Peanut butter paw print cookies take classic peanut butter blossoms to a new level of cute. They are built on a chewy peanut butter cookie with fun a chocolate paw print design on top.
Are peanut butter blossoms always on your list of favorite cookies? They are definitely on ours.
While we love the classic cookie, you can make them even more fun by turning them into paw prints. Once you make them this way, you won’t want to go back.
I originally called these bear paw cookies, but you can call them dog paws or cat paws if you would rather. No matter what animal you choose, be sure to make these sweet treats.
When should I make paw print cookies?
These cookies are perfect for so many occasions. We make them as a cute addition to our Christmas cookies, but they would also be perfect for cat or dog themed parties.
Or make them for tailgates and game day if your mascot is a cougar, bear, dog, cat, lion, tiger and more.
Tips For Making Bear Paw Cookies
The base of these cookies are the same as our favorite peanut butter blossom cookies. It is a nice soft and chewy cookie.
Because of the high peanut butter to butter ratio, they taste amazing and chilling the dough isn’t necessary. All of the cookies you see here were baked without stopping to chill the dough.
That being said, if you bake the first tray of cookies and they are spreading, go ahead and pop the dough in the refrigerator for a half hour. I have just found that it isn’t necessary when making this recipe.
The dough is soft but not super sticky. It scoops easily with a small cookie scoop.
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You can roll the balls of dough in granulated sugar if you want to. Or just scoop them straight onto the cookie sheet if you prefer.
The sugar rolled cookies will have a little extra crunch on the exterior. The dough without the sugar coating has a softer bite, both ways taste great so it is whatever your preference is.
The cookies should look puffy when they come out of the oven without taking on a lot of color. As soon as they come out of the oven push in the chocolate pieces to look like a paw.
We used Ghirardelli milk chocolate melting disks for the center of the paw. The size is perfect and they taste amazing.
Use the right size chocolate chips
For size reasons, it is best if you use a different brand of chocolate chips. The Ghirardelli chips tend to be bigger which makes them harder to fit on the cookie and changes the visual effect.
Three (or four) milk chocolate chips complete the paw. Feel free to use dark chocolate if that is your preference.
Allow the cookies to cool completely and ensure the chocolate is set before stacking the cookies in an airtight container. That’s all it takes!
Storage
Cookies store for up to a week at room temperature. Put them in an airtight container with a slice of sandwich bread to keep them softer for longer.
For longer storage, the baked cookies freeze well. Just put them in a freezer safe container and pop them in the freezer for up to 6 months. Let them defrost at room temperature to enjoy.
Paw Print Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter softened
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 48 melting chocolate disks
- 144 chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together ½ cup butter, 1 cup creamy peanut butter, 1 cup granulated sugar and ½ cup light brown sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Add the 2 large eggs and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, stirring to mix.
- In a small bowl, stir together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda and ½ teaspoon salt.
- Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture and mix until just combined.
- Scoop slightly rounded tablespoonsful of dough onto a sheet pan leaving two inches between the balls of dough, a small cookie scoop works well for this. Roll balls of dough in additional granulated sugar if desired, otherwise roll them between your hands until they are a smooth ball.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes. The cookies should look puffy and soft, but set.
- Press 1 chocolate wafer into the lower center portion of each cookie, then add 3 or 4 chocolate chips to make a paw shaped pattern.
- Move cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Allow chocolate to reset before stacking for storage.
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Okay, so we made these for christmas this year. OMG! I cannot believe we never made these before, these will be a christmas staple in our house going forward. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.
That makes me so happy! I am so glad you like them.
I made these for one cookie exchange and everyone loved them. I am getting ready to make them for another cookie exchange tomorrow and I can’t remember if I used salted or unsalted butter. Do you have a preference? Thank you so much! Merry Christmas exclamation
I have made them both ways and like them both ways. My husband prefers when I make them with unsalted.
Can I use shortening in place of butter?
Yes, you could use shortening instead of butter.
Can I use dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar?
Yes. They will obviously be darker and with a slightly stronger molasses taste but they will still bake up nicely.
In all my years of baking I have never had so many compliments as when I made these for a family member visiting!! They were wonderful! I’m just really thankful that I decided to make a double batch of these and I have had to send this recipe to about 12 of my facebook friends so far because word has gotten out how good they are!!
How can I make these without the peanut butter for kids who have a peanut allergy? What should I substitute? Or can I just leave it out?
If they can have sunflower butter, that would be a good substitute.
Ken, I made a vanilla paw print cookie on a sugar cookie base if you want to give that a try. They are really tasty and good for kids that can’t have peanut butter.
I would like to print these out how do I do it
Underneath the picture in the recipe card there is a button that says print. When you click that it will take you to a printable page for the recipe.
Can I substitute gluten free flour for the regular flour?
That should work great! Any all purpose cup for cup flour should work.
What size chocolate bags would yield to: 48 melting chocolate disks and 144 chocolate chips? Looking to double the recipe!
My 10 oz. bag of chocolate wafers says it has just over 100 disks. So technically it would have enough for a double batch, but that’s assuming there aren’t very many broken chocolates in the bag. A standard bag of chocolate chips has way more than enough chocolate chips to make a double batch with plenty left for other tasty treats.
Made them so yummy. But I added to much brown sugar but good just the same.
I am so glad you liked them!