Easy Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Easy Peanut Butter Cup Cookies–Just a cookie mix and a bag of Reese’s minis and you’ve got yourself a great dessert for parties, BBQs or a weeknight treat!

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UPDATED: 9/10/2024

Let me just start out by saying that I love peanut butter.  I’ll scoop it out of the container and eat it straight off the spoon.  Peanut butter and jam sandwich with extra crunchy peanut butter?  Yum.  But I especially love peanut butter in desserts, like these frosted peanut butter oatmeal bars.  This recipe I’m about to share with you today is one of my favorites and the bonus is that they are super quick and easy to make.

What You’ll Need

Scroll down to the recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities, full instructions and tips for success.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix – For this recipe, I use the 17.5-oz bag of peanut butter cookie mix. I have seen bigger sizes so if you want to make more than about 30 cookies, then you can either get 2 bags of cookie mix or 1 larger bag. Ingredient quantities will be doubled for 2 mixes but you will need to refer to the ingredient list on the back of the larger bag to know what’s needed.

Canola Oil – The instructions on the bag say vegetable oil, but I generally bake with canola oil.

Egg

Water

Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – 1 bag is enough for this recipe.

Recommended Baking Supplies

• Hand mixer or stand mixer
• Glass mixing bowl
• Mini cupcake pan: 12 cup, 24 cup
• Standard measuring spoons
• Small cookie scoop
• Wire cooling rack

How to Make Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Let’s just take a look at what you’ll need:

See?  Easy peasy.  I try to keep one of these Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mixes on hand at all times just in case I need to make a dessert for something or other.

To make these, preheat the oven (determined by what kind of pan you’re using).  Then you follow the directions on the back of the bag by combining the mix, water, oil and egg together in a medium bowl.

Since I’ll be pressing Reese’s miniatures into the cookies after baking, I like to use a mini muffin pan to help keep the shape.  Plus, these babies are rich so anything bigger than bite-size might be a little much.  Make sure you spray your pan well to make removal easier.

Next, roll the dough into 1 1/2″ balls and drop them into the center of each muffin cup and pop them in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. You really shouldn’t need more than 10 minutes.

While they are baking, unwrap your Reese’s miniatures so they are ready when the pan comes out of the oven.

When you pull them out, softly press one Reese’s into the center of each cookie.  Let them cool in the pan for 5-6 minutes.

To remove them, gently loosen the cookie by twisting it and then lifting it out and letting it finish cooling on a wire rack.  If the cookie hasn’t cooled enough and you try to take it out, it could fall apart.  There’s no harm in letting it cool in the pan for a little longer.

You can eat the cookies while they are still a little warm or after they’ve cooled completely. But whatever you do, make sure to grab yourself a glass of milk to enjoy with them!

Store the cookies in an airtight container or in a gallon ziplock bag on the counter or in the fridge.

Tips for Success

• Batch it. Save time by rolling all the cookie dough balls at the same time. Place them on a plate or cutting board so they are ready to go. Same thing goes for the peanut butter cups. Count out how many cookie dough balls you have and then count out that many peanut butter cups. Unwrap them while you’re waiting for the first batch to bake.
• Cooking spray. While peanut butter has natural oils in it and you add oil to the cookie mix, spraying each cavity of the muffin tin with cooking spray is important. You want the cookies to come out easily and in one piece. This extra precaution will save you from stuck and/or broken cookies.
• Cooling time. Giving the cookies enough time to cool in the pan after adding the peanut butter cups is just as important as using cooking spray. It might be temping to get them out so you can start another batch but your patience will be rewarded with beautiful round cookies.
• Don’t overbake. Due to the color of peanut butter cookies, it can be tricky to know when they are ready to come out of the oven. Keep in mind that they will continue to cook a little bit when you take them out because of the residual heat from the pan.

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Recipe FAQs

Can I use a regular size muffin tin?

Yes. See option #4 below for more information about how to make adjustments for a larger muffin tin.

What if I don’t have a mini muffin tin?

If you don’t have a mini muffin tin, you have a few options:

1. Check around with friends or family and see if they have one you could borrow. If you don’t make these very often or have other recipes you’d use a mini muffin tin for, then save yourself some money and borrow one.
2. Buy one. Check your local thrift store or watch for baking supplies to go on sale at your grocery or craft store. Or grab one online HERE.
3. You can bake the cookies on a regular cookie sheet and break the Reese’s into pieces and put them on top when you pull them out of the oven. You won’t end up with the nice bite size shape I show in the pictures above, but the cookie will still taste good.
4. Use a regular size muffin tin. You will need more cookie dough for each cup and will need to adjust the bake time, but the rest of the instructions would be the same.

Can I use a different cookie mix?

Yes! Try using one of Betty Crocker’s other premade cookie mixes as a variation on this recipe for peanut butter cup cookies. The number of cookies you end up with may vary so refer to the packaging. You can compare it to the peanut butter mix which makes about 30 cookies with the recipe above. Here are some of the cookie mixes they have available:

• Chocolate Chip
• Double Chocolate Chunk
• Oatmeal
• Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

How should I store the peanut butter cup cookies?

I’ve found that an airtight container or zip top bag works great to maintain the freshness. You can store them for 3-4 days.

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