Peanut Butter Lava Cookies

5 from 2 votes

These peanut butter lava cookies are a fun dessert that, when served fresh from the oven, the melted peanut butter will burst out of the center of your cookies, just like the lava from a volcano!

Prep Time15

Cook Time12

Total Time27

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Peanut Butter Lava Cookies Recipe

Servings:

Calories: 245kcal

Ingredients

14 ounce package premade pie crust, 2 crusts
14 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (We used JIF Original, and it worked best for the lava)
1 cup granulated sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Set out the pie crusts until they are at room temperature. Refer to the package instructions for time requirements.
On a piece of parchment paper, unroll/unfold one pie crust layer. Roll slightly with a rolling pin to achieve a crust just a bit thinner than it comes in the package, it should be 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch.
Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter or a glass/jar to cut as many circles as you can fit from the crust.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of creamy peanut butter onto the center of the round pie piece. Sprinkle with ⅛ teaspoon of granulated sugar, making sure the sugar stays right on the peanut butter and does not spread to the edges of the pie crust. This will prevent the top from sealing to the bottom piece when we sandwich them together.
Place a second pie round over the first to form a sandwich. Use your fingers to pinch the edges together firmly all the way around the cookie.
Gently toss the formed cookie in granulated sugar and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Repeat for the remaining pie crust pieces. Collect the excess pie crust, press it into a ball, and re-roll to form additional rounds.
Bake cookies for 12 minutes until the pie crust is flaky and just beginning to brown. Do not over bake.
While the cookies are baking, repeat the above steps with the other roll of pie crust.
Remove from the oven and let cool for just a few minutes before serving. The peanut butter in the center remains in lava state while the cookies are warm and will firm up as they cool.

Video

Notes

The best way to get the lava effect is with a big dollop of peanut butter in the center and to be sure to smush the edges of the pie crust together really well.
You can also use the tips of a fork to crimp and seal each cookie.
The sugar on the inside and the double coating of sugar on the outside helps sweeten these cookies up. The pie crust doesn’t tend to be sweet enough for a good flavor.
Oven temperatures vary and may need to be recalibrated periodically to ensure they are accurate. Make sure to keep a close eye on your cookies as the suggested baking time approaches.
No matter what kind of peanut butter you use or how much you put in there, the lava effect comes from being warm and melty, so once the cookies cool down, the peanut butter goes back to its room temperature state.

Nutrition