This Is The Best Store-Bought Peanut Butter Cookie

Among beloved snacks like Oreo and Biscoff sits the peanut butter cookie — picture Nutter Butters or the Girl Scout Do-Si-Dos. Peanut butter cookies are a sweet and nutty ode to everything peanuts have to offer. Mashed put this nutty cookie category to the test in a ranking of store-bought peanut butter cookies from best to worst. Many of these cookies have the classic sandwich cookie format, while others are bakery-style — and some are just plain crunchy cookies. Brands included Kroger, Great Value, Nutter Butter, and Oreo, which has a peanut butter cookie that was also listed in our ranking of popular store-bought cookies. The selection was chosen by walking through the cookie aisles of typical grocery outlets and choosing a mix of offerings from familiar brands.

The winner, Back to Nature Peanut Butter Creme Cookies, came as a pleasant surprise. This cookie ranked first after a taste test in which each of the 13 cookies was sampled for flavor, texture, and peanuty qualities. Back to Nature Peanut Butter Creme cookies are sandwich-style, with two round, crunchy wafers and a creamy peanut butter filling. This cookie got points for refined flavor, nuttiness, value, and ingredients. They are made from whole grain and whole rolled oats and are completely plant-based.

Back to Nature is a snack brand known for its completely plant-based and non-GMO ingredients. Its products include a range of cookies, crackers, granola, and trail mixes. Peanut Butter Creme Cookies and other Back to Nature products can be found at Ralph's, Whole Foods, Smart & Final, and even Los Angeles' health store Erewhon. A box is over five dollars, but that's still a good value for the quality. The relatively short ingredient list is missing those long chemical names that no one knows how to pronounce. (Although it's not nearly as short as that of our delicious three-ingredient peanut butter cookie recipe.) The taster was worried that this wholesome ingredient list would come at the sacrifice of flavor, but this assumption was wrong. The cookies were tasty, snackable, and light.

From ingredients to texture to flavor, Back to Nature Peanut Butter Creme Cookies are delightful. Peanut butter cookie lovers might have Nutter Butters as their go-to, but Back to Nature gives that classic brand a run for its money.