Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
In a medium bowl with a spatula, stir together peanut butter, brown sugar, and baking soda. In a small prep bowl, beat the egg and vanilla together. Add egg to peanut butter mixture and stir with spatula until evenly distributed.
Scoop the dough with a cookie scoop (I use this #50 cookie scoop for all of my standard size cookies) and drop onto baking sheet. There is no need to roll the dough into balls. Bake 7 cookies per baking sheet, 10-11 minutes or until edges and tops start to brown. If you prefer crunchier cookies, bake up to 13 minutes.
Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature up to 7 days. Cookies may be frozen, up to 2 months.
Notes
*You may use homemade, natural, or commercial peanut butter, but be careful with more oily consistencies. I found the best texture was with 1 cup of Skippy Natural. If using natural peanut butter (either homemade or peanut butter that is made with just peanuts and salt), be sure any excess oil is stirred in and peanut butter is thick. If it is thin, this recipe wont work well. Almond butter may also be substituted for the peanut butter.
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.