These 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies Couldn’t Be Easier to Make

We can use a little extra sweetness in our lives while we cope with things like quarantining and social distancing right now — especially if it’s as easy as combining three simple ingredients for a seriously delicious batch of peanut butter cookies. 

Unlike traditional recipes that require ingredients like butter, baking powder, flour, vanilla extract, and more, this stripped down technique only uses a cup of peanut butter, a cup of sugar, and one single egg. Basically, it’s the perfect way to make sure you can satisfy your sweet cravings even when the grocery store shelves are depleted and without wiping out your pantry. 

Can’t get enough cookies? Click through to learn how to Bake Healthy Cookies with just two ingredients!

I noticed the effortless recipe gaining popularity on social media and, obviously, had to give it a try myself. The original post calls for regular white sugar, but we ran out of that about a week ago after some much needed quarantine cake baking. Luckily, we still have a ton of brown sugar, so I just subbed a cup of that instead. I knew it would give the cookies a slightly different texture, but also add an extra layer of yummy flavor thanks to the molasses found in brown sugar.

I set my oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and mixed the egg, sugar, and peanut butter together while I waited for it to heat up. I then rolled the dough into small rounds, plopped those on a baking sheet, and squished them with a fork for the classic criss-cross pattern on top. I let them cook for about 10 minutes before checking to see how they were doing, but they didn’t seem quite done yet so I let them go for another three minutes or so. (I was a bit distracted by my TV, but managed not to burn them!)

Here’s how my first batch turned out:

I was afraid the brown sugar would make them too soft, but after they cooled I had a lovely batch of perfectly chewy-yet-crispy peanut butter cookies! The peanut butter/sugar/egg mixture made about 20 cookies for me, but the amount will vary based on how big or small you want to make yours.

You can also change things up with crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy, or add in an extra ingredient or two that you might have on hand (like oats or chocolate chips).

This recipe is honestly too easy not to try out for yourself, so go ahead and whip up your own batch ASAP!