Easy peanut butter cookies recipe with a soft and chewy centre - IOL

Peanut butter cookies are easy to make and always a winner.

When the biscuit tin needs a quick refill, peanut butter cookies are a good recipe to have on hand.

They need less than 30 minutes from mixing to baking and do not require a complicated technique.

The key is not to leave them in the oven too long.

These peanut butter cookies should come out while they are still soft, as they will continue to set as they cool.

The most common culprit is overbaking.

Peanut butter cookies can look slightly underdone when they first come out of the oven, but they firm up as they cool.

If you wait for the centres to look completely firm in the oven, the finished cookies are more likely to be dry rather than chewy.

Keep an eye on them towards the end of the 10 to 12 minute baking time.

Soft butter blends more easily with the sugars, giving you a smooth mixture before the remaining ingredients are added.

The butter should be soft enough to mix easily, but not melted.

Melted butter changes the way cookie dough behaves and can affect the final shape and texture.