Who can resist these super cute and tasty Frankenstein peanut butter cookies made with Reese’s Franken cups?! These adorable peanut butter cookies are made from scratch, they’re soft, a little chewy, and spooked up with green peanut butter cups, candy eyes, black icing, and chocolate sprinkles.
These cookies are so easy to make, and they’re perfect for Halloween parties, class parties, or a special at-home treat that you can make with your kids!
I have never met a peanut butter cookie that I didn’t like, but let me tell you about these incredible peanut butter cookies. They are melt-in-your-mouth soft and have a little chew and crispness to them on the outside. They’re rolled in granulated sugar before baking which creates a crispy and sparkly outer layer that you’re going to love.
The cookies are slightly underbaked just to help them stay soft and moist, and they are definitely my favorite type of peanut butter cookies. But if you prefer firmer PB cookies, you can make a batch of these Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Cookies and still top them with Franken cups. Or make them gluten-free, and follow this incredibly easy 3-ingredient Peanut Butter Cookie recipe.
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Halloween Fun with Kids: Your little ones will have so much help you make these cookies. Let them unwrap the Franken cups and carefully place them on top of the cookies! And then help with sprinkling the chocolate sprinkles for Frankenstein’s hair.
- Decadent: These cookies are indulgent, they’re soft, chewy, chocolatey, and will melt in your mouth!
Key Ingredients
Complete list of ingredients with quantities and instructions is located in the recipe card below
- Reese’s Cups: We’re using the Halloween-themed Franken cups here. They taste almost the same as the original peanut butter cups, but the bottoms are made with green-colored creme. Place them in the fridge right before you start making the cookie dough. They come in individual packs, or in packs of 4, and we need 24 pb cups in total.
- Peanut Butter: Regular creamy-style peanut butter will be your best choice for these cookies. You can use chunky peanut butter if you like, but I personally prefer creamy peanut butter here.
- Flour, Baking Soda, and Salt: These are our dry ingredients and make up the bulk of the cookie. Whisk them together before adding them to the egg-butter mixture.
- Sugars: A combination of granulated white sugar and light brown sugar is perfect here. White sugar will make these cookies chewy, and brown sugar will make them soft and moist.
- Butter, Egg, and Vanilla: Make sure that the egg and the butter are at room temperature before your start. This way, they mix in much better with the rest of the ingredients. As for vanilla, I personally prefer a high-quality pure vanilla extract and think it makes a big difference. But if imitation vanilla is your thing, then go for it.
How To Make Frankenstein Peanut Butter Cookies
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt). Set aside.
- Beat Wet Ingredients: In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream the butter, peanut butter, and sugars for 1-2 minutes. Scrape off the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add in the egg, and vanilla extract, and mix again until well combined.
- Combine: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined (do not overmix the dough). Cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.
- Make Cookies: Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide the cookie dough into 1.5 tablespoon-sized balls using a medium-sized cookie scoop.
- Roll in Sugar: Gently roll each ball in granulated sugar to coat from all sides, and arrange on the baking sheets 2 inches apart.
- Bake: Bake for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will puff up and have cracked tops (see image above). Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes only. No longer though, letting them cool for too long will make the next step difficult.
- Add Franken Cups: Unwrap and press a Franken cup upside down in the center of each cookie, then remove onto a cooling rack. Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating, I like to pop them in the fridge to speed up the process (20-30 minutes is enough).
- Decorate: Push 2 candy eyes into each Franken cup (they will stick fine, the Franken cups will still be a little soft). Draw the face, and sprinkle the hair with chocolate sprinkles.
Top Tips
- Don’t Melt the Peanut Butter cups. You have to be careful not to add the Franken cups to the warm cookies too soon. You have to wait for about 5 minutes, and if you feel like they’re melting, just pop them in the freezer.
- Use a Medium Cookie Scoop. It’s important that your cookies are uniform in size, this will make sure that they bake evenly and they will look better too!
- Use Melted Chocolate. I decorated the Frankenstein faces with black gel icing, but you can melt some chocolate or candy melts, add it to a piping bag and draw the faces.
Storing
Storing. Store the baked cookies for 5-7 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
Freezing. You can freeze the dough before baking, and before rolling in sugar.
Other Halloween Treats You Should Try
- Hocus Pocus Cookies that match the colors of the Sanderson sisters’ dresses!
- Halloween Cookie Cake, serve with vanilla ice cream on top.
- Super easy Dracula Cookies that look like Dracula’s dentures!
- These Jack Skellington and Spiders Halloween Sugar Cookies are super easy to make, too!
These cute cookies are adorable spooky! They’re not overly sweet, they’re soft and absolutely delicious! Make these for your next Halloween party, and everyone will be talking about how good they are! Don’t forget to share your review in the comments box below, I love to hear about your experience.
Frankenstein Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (180g) all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter 1 stick, at room temp
- ½ cup (140g) creamy peanut butter
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar + ½ cup for rolling the cookie dough balls
- ½ cup (100g) light brown sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract See note 1
- 24 Reese’s Frankencups
- 48 Candy eyes
- Black icing
- Chocolate sprinkles
Instructions
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt). Set aside.
- In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream the butter, peanut butter, and sugars for 2 minutes. Scrape off the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- Add in the egg, and vanilla extract, and mix again until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined (do not overmix the dough). Cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide the cookie dough into 1.5 tablespoon-sized balls using a medium-sized cookie scoop.
- Gently roll each ball in granulated sugar to coat from all sides, and arrange on the baking sheets 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will puff up and have cracked tops. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes only. No longer though, letting them cool for too long will make the next step difficult.
- Unwrap and press a Franken cup upside down in the center of each cookie, then remove onto a cooling rack. Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating, I like to pop them in the fridge to speed up the process (20-30 minutes is enough).
- Push 2 candy eyes into each Franken cup (they will stick fine, the Franken cups will still be a little soft). Draw the face, and sprinkle the hair with chocolate sprinkles.
Video
Notes
- Vanilla: I personally prefer a high-quality pure vanilla extract and think it makes a big difference. But if imitation vanilla is your thing, then go for it.
- Storing. Store the baked cookies for 5-7 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
- Freezing. You can freeze the dough before baking, and before rolling in sugar.
Nutrition
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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Comments & Reviews
Andrew Parker says
fun recipe, subbed the Frankenstein Reese’s for regular Reese’s, due to the stores not having it yet. It may help to chill the Reese’s cups so they peel out of the wrapper cleaner.
Diana says
So glad you liked the recipe, Andrew!