Peanut Butter Valentine’s Day Cookies Recipe

With a chocolate heart candy nestled on top, these super soft sweetheart peanut butter Valentine’s Day cookies are the February version of peanut butter blossoms!

Just like a good go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies or sugar cookies, a top-notch peanut butter cookie recipe is a must. Because peanut butter can often leave cookies dry and crumbly, I’ve worked hard to test and succeed with a recipe for the softest peanut butter cookies. Many readers say they taste like the inside of a peanut butter cup!

Naturally, I’ve taken that foundation recipe and created a few different variations. Because if it works, it works! My peanut butter M&M cookies, peanut butter jam thumbprints, and today’s peanut butter Valentine’s Day cookies are just a few of the spinoffs I’ve created with my trusty peanut butter cookie dough.

I know you and your sweetheart will love these festive cookies!

Why Everyone Loves These Peanut Butter Valentine’s Day Cookies

• Soft, thick, and positively packed with peanut butter flavor
• A peanut butter version of my popular sparkle sweetheart cookies
• Only 1 hour of cookie dough chilling
• Great with any variety of chocolate hearts, plain or filled
• Simple + straightforward recipe uses the same base dough as my flagship peanut butter cookies
• Fun to serve alongside white chocolate red velvet cookies, Valentine’s Day cookies, or any of these Valentine’s Day dessert recipes

Start With My Best Peanut Butter Cookie Dough

We use the same dough here as my soft and thick peanut butter cookies. (Note that those have 1 extra Tablespoon of flour to help hold the shape when flattening with a fork.)

• Flour: We use all-purpose flour as the base of these peanut butter cookies. You may look at the recipe and wonder why there’s so little flour. Did you know that nut butters act as a binder and can actually replace some or all flour in cookie recipes? See these flourless almond butter cookies and flourless monster cookies. Using more flour will dry out the cookies, so stick with the recipe below.
• Baking Soda: Baking soda helps the cookies rise.
• Salt + Vanilla Extract: Use both salt and vanilla extract for flavor.
• Sugars: Use a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar in this recipe. Both for sweetness, and brown sugar for extra softness.
• Egg: One egg binds everything together; the cookies would fall apart without it.
• Butter: Butter adds flavor and structure. Make sure you have proper room-temperature butter before beginning.
• Peanut Butter: Peanut butter is the most important ingredient for peanut butter cookies. For best results, use processed peanut butter like Jif or Skippy—the same I recommend for my peanut butter balls and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
• Chocolate Heart Candies: I love these cookies with Reese’s peanut butter creme hearts, which provide a soft, meltaway texture in addition to extra peanut butter flavor. But you can use any chocolate heart candy you like here, such as Dove or Hershey’s chocolate hearts; just keep in mind those have a firmer texture.

You can find the full written recipe below, but let me walk you through these steps. These cookies are quick and simple—a welcome recipe during a busy holiday season.

Make the dough. You’ll combine the dry and wet ingredients separately, and then together. Expect a very soft cookie dough:

Chill the dough for at least 1 hour to help solidify it, which helps guarantee your peanut butter sweetheart cookies will hold shape in the oven. Cold dough is also easier to portion and roll. After the dough chills, roll into balls about 1 heaping Tablespoon in size (about 25g each).

It’s optional, but for a little sparkle, roll each cookie dough ball in a little granulated sugar:

Success Tip: Prevent Melting Chocolate Hearts

I mean, these peanut butter Valentine’s Day cookies will obviously melt your heart, but maybe you don’t want the chocolate heart to melt too? 😉

The first thing I recommend to prevent the chocolate from melting and losing their heart shape is to let the cookies cool for 5 minutes after baking, before you add the chocolate hearts on top.

After very gently pressing the chocolate hearts into the tops of your peanut butter cookies, place them in the freezer for 10 minutes. This will ensure the chocolate hearts keep their shapes and don’t turn into melty chocolate blobs.

The refrigerator will also work, but the freezer is most effective. If you don’t have enough room in your refrigerator or freezer for a baking sheet, carefully transfer the cookies to a smaller tray or plate and then freeze.