Rudolph Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe (2024)

Posted: · Updated: · By Chrysa

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This Rudolph Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe is fun to make and delicious to eat. Use pretzels, mini chocolate chips and M&Ms to create your own Rudolph cookies!

Rudolph Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe (1)
Rudolph Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe (2)

Ask any kid who their favorite reindeer is and chances are that they will answer “Rudolph!” Well, that’s a great choice and is an especially fun one for baking.

With a bright red M&M nose, this Rudolph Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe is easy to identify as Santa’s lead reindeer.

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The homemade peanut butter cookie recipe we use for these Rudolph cookies is easy to whip together.

But, if you just want to do the fun part of decorating with your kids, you could start with a refrigerated cookie dough instead.

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Even little tots are able to help by placing the chocolate chip eyes and M&M noses in place to make these adorable reindeer cookies! For older kids they can help measure out ingredients and mix up the dough.

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If you plan to make a lot of Rudolph Christmas cookies, it’s helpful to get a bag of ALL red M&Ms (which you can get in bulk on Amazon) or you can use a bag of holiday M&Ms and pick out the half that are red instead of green.

Want to make a gluten-free version? Start with this almond flour peanut butter cookies recipe and then continue with our decorating instructions using gluten-free pretzels.

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Rudolph Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Egg
1 1/3 cup Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
48 Red M&M’s
96 Mini Chocolate Chips
Mini Twist Pretzels

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How to Make Rudolph Cookies

Break pretzels into pieces to use as antlers.Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together peanut butter, butter, sugar and brown sugar until smooth.

Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.

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Slowly add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, beating until incorporated.

Roll into 1/2-3/4″ balls and place on cookie sheet several inches apart.

Sprinkle with sugar and gently make an indentation slightly off the center of each cookie.

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Bake 12-14 minutes.

Place an M&M in the indentation of each cookie.

Insert 2 mini chocolate chips (pointy side down) above the M&M to be the eyes.

Insert 2 pretzel pieces to be the antlers.

If the antlers won’t stick, place some chocolate chips in a sandwich bag and microwave 30 seconds and knead until soft. Clip the very tip of the corner and pipe onto cookie to act as glue.

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For some extra fun, team up these cookies with ourwith our with our Reindeer Hot Chocolate! Packaging the two together would make a really fun Christmas gift.

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For lots more fun reindeer themed fun, check out these tips for throwing the ultimate reindeer party!

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Rudolph Peanut Butter Cookies

Chrysa

This Rudolph Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe is fun to make and delicious to eat. Use pretzels, mini chocolate chips and M&Ms to create your own Rudloph cookies!

4.57 from 37 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 14 minutes mins

Additional Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 54 minutes mins

Course Cookies, Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 48

Calories 83 kcal

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Break pretzels into pieces to use as antlers.

  • Preheat oven to 350.

  • Cream together peanut butter, butter, sugar and brown sugar until smooth.

  • Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.

  • Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.

  • Slowly add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, beating until incorporated.

  • Roll into 1/2-3/4″ balls and place on cookie sheet several inches apart.

  • Sprinkle with sugar and gently make an indentation slightly off the center of each cookie.

  • Bake 12-14 minutes.

  • Place an M&M in the indentation of each cookie.

  • Insert 2 mini chocolate chips (pointy side down) above the M&M to be the eyes.

  • Insert 2 pretzel pieces to be the antlers.

  • If the antlers won’t stick, place some chocolate chips in a sandwich bag and microwave 30 seconds and knead until soft. Clip the very tip of the corner and pipe onto cookie to act as glue.

Nutrition

Serving: 1CookieCalories: 83kcalCarbohydrates: 10gProtein: 1gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.4gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 9mgSodium: 80mgPotassium: 28mgFiber: 0.4gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 71IUVitamin C: 0.03mgCalcium: 9mgIron: 0.3mg

I am not a nutritionist. These values were calculated automatically with the Spoonacular Food API.

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Rudolph Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies falling apart? ›

The wrong type of peanut butter may cause them to fall apart. Or using old eggs may create crumbly cookies. How long do peanut butter cookies last?

Why crosshatch peanut butter cookies? ›

That's because the first recipe books to include peanut butter cookies recommended using forks to flatten the dough. Eventually more people started recommended a criss-cross pattern over parallel lines, because it flattened the cookie more uniformly.

Why do you put fork marks in peanut butter cookies? ›

Basic reason..the dough is more dense than most cookie doughs, and the pressing with the fork tines helps the dough bake evenly. Secondarily, its pattern makes it easier to tell them apart from other cookies with similar appearance.

How old is the peanut butter cookie? ›

The peanut butter cookie was invented in the 1910's, when George Washington Carver of Alabama's Tuskegee Institute published a peanut cookbook in an effort to promote the crop.

What happens if you don't flatten peanut butter cookies? ›

If you don't flatten the cookies first, then the fork does double duty – it performs both functions. One very subtle result of creating the pattern is that the little tips of dough bake up crisper than the rest of the cookie, giving you both a bit of additional texture and deeper taste where the dough is more baked.

How do you keep peanut butter cookies from falling apart? ›

If you find that the dough is too dry (without the fat) then simply hold back some of the flour and add it near the end of mixing when you add the fat/butter If this helps to hold your baked cookies together, fine. If not then add a few more minutes of mixing.

Why do my peanut butter cookies not taste like peanut butter? ›

The most common mistake with peanut butter cookies is using the wrong type of peanut butter. The BEST peanut butter for today's cookies is a processed creamy peanut butter, preferably Jif or Skippy.

Why did my peanut butter cookies come out oily? ›

You baked your cookies and they came out an oily greasy mess. Urgh, what an awful feeling! If you've had this happen to you, odds are you made one of two mistakes: either you didn't allow the ingredients to thoroughly mix during the creaming process or you didn't allow the dough to rest enough before baking.

Why is my peanut butter cookie dough so wet? ›

Kind of like how crumbly dough is usually because there's too much of the dry ingredients, runny cookie dough comes from having too much of the liquid ingredients.

Should you refrigerate peanut butter cookie dough before baking? ›

Prep your Peanut Butter Cookie recipe up to 24 hours in advance, cover it and refrigerate it so you are ready to bake at a moment's notice. The kids can even help you scoop, roll and flatten the cookies. If the dough is too firm to scoop, let it stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

How do you keep peanut butter cookie dough from sticking to your hands? ›

Dust hands and utensils with flour: Dusting hands with flour before handling the dough is a winning solution to prevent the dough from sticking. Grease hands: Lightly greasing your hands with vegetable oil or cooking spray will ensure the dough doesn't stick to your palms when rolling into balls.

Why are my peanut butter cookies dry and crumbly? ›

If you're wanting to use natural (no sugar added) peanut butter, the cookies will be less sweet and they will likely spread out more. Using natural peanut butter will change the structure and texture of the cookies. Why are my cookies dry and crumbly? This is most likely a classic case of using too much flour.

What is a fun fact about peanut butter cookies? ›

Peanut butter cookies have been popular since the early 1900s. In fact, in 1913 the wife of the 28th US President, Woodrow Wilson, published a list of her cookie recipes, which generously included a recipe for Peanut Cookies that, of course, used peanut butter.

What country invented peanut butter cookies? ›

A peanut butter cookie is a type of cookie that is distinguished for having peanut butter as a principal ingredient. The cookie originated in the United States, its development dating back to the 1910s.

Who made the first peanut butter cookie? ›

The peanut butter cookie was invented in the early 1910's by George Washington Carver.

Why are the peanut butter cookies crumbling? ›

Why are my cookies dry and crumbly? This is most likely a classic case of using too much flour. It's crucial to properly measure the flour in this recipe, as even 1 extra tablespoon of flour can completely change the structure of the cookies. You also might have over baked them!

Why are my cookies falling apart so easily? ›

If you overmix the dough, the cookies will be dry and crumbly. The best way to fix this is to add more liquid to the dough. This can be done by adding milk, water, or even melted butter. You may also need to add more flour to the dough if it is too wet.

Why are my homemade cookies falling apart? ›

Too much flour: If you add too much flour to your cookie dough, it will be dry and crumbly. Make sure to measure your flour correctly using a kitchen scale or by spooning it into your measuring cup and then leveling it off. Not enough fat: Fat helps to bind the ingredients together and make cookies chewy.

Why is my peanut butter separating? ›

But because natural peanut butters don't contain these stabilizers, the oil in peanuts tends to separate from the peanut solids when sitting on the shelf. The process of oils and solids separating, known as syneresis, is completely safe, but it's still really irritating.

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