For our ‘Grammable Holiday Cookie Guide, we’ve teamed up with cookie artist Ashley McNeal to help you create the prettiest cookies on the block! Get ready for serious inspiration, whether you’re a total cookie newbie or a next-level baker.

Classic peanut butter cookies usually make their way into peanut butter blossoms (those cookies with the Hershey’s Kiss on top), but we’ve revised the recipe so that it’s more of a roll-out sugar cookie, ready to meet all your festive holiday cutters and masterful royal icing decorations. We’re partial to using it for succulent cookies, galactic snowflakes, and sloths, but you do you!

Peanut butter sugar cookies

(Makes 2 dozen cookies)

Recipe Note: If the dough is too wet, simply mix in a little more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions:

1. Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugar in a bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes or until the ingredients are blended. Scrape the bowl with a spatula.

2. Add the eggs and vanilla. Continue to blend on high speed until the mixture is fully incorporated.

3. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder.

4. Add flour mixture to the mixer, and mix until just incorporated. Do not over mix, or the dough will toughen.

5. Transfer dough to parchment paper, and refrigerate dough for 20 minutes.

6. Remove dough from fridge, and sprinkle flour on a flat surface as well as on top of dough. Roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thick with a rolling pin, and cut out with the cookie cutters of your choice.

7. Use a spatula to carefully transfer cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat, spaced at least 1 inch apart. If the dough becomes too warm and sticky, refrigerate the cutouts (on the baking sheet) for 10-20 minutes.

8. Bake in a 350°F oven for 9-11 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway, until edges are very lightly browned.

9. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing.

Get more recipe inspo by visiting Brit + Co on Pinterest.

(Recipe via Ashley McNeal/Brit + Co; photos via Brittany Griffin/Brit + Co)

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Anna Monette Roberts
As Brit + Co's Food Editor, Anna Monette Roberts has an insatiable appetite for developing tasty dishes. When she's not dreaming about her next meal, she's . . . well, probably cooking up her creations. Her favorite foods include chewy chocolate chip cookies, Rosé Champagne, and gooey French cheeses — in no particular order.