Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Cookies

If you love peanut butter cookies, you should not miss these peanut butter cream cheese cookies. These decadent cookies are a pleasant variation to the classic peanut butter cookies with the richness of cream cheese and flavor of butterscotch chips.

The proportion of peanut butter, cream cheese and butter, cream cheese is 1:2:1. Even though the portion of cream cheese is higher than the peanut butter, the taste of peanut butter is more prominent than cream cheese in these peanut butter cream cheese cookies.

The cream cheese gives these peanut butter cookies a lovely hint of richness, and when combined with the 'peanutty flavor' of peanut butter and the depth of the butterscotch chips, you get pleasantly rich and flavorful peanut butter cookies.

These peanut butter cookies do not spread much while baking but do rise a little. They have lovely crisp edges and thick and soft, chewy centers.

---

How to Make

Ingredients

These are the list of ingredients you need to make these yummy cookies:

• All purpose flour + cornstarch + salt + baking powder
• Butter
• Cream Cheese
• Peanut Butter
• Egg
• Brown Sugar
• Granulated Sugar
• Vanilla Extract
• Butterscotch chips

Mixing the cookie dough

1. To make the cookie dough, start by measuring the butter, cream cheese, and peanut butter into a large mixing bowl. These should all be at room temperature. To these, add both the brown sugar and granulated white sugar, followed by vanilla extract and egg. Once you have them all in the bowl, use your mixer to beat all the ingredients on medium speed until the mixture turns smooth. This should take between 1 to 2 minutes.
2. In a separate bowl, add salt, cornstarch and baking powder to flour and sift this flour mixture into the creamed mixture. You can add these dry ingredients all at once. Mix all the ingredients until the cookie dough comes together. At this stage, the dough will be very soft and sticky.
3. Once the sifted dry ingredients are well combined (do not over mix), gently fold in the butterscotch chips. Use a spatula to mix these into the dough until well distributed. If you use your mixer, you risk breaking your chips into smaller pieces.
4. To shape the cookies, you can use either a measuring spoon or an ice cream scoop to divide the dough into consistent-sized cookies. I used an ice cream scoop that measured approximately one and a half tablespoon of dough.
5. Place the scooped cookie dough on a parchment paper lined baking tray. Place them slightly apart to allow sufficient space for them to rise slightly during baking. Lightly shape them into balls with your fingers if necessary (need not be a precise round shape). At this stage, the cookie dough will still be sticky.
6. Press in the butterscotch chips that were reserved for topping onto the top of each cookie dough balls.

Baking the cookies

• Place the shaped cookie dough balls (in the tray) in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes. This helps to firm up the soft dough.
• Remove from the fridge and bake the cookies in a preheated oven for approximately 10 minutes. When done, the cookies should only start to turn golden brown at the edges.
• Remove the cookies from the oven. Allow them to cool down slightly (about 1-2 minutes) on the cookie sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. This will allow the cookies to firm up slightly and do not break as you transfer them onto the wire rack.
• These peanut butter cream cheese cookies can be served once they have cooled down. Leftovers are best stored in an airtight container.

---

Notes

Best cream cheese for the cookies

• Use block cream cheese (regular cream cheese) for these cookies. Spreadable cheese will be too soft and might not yield similar results.

Smooth peanut butter or chunky peanut butter?

• I used smooth and creamy peanut butter in these peanut butter cream cheese cookies but it can always be substituted with chunky peanut butter. Use it in the exact same amount.

How to adapt the cookie dough for variation

• I used mini-sized butterscotch chips in this recipe. You can always change these to the standard sized ones. The butterscotch chips can even be substituted for chocolate chips or peanut butter chips. The quantity can also be increased if you wish so.
• For slightly more nutty peanut butter cookies, you can even add chopped peanuts into the cookies. These, along with the butterscotch chips are best limited to 300g in total in the cookies.

How long should the cookies be baked for a chewy texture?

• The baking time of these peanut butter cookies depends very much on the size of the cookies. I used a small ice cream/ cookie scoop which is about 1 and half tablespoon size. For this size, I baked the cookies for 10 minutes.
• If your cookies are smaller in size, reduce the baking time and if they are larger, increase the baking time slightly.
• The texture of these peanut butter cookies is slightly crispy on the edges and soft and chewy on the inside.
• The key to this texture is to not overbake the cookies. Over baking will result in cookies that are still soft, but with a cakey texture.

Why do you need to refrigerate the cookie dough before baking?

• Refrigeration helps ensure the cookies are thick and do not spread during baking. So if you want thick cookies, do not skip this step.
• Refrigeration of about 45 minutes is sufficient to ensure the cookies do not spread much during baking. The cookie dough can also be refrigerated overnight.

Like this delightful cookie recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out

• Simple Peanut Butter Cookies with Sprinkles
• Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Ultimate Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Oreo Crust
• Peanut Butter Oreos - Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
• Cream Cheese Frosting
• Butterscotch Sugar Cookies - Perfectly Soft and Crumbly
• Homemade Red Velvet Cookies with White Chocolate Chips
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies

---

Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full printable version of my cream cheese peanut butter cookies recipe. While you are here, don’t forget to read up my recipe notes above for the softest, thick and chewy peanut butter cream cheese cookies.

And that's my peanut butter cream cheese cookies recipe for you.

Happy Baking 🙂