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 do you put Criss Cross on peanut butter cookies? ›

So it looks like that there are utilitarian reasons for the cross-hatching—to allow for even cooking—but it might have been passed along for nearly a hundred years for primarily aesthetic reasons, where the cross-hatching is more to identify the cookies as peanut butter ones, rather than to cook them well.

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

The baking company shared that the reason has to do with the consistency of the dough. Because peanut butter cookie dough is dense, using a fork helps flatten it into the ideal shape and thickness, allowing it to bake evenly.

Who made the first peanut butter cookie? ›

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

Why are my peanut butter cookies always hard? ›

Why are my peanut butter cookies hard? If your peanut butter cookies are hard, you likely cooked them for too long. They should not be baked for more than 8 or 9 minutes.

Should you flatten peanut butter cookies before baking? ›

Certain cookies — Sugar Cookies, Snickerdoodles, Classic Peanut Butter Cookies — need to be flattened a bit before they bake, lest they end up emerging from the oven looking like ping-pong balls rather than typical flat, round cookies.

Should I let peanut butter cookie dough rest? ›

Another Success Tip: Chill the Cookie Dough

The dough is incredibly creamy, almost like peanut butter frosting, and you'll have a heck of a time trying to roll and bake such a soft dough. Set aside 1–2 hours for chilling, or do yourself a favor and make the dough the night before.

Why do you smash peanut butter cookies? ›

It's been the “mark” of this classic treat for more than eighty years, and for good reason: by flattening this dense cookie dough, it ensures that each cookie bakes evenly. Our kitchen-tested recipe is a classic.

Why are my peanut butter cookies crumbling and falling apart? ›

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.

Why did my peanut butter cookies burn on the bottom? ›

Be A Mindful Measurer. Especially with sugar. Beyond providing sweet flavor, sugar is a key player in developing a crispy texture in your cookies. However, going overboard on the sweet stuff can promote fast and excessive caramelization, ultimately resulting in cookies with overly-darkened bottoms and edges.

What cookie was invented in 1912? ›

On this day in 1912, Oreo cookies were first developed and produced by Nabisco in New York City. It's time to celebrate the iconic crunchy chocolate sandwich cookie with the sweet vanilla cream filling that Americans have enjoyed for over one hundred years.

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 Girl Scout cookie is peanut butter? ›

That's why some of our cookies look the same but have two different names. Whether the package says Peanut Butter Patties® or Tagalongs®, or Samoas® or Caramel deLites®, the cookies are similarly delicious.

Is it better to use butter or shortening in peanut butter cookies? ›

Your other source of fat should be butter, not shortening. Butter will make your cookies taste buttery; shortening will make them taste suspiciously vacant, like Katy Perry's voice post-autotune. Yes, shortening yields chewier cookies than butter does, because butter contains water and shortening doesn't.

What is a cookie in American slang? ›

The slang use of "cookie" to mean a person, "especially an attractive woman" is attested to in print since 1920. ... The word "cookies" is used to refer to the contents of the stomach, often in reference to vomiting (e.g., "pop your cookies" a 1960s expression, or "toss your cookies", a 1970s expression).

Why are peanut butter cookies so greasy? ›

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. Watch the video below to see how both these mistakes happen and how to fix them.

Why indent peanut butter cookies? ›

Peanut butter cookie dough is denser than a lot of other cookie doughs. Putting the hash marks in the cookie dough balls actually flattens them for more even baking. Without being pressed, the cookies will not cook evenly.

How do you keep peanut butter cookies from spreading? ›

4) Chill that dough!

“When chilled cookies bake, the butter stays in a solid form longer, slowing the spread,” says Dawn.

How do you keep peanut butter cookies from 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!

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