This easy homemade Nutter Butter Cookies Recipe creates perfectly peanutty sandwich cookies with a creamy filling. Fun, easy to make peanut butter sandwich cookies with a creamy peanut butter filling in a fun to eat peanut shell shape—so much better than store-bought!
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Making homemade Nutter Butter cookies is a fun baking project that fills your kitchen with the irresistible aroma of peanut butter.
The process starts with creating a simple peanut butter dough that you’ll shape into the iconic peanut form by pinching the middle after creating the classic criss-cross pattern with a fork.
While the cookies cool on wire racks, you’ll whip up the creamy peanut butter filling that makes these sandwich cookies so special.
The most rewarding moment comes when you finally press two cookies together with the filling, creating that perfect balance of slightly crisp exterior and smooth, rich center that makes homemade Nutter Butters even better than the store-bought version.
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Why You’ll Love This Nutter Butter Cookies Recipe
- Authentic Nostalgic Flavor: These homemade nutter butter cookies perfectly capture the beloved peanut butter sandwich cookie taste you remember, but with fresher ingredients and more pronounced peanut flavor.
- Customizable Peanut Intensity: Unlike store-bought versions, you can control the peanut butter experience by choosing chunky or creamy varieties and adjusting the filling thickness to your preference.
- Perfect Texture Combination: Each bite delivers the ideal contrast between the slightly crisp, peanut-shaped cookies and the creamy, melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter filling.
- Make-Ahead Friendly: These cookies store beautifully for up to a week in an airtight container, making them perfect for planning ahead for parties, lunchboxes, or weekend treats.
🥜 My kids absolutely love it when I surprise them with cookies for an afternoon snack — good old PB cookies never disappoint!
Recipe Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Butter
- Brown Sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla Extract
- Peanut Butter — creamy or crunchy
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How To Make Nutter Butter Cookies
- These couldn’t be easier! Mix up the ingredients for the cookies like you do any cookies recipe.
- Shape the cookies by rolling some of the dough into a log and flattening it with a fork. Pinch the centers of your oblong oval so that it has that classic peanut or Nutter Butter cookie shape.
- Bake and cool.
- Mix up your peanut butter frosting and spread it between two cookies.
Recipe FAQs
No, natural peanut butter isn’t recommended for this recipe. Stick with commercial brands like Jif or Skippy that don’t separate. Natural peanut butter’s oil separation affects both the dough consistency and the filling texture, potentially resulting in greasy or crumbly cookies.
When stored in an airtight container at room temperature, these cookies remain fresh for up to 5-7 days. For longer storage, you can freeze the assembled cookies for up to 3 months. Let them thaw at room temperature before serving.
While the classic peanut shape is traditional for nutter butter cookies, it’s not required. You can simply make round sandwich cookies if preferred. The peanut shape is achieved by pinching the middle of the cookie after making the fork criss-cross pattern.
Expert Tips
- Cookie Thickness Matters: When flattening with a fork, don’t press too thin or too thick. Aim for about ¼ inch thickness for the perfect balance of crispness and chewiness.
- Cool Completely Before Filling: Patience is key! Allow cookies to cool entirely on a wire rack before adding filling. Otherwise, the warm cookies will cause the filling to melt and ooze out the sides.
- Filling Consistency Trick: If your filling seems too thick, add milk ½ teaspoon at a time. If it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach a spreadable consistency that won’t squish out when bitten.
- Cookie Size: You can adjust the size of your cookies by making smaller or larger dough balls. Just remember to adjust your baking time accordingly—smaller cookies may need only 8-9 minutes, while larger ones might require 12-14 minutes. Watch for lightly browned edges as your indicator.
More Delicious Cookie Recipes to Consider
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Homemade Nutter Butter Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup peanut butter chunky or creamy
- Additional sugar for coating cookies
Filling
- 4 tablespoon butter room temperature
- ½ cup peanut butter chunky or creamy
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add the peanut butter and mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just blended.
- Form dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in sugar. Shape into a log. Roll log in sugar. Place logs on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Using the tines of a fork, make a criss-cross pattern in the dough. Pinch the middle of the cookie to make a peanut shape.
- Bake 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned on the edges and still soft in center. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Filling
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in peanut butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, the milk and vanilla. Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar until smooth.
- To assemble when the cookies have cooled completely, add a scant tablespoon of icing to the bottom side of one cookie and spread it out. Add a second cookie to the icing so that the two bottom sides are facing the frosting. Repeat with remaining cookies.
Notes
- You can use creamy peanut butter for this recipe. I love it with creamy and my husband loves it with chunky. Just be sure to use a peanut butter like Jif or Skippy and not a natural kind that the oil separates. The natural peanut butter doesn’t have the right texture for this recipe.
- These can be made gluten-free by substituting the all-purpose flour with a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend. The texture may be slightly different, but the peanut flavor will still shine through. Make sure all other ingredients, especially the vanilla extract, are certified gluten-free.
- Make sure your butter is truly at room temperature for both the cookies and filling. This ensures proper creaming with the sugar and creates the ideal texture for your cookies.
- Once you add the dry ingredients, mix just until combined. Overmixing develops too much gluten, resulting in tough rather than tender cookies.
Christina
Can I make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate it?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Christina – I haven’t tried it, but it should work well to make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate it. It generally takes longer to bake when the dough has been refrigerated, so you’ll probably need to add a few minutes to the cook time. Let me know how it goes.
Sarah
I didn’t make the filing because I was out of powdered sugar but the cookie was legit one of the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had. I can only imagine how good the filling would be.
Barbara Schieving
That’s so nice – thanks Sarah!
Monica Wong
This are the BEST cookies I have ever made. I don’t live in the US so its basically impossible to get these in my country, but I love them SO much. Thank you, my friends love them!!
Barbara Schieving
That’s awesome – thanks Monica!
KnitWit
Oh my gosh. These are amazing. Just made them – one will never be enough. I haven’t had nutter butter cookies in years (we make pretty much everything from scratch) so when I saw this recipe, I had to make it. Everyone (even my picky younger brother) loved them.
Barbara Schieving
That’s awesome – thanks!
Kim Shetz
All the items I’ve seen on your site look awesome!!!! Can’t wait to try all of them!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Kim – enjoy!
Marilyn
Is that all purpose flour or self rising? I know you use baking soda but I didn’t see any baking powder. I thought you had to use both if you use all purpose flour.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Marilyn – all purpose flour not self rising. These cookies you don’t want to rise very much, so you don’t want to use too much leavening.
Your Mom
Holy Amazeballs. This worked great. My husband is a NutterButterholic and they are very expensive. He especially digs the filling. Thanks for a great recipe. You’re very talented!
Barbara Schieving
Glad it was a hit 🙂
Emily
Hi I was wondering if you can use creamy peanut butter instead of crunchy (or would it mess up the recipe?) My brothers birthdays coming up and since for my moms I made a homemade version of her favorite cookies he wants me to do his but I’ve made peanut butter cookies for him with crunchy and he liked the creamy better.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Emily – how nice of you to make them for your brother’s birthday. You can definitely make them with creamy peanut butter if that’s what he prefers. Have fun!
Carly C
Just made these cookies last night. I didn’t have creamy peanut butter for the filling and I think it would have been better. They were so yummie, a HUGE success.
mrslindanelson
Thank you for the recipe!
Smelled like nutter butters, I made mines larger in size as well, they were perfect! I chilled my dough to make it easier to work with. Added a half tsp of vanilla more to the dough too I like it richly sweet, used salted butter (had on hand) and creamed the butter and sugar in a stand mixer til it was fluffy which made mixing the peanut butter very easy.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks – so glad you loved them. We’re vanilla lovers too
lindsey
tried to make these for my boyfriend for xmas this year, cause he likes peanut buttery things. total fail! not sure where i went wrong, but the batter was absurdly sticky, i had the worst time trying to shape them up, and then they basically melted when in the oven. where did i go wrong?!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Lindsey – sorry you had trouble with the recipe. If the batter was too sticky, the most likely cause is an inadvertent error in measuring, or a substitute of an ingredient. Did you perhaps use a natural peanut butter instead of a traditional peanut butter? I’ve made this peanut butter cookie recipe dozens of times, and never had a problem.
Karolyn
I tried this recipie and the cookie batter was a little difficult to work with it came out tasting more like a peanut butter cookie than nutter butters but they still tasted delicious.
Telicia Ramon
These are delicious! The cookie recipe is simple, easy and fast to make! It moved up to my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe. I got 21 large sandwiches from this so I can’t even imagine what size only 14 would have been! I was skeptical when first seeing the cookie about making the peanut shape- thought it would be time consuming but rolling into a log made it super easy and fast! You won’t regret making these!!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks for the rave review!
Sue {munchkin munchies}
I’m SURE they’re good, and what fun!
Renee @ CreativeMamaMessyHouse
A must try for sure! Nutter butters are one of my kids’ favorite cookie
Kim Beaulieu
These look amazing. I have to try this.
I have to admit I’ve never had a nutter butter. I’m not sure if it’s just where we live, or if they just don’t sell them in Canada. I cannot believe I’ve never had one.
Nutmeg Nanny
Yay 🙂 I love nutter butter cookies! I can’t wait to use this recipe, bet they taste perfect.
Helga
These look great! The packaged version has way too much”stuff” in it. I am going to try this with an all natural peanut butter and see how it goes.
Madonna/aka/Ms. Lemon
I no longer buy packaged cookies. The all contain lecithin. I no longer buy peanut butter, you guessed it they take out the peanut oil and put in soy lecithin. I now make my own peanut butter and this looks like a delicious way use it. Very clever.
Sandie
These look so much tastier than the store bought kind!