Soft, gooey, irresistible homemade peanut butter cookies – baked in a muffin tin!
I’ve now decided that everything is better in a muffin tin.
Baking cookies in a muffin tin gives them an irresistible “deep dish” cookie texture you can’t get from a regular baking tray, and you can even double up on the dough if you want them to be even deeper and even more gooey and delicious.
Or press down in the centers for peanut butter cookie cups!
The idea for these muffin tin cookies came about due to pure laziness. I’d used my cookie tray for another recipe earlier in the day, and it was still sitting in the sink waiting to be washed. I knew I had two options if I wanted to make the peanut butter cookies I was suddenly craving: Stop and wash the cookie tray OR make the peanut butter cookies immediately and get creative with my choice of baking trays.
For the obvious reason that satisfying peanut butter cookie cravings shouldn’t be put on hold, I went with the second choice. I figured that baking the cookies in a muffin tin would still yield plain-old regular peanut butter cookies. But I couldn’t have been more wrong… and I am so happy I was.
When the cookies came out of the oven, they were thicker and softer than my usual peanut butter cookies, and thicker and softer cookies are always a good thing. I made two batches: one with chips and one without.
I’m sure you can guess which batch was my favorite!
Step One:
Make the dough and portion it into individual muffin tins.
Step Two:
Bake on the center rack at 350 F until soft.
Step Three:
Let cool, and devour your deep dish muffin tin peanut butter cookies, one by one!
Peanut Butter Cookies – In A Muffin Tin
Peanut Butter Cookies – Baked In A Muffin Tin!
Print This Recipe
[mrp_rating_result show_count="false" show_rich_snippets="false"]
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup peanut butter OR allergy-friendly sub
- 2 tbsp applesauce
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup unrefined sugar or xylitol
- 3 tbsp flour – spelt, oat, white, sorghum, or rice flour all work
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- chocolate chips, optional
Instructions
*If desired, you can double the dough for deeper-dish cookies (and then press the middles in for cookie cups if you wish).
Grease or line a muffin tin. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bring peanut butter to room temperature if it isn’t already easily stir-able. Stir together first 3 ingredients. In a small dish, combine remaining ingredients, then stir all ingredients together to form a dough. If dough is too soft to form balls, freeze ten minutes or until it firms up. Using a cookie scoop, scoop balls into the prepared muffin tin. Gently press down. Bake 6 minutes – remove from the oven when still undercooked, and let sit ten additional minutes to firm up. Go around the sides with a knife to remove from the tin.
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Emily says
These look delicious – I can’t wait to try them out! I love how your recipes are not only healthy, but in proportions that won’t leave a ton of cookies around for me to eat at all week long. Just enough for my family of three to munch on for two days and move on.
Kirsti says
These look great! I agree with the above comment in that I appreciate the portions of your recipes – always just right 🙂 Who needs 2 dozen cookies when you’re just a couple?! Anyway, as these sound reminiscent of your chocolate chip peanut butter bars, I assume they should not only turn out well, but uh, need to be made soon!
Kathryn says
These have my mouth watering! I wish work didn’t last all day…. I love that your muffin tin looks well used! Not the sparkling, pristine, almost porcelain muffin tins you often see on blogs/tv/celebrity recipes that make you wonder if the person even eats at all, and if they really know how to cook. Can’t wait to make these! Thanks Katie!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
So glad you wrote this… I was actually hesitant to post the photo exactly for that reason – it isn’t perfectly spotless like you always see in professional pictures and magazines. But I am with you in that I’d rather see something real than something too staged, with fake food and bakeware that wasn’t really used for the recipe. Not to say my photoshoots aren’t ever staged, but hopefully I achieve a balance (never resorting to something like mashed potatoes for ice cream or shaving cream for whipped cream, which is often done in professional photography).
Della says
Whoa i really wanna try this :)) Im tepted to try this but replacing sugar/xylitol with rice syrup, i wonder if it will work that way…? Maybe to leave out the apple sauce? I really appreciate if you have some idea about it, but i might just try anyway and tell the results later 😀
Love your blog, has saved my ass many times ive wanted to offer people something that everybody can eat :))
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Definitely report back if you experiment!
Megan Hallier says
This is such a good idea. I recently had a batch of cookies that exploded and clumped into one giant cookie. So I’ll have to try cooking them in a muffin tin next time.
Meah says
Haha XD ! It’s “lazy innovation” like this that makes me wonder whether it’s truly being lazy, or being genius (I always like to assume the latter). I’m running low on my stash of cookies in the freezer (a tragedy, I know), so it looks like I’ll be making a batch of these this week. Can’t wait to devour them 🙂 !
xxMeah
Brittni says
Can you use organic brown sugar in this recipe?
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Yes!
Erogo says
Questioning trying this with coconut flour, make a paleo version of it in a way. I imagine I would have to adjust a liquid ingredient to balance it. Opinions on this would be a great help.
Erogo says
This has also inspired another idea, xylitol cookie dough pie batter in muffin tin with extra cinnamon, and put a cinnamon roll date paste in the middle of each one for cinnamon roll cookie dough muffins. If you perfect the cooking times on this please post it.
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Definitely report back if you experiment 🙂
Erogo says
On the coconut flour experiment,
1/2 cup Almond Butter (120g)
3 tbsp applesauce (30g)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup xylitol (85g)
3 tbsp coconut flour (24-26g)
1 1/2 tsp Ener-G baking soda sub
1/8 tsp salt
Bake in preheated oven at 350F for 10-12mins then let set for another 10-20mins will be super soft and have a wonderful flavor.
Marlene says
Hi Katie,
We love your ideas and use a lot of them in our kitchen. Thanks for being so creative!! I just made the peanut butter cookies in the muffin tins. They taste amazing but they are falling apart and now I have a big crumbly mess which I may try to put into ice cream later, however any ideas that would help me remedy the crumbles would be appreciated!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Hmmm it’s unfortunately hard for me to try and guess when I wasn’t there, but I can try… My first thought would be that maybe you baked too long/hot? What flour did you use? I haven’t ever had a problem making them before so hope it was just a one-time fluke. I want my recipes to always work perfectly for everyone!
Alex says
Mine came out really good. I used regular flour this time but have spelt flour on the list for tomorrow’s batch 😉
Debbie says
Hi, How did the spelt flour turn out in the cookies? Still soft? Thank you
monika says
Hey! Why in a muffin pan and not regular?
Just curious.
My actual question is whether I could use a nut/coconut flour instead of the regular flour? Thanks
Chocolate Covered Katie says
You can definitely experiment, and be sure to report back if you do!
Nancy Jarecki says
Katie,
How much chocolate chips do you recommend if we choose to use them and do the nutritional facts include the chocolate chips?
Thanks,
Nancy
🙂
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I’d start with 3 tbsp. and go from there. Or you can press a few into the tops after pressing them into the muffin tins.
Inge says
Those look just perfect, I’m going to try them as soon as I can!
Thank you so much for all your amazing recipes, Katie!
jon says
So good, I might go for raisins instead of choc but I will be making these soon!
Roni says
Made it today and it was absolutly amazing!
Pb is my favorite and this recipe is gonna be my new Go to..
Always a fan of yours katie!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Thank you so much for making them!
Roni Erel says
Used oat flour and coconut sugar and it was amazing!!
You are the best katie
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Thank you for trying them!!
Debbie says
Hi,. Using the coconut sugar still kept them soft. This is exactly what I would Iike to use. THank you
Gemma says
What an awesome recipe! I’ve never baked cookies in a muffin tin and it’s such a great idea to use my muffin pan for other (delicious) purposes! 🙂
xox
Brenda says
Those look delicious! I love it that you came up with the idea because you didn’t want to wash your cookie sheet. I have felt the same way before.
Andrea E says
What a winner! These are fantastic: soft and chewy. I used brown sugar. Glad I doubled the recipe!
Gussie says
This is basically just peanut butter, chocolate chips, and sugar, not really my thing on their own. I’ve been putting them on my oatmeal though, quite nice when they’re mixed in and all melty.
Megan says
I just made these after dinner tonight and they were a huge hit!!! Simple, quick, and absolutely delicious 🙂
Sophia @ Little Box Brownie says
Yum what a great idea, I bet they would taste amazing topped with ice cream
Jayne says
Katie help!! I don’t know what went wrong?
I used sorghum flour and rapadura sugar. They didn’t spread and stayed in balls. Was there enough liquid for the different flour?
M says
Recipe instructions say you need to press them down.
M says
Made them this morning Super yummy!
Scarlett says
I love your blogs, this help me for making good food for my husband. I am sure this peanut butter cookies are healthy too. Thanks for the Recipe.
Kelly says
I just made these a few minutes ago. They are delicious! I did make some changes though…I am out of applesauce so I have to find someway to replace that. I decided to go with an egg since I eat them all the time. So I started with 3/4 cup peanut butter, 1 egg, 7 T xylitol and 3 T coconut flour…all the other ingredients were the same. Good cookies. Great base recipe to experiment with! Thanks.
Diana says
These are ridiculous! Currently hubby and I are snarfing these down! He is the only person in the world who doesn’t like chocolate so these are perfect for us. I made his plain and loaded mine up with chocolate chips. Both are incredible! So easy and so delicious!
Michelle says
Katie! I made this deep dish style into cookie cups and then i filled the insides with avocado chocolate mousse. They taste amazing and everyone loves them!
Joy says
just made these, and added butter, since I am trying to increase the fat intake for my sons, but in a semi healthy and tasty way, they ate all 12.
Alex says
These are fantastically delicious! Next time I should make a double batch. There will be a next time for sure, maybe tomorrow 😉 😉
Alison says
Is unrefined sugar something you buy or can I use 1/3 cup honey in this recipe? Thanks!
Claire says
Unrefined sugar just means coconut sugar or evaporated cane juice or something like that. You can use regular sugar too.
Jennifer says
Someone may have already asked you this, but can you use oil instead of applesauce? I’m not a huge fan of applesauce in baked goods. Also, I don’t have any at the moment and I really want to make these cookies lol.
Susan says
These cookies tasted fantastic but apparently six minutes was not enough time, as they were crumbly and still kind of raw even after sitting for twenty minutes. Going to try again another time, increasing the cooking time. Thanks for the recipe!
Jennifer says
I just made these with coconut sugar. They’re delicious! Well of course they are because Katie’s recipes always are!!
Izzy says
… Wait a second… Once you’d finished making these, didn’t you have to wash your cookie tray AND your muffin tin…?
Lol 😉
Anyway, these look delicious! Can’t wait to try them- I’m making one of your recipes tonight, I just haven’t figured out which! Thanks, Katie!
Myriam Audet says
Hello,
I’m new to this…What is a cookie scoop ;what is the qty? 1/4 cup?…
Thankyou so much for your help!
Hilary J says
Just tried these!! This is my new fave CCK recipe (and I’ve tried a lot) ? These stayed really chewy and moist in the pan, which made them extra delicious. Thanks for another amazing recipe.
Cristina says
Do you have any idea how I could make these a bit more crunchy. They are absolutely delicious the way they are but I just like my cookies with a bit more crunch. Thank you.
Katelynn SutherlAnd says
How many calories would it be if I added brown sugar instead of unrefined sugar
Julie Dove says
The two have the same caloric value.
kimberly says
So if you were doing chocolate chip cookies this way. What would be the bake time ya think?
Paula says
Can’t believe I waited so long to make these! I didn’t have applesauce so subbed butternut purée and tossed in 1/4 cup of enjoy life chocolate chunks. These are delicious 🙂
Andrea says
Could almond flour be used?
Julie Dove says
You can definitely experiment! Let us know how it turns out if you do!
Jen E says
Just to let you know Katie when I printed this it printed 3 pages lol. The first one was just the title of the recipe, 2nd page with a FULL page of the cookies & the 3rd was the recipe 😉
Julie Dove says
It definitely shouldn’t do that! Did you print using the print button at the top-right of the recipe or print another way?
Meredith says
AMAZING! Katie, I have a deep love for your blog 🙂 Every recipe is delicious and definitely satisfies my chocolate craving!
Since I didn’t have any applesauce on hand,I used pumpkin purée instead. The batter was a little crumbly, but it was fixed with 10 extra minutes of sitting time. My whole family loved it! Thanks again.
Donna Baer says
Many of your recipes are wonderful and more healthy than average, but printing is quite an issue. When you click Print Recipe on this one for example, it gives you FOUR PAGES to print out a cookie recipe. Need to fine tune this option, please?
Julie Dove says
Hi, that should not be happening. Thank you so much for the heads up, and we are looking into it immediately. We might not get anyone who is able to fix it this week because of Christmas, but hopefully the developer can fix it quickly. It should only be printing the actual recipe, not any images or ads.
Debbie says
Hi, Are they supposed to be really soft when they come out of the oven? I made them in mini muffin tins. Thanks.
Autumn says
So good and so easy!
Ed Barnett says
I definitely want to try but I thought dogs could not have chocolate?
Ed Barnett says
oops…lol I was on the wrong site. I thought this was the doggy recipe site. Sorry!
Penny says
I made these this past weekend, and I love the deep dish cookie taste–genius! Thanks for the recipe!
Judy says
Can you use PB2 instead of real peanut butter?
Jason Sanford says
You can definitely experiment. Be sure to report back if you do try!
Andy S. says
Oh my gosh these look yummy!! I want to make these today, but I just used up the last of the apple sauce in the cinnamon roll baked oatmeal that’s currently baking in my oven :)….is there something else I could use as a substitute instead of applesauce?
Judy says
Can you substitute pb2 (rehydrated) for the peanut butter?
Jason Sanford says
Not sure it would work, but be sure to report back if you try!
Rachael says
Katie. I need to tell you that I made these cookies for my mom and mailed them to her for Mother’s Day last year and she is absolutely obsessed with them. Pretty much every time I talk to her, she mentions these cookies!
I have sent her the recipe and she has made a few batches, but claims that mine “taste better,” haha. She’s requested that I make them and send them to her for her birthday! So, thank you so much for coming up with this simple yet excellent recipe, which has blown my mom away and made me look really great because she’s always been the one to do wonderful things in the kitchen.
For the record, I absolutely love these cookies, too! And yes, they are best with chocolate chips. (I also use Jif creamy natural peanut butter and regular sugar and they do just fine!)
Jason Sanford says
So awesome to know they can be shipped!
Sarah says
Hi Katie, love your stuff!! Wondering if I omit the sugar if the cookies will still come out ok? Thanks in advance.
Victoria says
Hey Katie! This looks amazing! I was wondering if if I can replace the applesauce with banana purée. If so, is it the same amount? And also, can I make them without the muffin tin? Thank you so much!!
Jason Sanford says
You can, and same amount! You can also definitely make them not in a muffin tin. Just roll like regular cookies.
Angela Devis says
Do you always have to use Knife to get the cookies out of the muffin tin? I’m scared the cookies may break into pieces. Should I use an ice cream spoon instead?
Jason Sanford says
Hi! Just use these instead. Basically the same recipe 🙂 https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/12/11/secret-peanut-butter-cookies/
Lalit Sharma says
These are fantastically delicious! Next time I should make a double batch. There will be a next time for sure, maybe tomorrow 😉 😉
Lalit Sharma says
Both are incredible! So easy and so delicious! These are fantastically delicious! Next time I should make a double batch. There will be a next time for sure, maybe tomorrow 😉 😉
CCK Media Team says
Thank you so much for making them!