Name: 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1 cup peanut butter; 1 cup sugar; 1 egg; Extra sugar for sprinkling (optional)

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Next time you have a craving for peanut butter cookies, try these old-fashioned simple 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies. You won’t believe how easy (and totally delicious) they are. And, I bet you have all the ingredients on-hand right now!

Cookies sitting on a wire rack with a small bowl of peanut butter and a small bowl of sugar.

You can’t go wrong with old trusty

As you know, I have a cookie obsession. And because of that, there’s a lot of cookie bakin’ going on at my house. All. The. Time. Almost every day I’m working on something.

One cookie sitting in a bowl of sugar with a bowl of peanut butter next to it.

But when it comes to baking a cookie treat for my family, I almost always resort to old trusty. These 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies are just that, an old, trusted, often-baked recipe that produces the perfect soft, crunchy, chewy, and completely delicious peanut butter cookies in literally, no time at all.

The 3 ingredients you’ll need

Your favorite peanut butter
Sugar
An egg

It’s hard to believe that’s all you need to have a soft, chewy, bursting with peanut butter flavor (and did I mention, gluten-free?) batch of cookies, but really, that’s it.

TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

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Step-by-step photos

An egg, sugar, and peanut butter sitting in ramekins.

How to make these 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies

In a medium bowl, combine the peanut butter, sugar, and egg and mix until smooth.
Then, using a 1.5 TBS cookie scoop, scoop them onto a lined baking sheet.
Use a fork to gently press down on the top of each cookie in a criss-cross pattern.
Generously sprinkle the tops of each cookie with sugar (which is optional, but I mean why wouldn’t you?).
Then, just throw them in the oven and bake for 10 minutes (not literally, of course – please don’t throw the cookies. That will most certainly end up being a big mess and you’ll end up with no cookies…and no-one wants that!).

A cookie scoop laying on a baking sheet with cookies scooped out and a fork laying on a cookie sheet showing the cross pattern in the top of the cookies.

A note about the dough

This cookie dough is pretty sticky, so be mindful when you’re pressing the tops down with the fork. It’ll likely stick to the top of the cookie and you’ll need to gently hold onto each cookie to remove the fork. This is totally normal.

Cookie sitting on a green plate, one with a bite out of the top of it.

Fun variations of 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies

Add 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract and 1/4 tsp sea salt to the dough to enhance the favor of the cookies.
Drizzle the tops of the cookies with chocolate or white chocolate.
Or dip the cookies in your favorite variety of melted chocolate.
Substitute half crunchy peanut butter for added texture.

A stack of cookies on a green plate, one with a bite out of it showing the texture of the cookie.

Questions about this recipe

These cookies don’t brown much, so it’s really hard to tell. Usually right about 10 minutes in, they’ll be slightly puffy and that’s when you’ll want to pull them out.

You definitely don’t want to over-bake these cookies, they get very dry and crumbly and aren’t nearly as good; I would err on the side of under-baking them.

Yes! This recipe is great for doubling, but keep in mind the cookies are best in the first few days, so if you have a lot leftover, make sure to freeze them.

I find that regular peanut butter works best in this recipe because of the consistency, but I have used Jif Natural with great success.