Peanut Butter Cookies Lab
Peanut Butter Cookies: what 326 recipes agree on
Criss-cross classics: peanut butter, butter, sugar and egg per 100 g of flour.
326 recipes from 107 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
326
from 107 sites
Typical flour
190 g
about 1 1/2 cups
Oven
350°F
175°C · median of 299
Bake time
11 min
most 10 to 14 min
The typical batch of peanut butter cookies
The median of all 326 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 190 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 190 gabout 1 1/2 cups |
| Peanut butterMost recipes use 130 to 235 g | 170 g |
| ButterMost recipes use 95 to 140 g | 115 gabout 1/2 cup |
| SugarMost recipes use 170 to 255 g | 210 gabout 1 cup |
| EggMost recipes use 46 to 65 g | 55 gabout 1 large egg |
| LeaveningMost recipes use 3.5 to 7 g | 5 g |
| SaltMost recipes use 0.5 to 2.5 g | 1.5 g |
Bake350°F (175°C) for about 11 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, a large egg 50 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Peanut butter
median 88% · most 69 to 124%
Peanut butter is fat, protein and flavor at once; more of it makes a denser, crumblier cookie that spreads less.
Each dot is up to 6 recipes. range 30 to 254%
Butter
median 61% · most 50 to 73%
Butter on top of the peanut butter makes the cookie richer and helps it spread; some recipes use none.
Each dot is up to 6 recipes. range 0 to 121% · 4% use none
Sugar
median 111% · most 88 to 134%
Brown sugar keeps it soft and chewy, white sugar crisps the edges.
Each dot is up to 5 recipes. range 40 to 225%
Egg
median 30% · most 24 to 33%
Egg binds a dough that peanut butter makes crumbly.
Each dot is up to 9 recipes. range 0 to 100% · 7% use none
Leavening
median 2.5% · most 1.8 to 3.5%
Baking soda browns the cookie and lets it crack as it spreads.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 0 to 6.7% · 4% use none
Salt
median 0.9% · most 0.3 to 1.4%
Salt matters more when the peanut butter is unsalted.
Each dot is up to 7 recipes. range 0 to 4% · 16% use none
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Salt. The middle half of recipes use 0.3 to 1.4% of the flour weight in salt, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 4.7 times as much as one at the 25th.
- Leavening. The middle half of recipes use 1.8 to 3.5% of the flour weight in leavening, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 1.9 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on egg and butter: egg 24 to 33%, butter 50 to 73% for the middle half.
Around the world
321 of the recipes come in 4 languages with enough of each to compare: English 268, French 33, German 11, Dutch 9.
- French recipes use 48% less butter than English ones (33% against 64% of the flour weight) and 31% less sugar (77% against 112%); most use no salt (60%, against 10% of English recipes).
- German recipes use 28% less sugar than English ones (80% against 112% of the flour weight).
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes called “soft” (18) or “best” (10) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.
The most-reviewed recipes
52 peanut butter cookie recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 274, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (52)the rest (274)middle half of all
Peanut butterthe most-reviewed recipes 101% vs the rest 88%
Butterthe most-reviewed recipes 63% vs the rest 61%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 111% vs the rest 111%
Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 28% vs the rest 30%
Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 2.4% vs the rest 2.6%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 0.8% vs the rest 1%
Most reviewed
- Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 9,723 ratings
- Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe · preppykitchen.com5.0 from 5,514 ratings
- Cardamom Spiced Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.8 from 1,441 ratings
- Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 1,177 ratings
- Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe · crazyforcrust.com4.9 from 1,105 ratings
Oven temperature and time
299 of 326 recipes state an oven temperature, and 79% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The other 27 do not say.
- 350°F239 recipes
- 375°F41 recipes
- 325°F8 recipes
- 400°F6 recipes
- 410°F2 recipes
- 300°F1 recipe
315 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 11 minutes and the middle half bake 10 to 14 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes, with 89 of the 294 recipes that state both.
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical batch
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Best Super Soft Peanut Butter Cookies · lecremedelacrumb.compeanut butter 103% · butter 61%
- "Phenomenal" Milk Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies · thebakingchocolatess.compeanut butter 83% · butter 55%
- Peanut Butter Butterscotch Chip Cookies · thebakingchocolatess.compeanut butter 83% · butter 55%
- Peanut Butter Candy Cookies · thebakingchocolatess.compeanut butter 83% · butter 55%
- Peanut Butter Oreo Cookies · iambaker.netpeanut butter 73% · butter 61%
Most peanut butter
- Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies · savorthebest.compeanut butter 254% · butter 94%
- Peanut Butter Heart Cookies · tastesbetterfromscratch.compeanut butter 250% · butter 58%
- Air fryer peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies · bbcgoodfood.compeanut butter 250% · butter 0%
Least peanut butter
- Biscuits au beurre de cacahuète · chefnini.compeanut butter 30% · butter 20%
- Cookie beurre de cacahuète et chocolat : la meilleure recette · marmiton.orgpeanut butter 31% · butter 44%
- Cookies au beurre de cacahuètes et pépites de chocolat · ptitchef.compeanut butter 32% · butter 32%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 12crazyforcrust.com
- 12thebakingchocolatess.com
- 11iambaker.net
- 11tasteofhome.com
- 10baketotheroots.de
- 10sallysbakingaddiction.com
- 9cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr
- 8marmiton.org
- 8modernhoney.com
- 7bakerbynature.com
- 7kingarthurbaking.com
- 7thefirstyearblog.com
In 7 languages: English 268, French 33, German 11, Dutch 9, Italian 3, Portuguese 1, Spanish 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 107 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
98% of the 3,342 ingredient lines got a weight. 27% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 241 were left out: 86 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 84 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (peanut butter 55, sugar 15, butter 6, salt 5, leavening 3), 52 with a title that names a different dish, 6 duplicates of other pages, 5 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, 4 made from a boxed mix, 3 over the 12-per-site cap, and 1 too many lines without an amount.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.