, correct?
i may add some chocolate chips in when I give these a whirl tonight 🙂
Amy
Oh I love peanut butter cookies!