Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches just got the ultimate upgrade to these delicious, peanut-buttery, jam-filled Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies. It's everything you know and love, but in a fun new take that brings childhood nostalgia to a whole new level.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies just sound delicious, right!? I was making myself a pb&j and the idea just hit me. If it’s delicious sandwiched between bread, it’s got to be delicious in cookie form! 

These are almost like a peanut butter blossom had a delicious baby with a thumbprint cookie. If that’s not enough to sell you, then I don’t know what it is! 

The peanut butter cookie base is made with butter, sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter (obviously), and a mixture of dry ingredients. The dough contains both baking soda and baking powder to create light and airy cookies that still get a little crispy around the edges! 

I add a little dollop of strawberry jam to the center to create the ultimate Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookie!

Drizzle with a little bit of melted peanut butter and these cookies are complete! They are soft, chewy, and loaded with flavor. 

This is all I need in my lunchbox!

Jams, Jellies, Oh My

I don’t know about you but I’ve been using jam and jelly interchangeably for my whole life. It wasn’t until this blog post that I learned that there actually is a technical difference between jam and jelly. 

And preserves, but they’re not in this conversation. 

Technically a jelly is made wit strained fruit juice so there is no junks or pieces of fruit in the jelly. However, jam is made with mashed fruit, so you end up with junks of actual fruit in the jam itself. 

It’s definitely a technicality, but I’m always to learn random food facts. 

I used strawberry jam in this recipe, but I do believe that using jelly would be a little bit easier. I liked having little bits and pieces in the jam, but I did have to pick out a few really big junks of strawberry. 

Using a jelly would make that a little bit easier! But honestly, you could use whatever you already had in your fridge! 

Dough Placement Matters

This is a pretty simple recipe but this dough does spread out so you have to be careful about two things with this dough: where you place the jam filling and where you place it on the cookie sheet. 

When you go to add the jelly to the middle, use the back of a teaspoon to gently press down in teh middle. You want to make sure that you leave a good edge around the cookie but you don’t want to press down too far. Pressing down too far flattens out the cookie dough and the base isn’t as strong. This means that the jam could bust through the bottom when you go to pick up the cookie.

Unfortunately, I am speaking from experience here and want to save you from the sadness of seeing a peanut butter and jelly cookie with the jelly center busted out. I would press the teaspoon about ⅓ of the way down. This gives you a good edge on the outside and a sturdy base. 

These cookies do spread out while they’re cooking so I would leave about 2-3 inches of space between them on the cookie sheet. But if they do spread into each other, they’ll still be delicious! 

Ingredient List

• Flour
• Baking Soda
• Baking Powder
• Salt
• Butter
• Sugar
• Brown Sugar 
• Peanut Butter
• Egg
• Vanilla Extract
• Strawberry Jam

These Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies are like a blast to the past! It's like my childhood lunchbox in a new and delicious way that's loaded with flavor.

Cheers!

-Holly Michelle

P.S. If you need more peanut butter deliciousness, try these Fluffernutter Cookies!