Peanut Butter-Granola Cookies

These peanut butter cookies get their crunch from a full cup and a half of granola cereal stirred right into the dough. Add peanut butter morsels on top of that, and every bite is loaded with nutty, toasty flavor and varying textures.

Brown sugar is the only sweetener here, which gives these cookies a deeper, more caramelized flavor than white sugar would and keeps the centers chewy while the edges crisp up. The dough comes together fast: cream the butter and sugar, beat in eggs and water, fold in the dry ingredients, then stir in the granola and peanut butter chips.

Drop them by rounded teaspoons, not tablespoons. These are meant to be small, snackable cookies that bake in 8 to 10 minutes. Pull them when the edges are golden but the centers still look slightly underdone. They’ll firm up on the sheet as they cool.

Chef Tips

• Use softened butter, not melted. Melted butter spreads the cookies flat and you lose that chewy center.
• The tablespoon of water in the dough isn’t a mistake. It creates a bit of steam in the oven that helps the cookies puff up before they set.
• Don’t overbake. These go from done to dry in about 60 seconds because the granola absorbs moisture quickly.
• Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a rack. They break apart if moved too soon.

Variations

• Swap peanut butter chips for chocolate chips for a chocolate-granola combo.
• Use chunky natural granola with nuts and dried fruit for extra texture in every cookie.
• Press a few extra peanut butter morsels into the tops before baking for a bakery-style look.