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Homemade Nutter Butter Cookies – Homemade copycat Nutter Butters are so much better than the store bought originals! Creamy peanut butter filling is sandwiched between lightly crunchy peanut butter cookies. Pinches of optional sea salt and melted chocolate drizzled over the tops make these cookies simply THE BEST!
Homemade Nutter Butter Cookies Recipe
Peanut butter cookies, namely Nutter Butter Cookies, have always been one of my favorite treats ever since I was little! I can still remember my excitement when I’d see them packed in my lunchbox.
While I’m still fond of those little store bought cookies, this homemade recipe for copycat Nutter Butter sandwich cookies is the best. Those packaged, factory-made cookies just can’t hold a candle to this at-home recipe!
The cookies themselves are lightly crispy and crunchy, without being dry or too crumbly.
They’re packed with tons of intense peanut butter flavor because the cookie dough recipe contains no flour, so there’s nothing to mitigate the lovely rich peanut butter flavor that shines through.
The peanut butter filling that seals the two cookie halves together is sweeter and just the right texture to create sandwich cookies that stick together until you take a big bite!
As a final touch, my homemade Nutter Butters are dipped in a melted chocolate. Chocolate and peanut butter? Swoon!
Because I love salty-sweet desserts, and love flaky sea salt on just about everything, I added some to the chocolate before it melted, but it’s optional.
There’s something though about salt bringing out the best in both peanuts or peanut butter, and with chocolate, it’s a pro move in my opinion.
Next Pro Tip: Please check out my cookbook, Peanut Butter Comfort, which is a cookbook with more than 100+ recipes using peanut butter. I really am THAT much of a peanut butter fan and want to make sure my newer readers know about my book!
Naturally Gluten Free Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
That’s right, this is a naturally gluten-free recipe for peanut butter cookies.
It’s a spinoff of my The Best Peanut Butter Cookies recipe except that I with the Nutter Butters I used all granulated sugar, and no brown sugar, which creates crisper cookies.
It’s also essentially the same dough base recipe I used in my 2013 Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies recipe which was a viral hit a decade ago! Hard to believe it’s almost 10 years to the date that I published that recipe in January 2013.
However, please note the 1 tablespoon of flour in the recipe is used to dip your fork tines into when making the hallmark crisscross pattern on top of the cookies so your fork doesn’t stick. No flour is used for the cookie dough.
But, if you need these cookies to be without a trace of gluten, make sure to use only gluten-free flour intended for baking.
Ingredients in Easy Nutter Butter Cookies
This copycat Nutter Butter cookie recipe is made with common fridge and pantry staples that you probably already have on hand.
Cookies:
Filling:
- Creamy peanut butter
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Maple syrup or honey
Optional, for Topping:
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Homemade Nutter Butters
These copycat Nutter Butters look trickier to make than they actually are, I promise. But that can be our little secret!
Here’s how to make the best homemade Nutter Butter cookies:
Step 1: Cookies – Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat liner.
Step 2: Beat together all the ingredients for the cookies until combined.
Step 3: Using a small cookie scoop, form about 32 evenly sized 1/2-inch cookie dough balls and place pairs of dough balls side by side.
Step 4: Flatten the pairs of two dough balls lightly with the bottom of a glass or base of a measuring cup which forms the peanut shape.
Step 5: Dip the tines of a fork in flour and make a criss-cross pattern across the cookies.
Step 6: Bake the cookies and allow them to finish cooling on a wire rack.
Step 7: Filling – While the cookies are baking and cooling, make the filling by mixing together all the filling ingredients until smooth.
Tip: Sift your powdered sugar if it’s lumpy.
Step 8: Assembly – Spread a layer of the filling mixture on the underside of a cookie.
Step 9: Pair it together with another cookie to make a sandwich. Repeat the process until all cookies have filled and paired.
Step 10: Optional Toppings – Microwave the chocolate until smooth.
Step 11: Dip the cookies into the chocolate and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Step 12: Sprinkle with sea salt and allow the chocolate to set before serving.
What Kind of Peanut Butter is Best for Peanut Butter Cookies?
When it comes to baking in general, I always recommend classic peanut butter that does not separate and that you don’t need to stir.
Namely, peanut butter brands like Jif or Skippy are my go-to brands. You can likely use store brands or generic brands although I use the name brands.
I recommend you use creamy peanut butter and not crunchy.
If you are a person who adores crunchy peanut butter, you could perhaps use it in the filling but I don’t recommend it in the dough.
Finally, don’t use reduced fat versions of peanut butter because your cookies won’t bake up the same. They’ll be much more prone to spreading in the oven.
I have never baked with reduced sugar peanut butter either but for this copycat Nutter Butter cookie recipe, stick with the good ‘ole fashioned peanut butter like Jif or Skippy for optimal results.
Can I Double the Recipe?
Yes you can absolutely double the recipe! As written, the recipe will make about 8 sandwich cookies.
That’s the perfect amount if you don’t “need” tons of cookies laying around, or have a small family, or just need something to tide over your cravings but not too many.
However, if you’re making these for entertaining, gifting, a cookie exchange, or have some real cookie monsters in your family, consider doubling the recipe.
Serving and Storing Homemade Nutter Butters
While these peanut butter cookies are tasty all year round, they’re great on your holiday cookie platters and cookie exchanges too. Be ready to share this recipe, because your friends and family will be asking for it!
Stored in an airtight container at room temp, your homemade Nutter Butter cookies will keep for up to 1 week. Peanut butter cookies tend to keep very well and these are no exception.
Can I Freeze The Cookies?
You can also freeze any extra cookies (either before or after sandwiching them together) in an airtight container or ziptop bag for up to 4 months.
If you want to mix up the dough and freeze off the dough balls before you bake the cookies, that’s fine too. Unbaked cookie dough will keep airtight for up to 3 months.
Tips for the Best Copycat Nutter Butters
No Chill Dough: I don’t chill this dough which is unusual but in the case of this warm-ish dough, it’ll flatten and spread out more in the oven than chilled dough will. Although in the case of these cookies being baked for sandwich cookies, it’s what you want.
Use a Cookie Scoop: Using a small cookie scoop will ensure that all your cookies are the same size. This is especially important when making sandwich cookies because you need to find a partner for every cookie, which is much easier when they’re all uniform.
Flattening: After you’ve formed the cookie dough balls, you’ll need to flatten them with the base of a drinking glass or measuring cup to about 1/4 to 1/8-inch thick. Don’t get carried away.
If you’d like you can pinch them in at the “waist” or at the junction of the two cookie dough balls if you think the cookie needs it so it looks more like a peanut in its shell. However, this isn’t necessary usually.
Maple Syrup and Honey: For the best flavor, use pure maple syrup rather than pancake syrup which is basically a bottle of chemical and there’s nothing real about it.
Not a syrup fan at all? You can feel free to use honey instead.
Make the Filling Thinner: If your peanut butter filling is a little bit too thick to easily spread, you can thin it out by stirring in some a little extra maple syrup or honey until your desired consistency is reached. Just be careful, as you can always stir in more, but you can’t take it out once it’s in there!
Melted Chocolate: If you decide to drizzle melted chocolate over your peanut butter sandwich cookies, you can use chocolate chips. However, I like using Ghrirardelli Melting Wafers because they melt easily and the chocolate stays nice and shiny.
You can use milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips.
If you plan to do more dipping than just drizzling with your cookies and the chocolate, you’ll need to melt more chocolate than what I call for.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, for dipping your fork**
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Filling
- ¾ cup creamy peanut butter*
- ⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted if lumpy
- 2 to 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup OR honey
Toppings, Optional
- 3 ounces Ghirardelli Melting Wafers OR ⅓ cup chocolate chips (milk or semi-sweet chocolate is fine), optional but recommended
- Flaky sea salt, optional and to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat liner; set aside.
- Cookies – To a large mixing bowl, add all the ingredients and beat by hand to combine (stiff at first but very do-able) or with a handheld electric mixer until smooth and creamy.
- Using a small cookie scoop, form 1/2-teaspoon sized cookie dough balls, and place them on the prepared baking tray. Ideally, you’ll make about 32 small cookie dough balls.
- When placing the cookie dough balls on the baking sheet, place them in pairs, so that two dough balls are touching. See photos in the blog post for a great visual reference. Evenly space the pairs over the baking sheets. This should make approximately 16 cookies.
- Using the base of a drinking glass or 1-cup measure, flatten the pairs of dough balls to about 1/4 to 1/8-inch in thickness. Tips – At this point you should have a “Mr. Peanut” shaped looking mounds of dough. If you don’t, you can pinch the “waist” or junction point of the cookies a bit with your fingers to accentuate this.
- Dip the tines of a fork into flour and make the classic crisscross pattern into the cookie dough by going vertically from end to end, and then crosshatching horizontally from side to side. Make sure to use gluten-free flour if you need the cookies to be gluten free.
- Bake for about 9 to 11 minutes, or until the cookies are set and done; the longer you bake them, the crunchier they will be which is fine, but don’t burn them. Tips – Bake one sheet of cookies at a time, on the center oven rack, rotating the baking sheet once midway through baking for optimal results.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for about 5 to 10 minutes, or until they’re cool enough to remove. Tip – If you place the cookies in the freezer for about 10 minutes, this helps reduce breaking later on when you’re spreading the filling onto them. And it also helps the optional melted chocolate set more quickly.
- Filling – Add the peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup or honey, and mix aggressively to incorporate. If the mixture is very thick and too stiff to mix, add 1 additional tablespoon of the maple syrup or honey, and mix to incorporate.
- Assembly – Spread a layer of filling on the underside of one cookie, pair it with another cookie, underside to underside; and repeat until all cookies have been filled and sandwiched together; yielding about 8 finished sandwich cookies.
- Toppings – Optionally, melt the Ghirardelli Melting Wafers according to package directions OR melt chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second bursts, stopping to stir after each bursts, until the chocolate chips can be stirred smooth; don’t overheat.
- Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies as desired. And/or dip one tip of the cookies into the chocolate. If you plan to dip a significant portion of cookies rather than drizzle, you’ll need to melt additional chocolate.
- Optionally, sprinkle with flaky sea salt as desired.
- Allow the cookies to set up fully at room temp before serving. Cookies will keep airtight at room temp for up to 1 week, in the freezer for up to 4 months. Unbaked balls of cookie dough will also keep airtight in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw before baking to cold room temperature, enough to flatten paired cookie dough balls before baking as instructed above.
Cookie dough base adapted from my own The Best Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Notes
*I recommend classic peanut butter that does not separate and that you don’t need to stir. Namely, peanut butter brands like Jif or Skippy are my go-to brands. You can likely use store brands or generic brands although I use the name brands. I recommend you use creamy peanut butter and not crunchy.
If you are a person who adores crunchy peanut butter, you could perhaps use it in the filling but I don’t recommend it in the dough.
Finally, don’t use reduced fat versions of peanut butter because your cookies won’t bake up the same. They’ll be much more prone to spreading in the oven. I have never baked with reduced sugar peanut butter but I suggest using good ‘ole fashioned peanut butter like Jif or Skippy for optimal results.
**If you need the cookies to be gluten-free, either omit flouring your fork tines or make sure to use a certified gluten-free flour intended for baking.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8
Serving Size:
1
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 598Total Fat: 35gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 21gCholesterol: 24mgSodium: 502mgCarbohydrates: 65gFiber: 4gSugar: 50gProtein: 14g
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I wrote a Peanut Butter Cookbook with 100+ recipes using Peanut Butter!
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