Cake Mix Peanut Butter Cookies

This is the kid-and-beginner-baker recipe that introduced a generation of home cooks to the cake mix hack: skip the dry ingredients, dump a box of cake mix into a bowl, add peanut butter and a few wet ingredients, and you’ve got cookies in under half an hour.

The cake mix does the work of flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt all at once. Yellow or white cake mix both work; yellow gives a slightly richer flavor, white stays neutral and lets the peanut butter shine. Either way, you’re looking at five ingredients total.

Use creamy peanut butter for smooth cookies or chunky for added texture. Generic supermarket brands work better than natural peanut butter (the oily kind that needs stirring), which can throw off the moisture balance.

The classic criss-cross fork mark serves two purposes: it identifies the cookies as peanut butter and helps them bake evenly, since the dough doesn’t spread much on its own.

Pro Tips

• Dip the fork in water (not flour) before pressing the criss-cross; it keeps the dough from sticking and gives cleaner marks
• These cookies don’t spread much, so flatten the dough balls a bit before baking for the shape you want on the plate
• Pull them out when the edges are set but the middles still look soft; they finish firming on the hot pan
• Store in an airtight container with a slice of bread to keep them soft for days

Variations

• Press a chocolate kiss into each cookie immediately after baking for peanut butter blossoms
• Roll the dough balls in cinnamon-sugar before baking for a snickerdoodle-peanut butter hybrid
• Stir in a half cup of chocolate chips, crushed Reese’s pieces, or chopped peanuts for added texture