How To Make Peanut Butter Cookies Look Like They Came From A Bakery With 3 Toppings And Zero Effort

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Peanut butter cookies are incredibly wholesome baked treats that instantly take you back to childhood. For many people, they beckon like a siren's call just as they did at the end of the elementary school cafeteria lunch line. If you've whipped up a batch of bakery-style peanut butter cookies with their requisite traditional fork marks, you can make them look and taste straight out of the display case with three small additions that take less than a minute to add: a sprinkle of sea salt, a drizzle of melty peanut butter, and a showering of crushed roasted peanuts.

Biting into a peanut butter cookie is transportive. You get all of the rich mouthfeel of peanut butter along with the buttery goodness of a freshly baked cookie. But these three finishing flourishes really seal the deal. The sea salt offsets the cookies' inherent sweetness; the gooey drizzle of peanut butter not only looks appealing but also amps up the nuttiness and helps the other ingredients adhere to the baked goods; and the sprinkle of peanuts adds even more crunch and toasty peanutty flavor. It's a simple but undeniably impactful upgrade.

Peanut butter adds a welcome depth of flavor and crispy texture to cookies that is hard to resist. While these baked goods are typically made with ingredients you likely already have in the house, you can also cheat a peanut butter cookie recipe using just peanut butter and maple syrup, or fortify them by adding quick-cooking oatmeal. No matter how you bake them, though, embellishing them with that triple-threat topping of sea salt, peanut butter, and crushed roasted peanuts is bound to give them a boost. You'll also want to choose your ingredients wisely: Maldon Sea Salt Flakes are a bakery standard for their clean taste, delicate texture, and balanced salinity. And smooth peanut butter with stabilizers will yield the velvetiest drizzle that won't separate as easily as the natural stuff when melted.

If you want to make your cookies even bolder, consider incorporating a combination of dark and milk chocolate chips or chunks into the dough. While it relies on a classic sweet-meets-salty combination, peanuts will remain the dominant flavor thanks to the garnishes. To double down on the saltiness, meanwhile, you could add crushed pretzels on top of your peanut butter cookies. Or, to tap into another beloved pairing, try slathering a dollop of fruity jam on your just-baked peanut butter cookies before the peanut butter drizzle for PB&J sandwich vibes in the best way possible. However, once you zhuzh up your peanut butter cookies this way, don't be surprised if they disappear quickly from the serving plate.