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Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: These cookies are packed full of peanut butter flavor and plenty of gooey chocolate chips studded throughout.
Texture: Thick, chewy, soft, melty, and wonderful.
Ease: Very simple, made with pantry staples, no mixer, and ready in 30 minutes.
Why you’ll love this recipe: These are the perfect PB Chocolate Chip Cookies!
These Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are one of my absolute favorite desserts on the planet. I’ve always got a batch of these sitting in my freezer, ready to bake off whenever the craving strikes!
I’ve loved the flavor combination of chocolate and peanut butter since before I could remember. And these cookies showcase that combination perfectly.
These cookies are ridiculously thick and chewy yet soft, and are heavenly with a glass of cold milk.
The best part? These Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are so quick and easy to make – you don’t even need a mixer!
Absolutely delish!! I made them a bit larger (18 total instead of 24) and they are amazing!! I made them for Father’s Day, but the whole house approved. This is by far my favorite texture I’ve ever seen in a cookie. Perfectly crunchy on the edges, soft and chewy insides.
If you’re cookie-obsessed like me, you’ll love making cookies that’ll rival your favorite bakery (just like these!) with my second cookbook, The Ultimate Cookie Handbook: Your Guide to Baking Perfect Cookies Every Time – now available on Amazon!
Key Recipe Ingredients
Peanut Butter: I prefer natural peanut butter (well-stirred with no oily or dry bits) for a bolder peanut butter flavor, but conventional peanut butter (like Skippy or Jif) works too. Check out my peanut butter experiment here!
Dark Brown Sugar: Helps create a chewy texture and adds rich flavor. You can substitute light brown sugar if it’s all you have, but the color, texture, and flavor will be different.
Egg Yolk: The extra yolk contributes to a rich, chewy cookie.
Chocolate Chips: Semisweet is my favorite, but you can substitute milk chocolate, dark chocolate, chocolate chunks, or peanut butter chips for even more peanut butter flavor.
Sprinkle of Science (open me!)
- Brown sugar and an extra egg yolk help create a rich, chewy, and thick texture with lots of flavor.
- Be sure to measure your flour correctly (by weighing with a digital scale or the spoon and level method) to avoid cakey, dense, or tough cookies that don’t spread.
- If You Don’t Measure Your Flour Correctly, you may end up with crumbly dough and dry, hard cookies lacking flavor. Just check out the image showing the difference between correctly and incorrectly measured chocolate chip cookies.
- I ALWAYS use an unlined aluminum half-sheet pan for baking cookies.
- Additionally, I always use parchment paper for baking cookies. I find silicone baking mats produce less of a crunchy exterior crust and are just one extra thing to clean.
- Never use dark-colored pans to bake cookies, as they tend to overly brown or even burn the bottoms of the cookies.
- Check out my Best (and WORST) Baking Pans article here for more details on the science of baking pans.
Although not required for this recipe, I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough for 24-72 hours before baking. You can always bake off a few cookies right away and chill the rest. Here’s why:
- Chilling cookie dough is very similar to marinating meat – things just get so much better!
- The texture becomes chewier and thicker, and the flavor intensifies. It also improves the golden brown exterior as the cookies bake, for crisp edges.
- You can either scoop first and chill (make sure to wrap in plastic) or chill the entire mass of dough, let it come to room temperature, then scoop.
- Learn more about why chilling cookie dough matters here.
Storage & Make ahead
Storing Baked Cookies: Keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Make-Ahead Dough: Portion the dough, freeze the balls until solid, then transfer them to a freezer bag for up to 6 weeks. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or for about an hour at room temperature before baking.
Baking from Frozen: This is possible, but the cookies won’t spread as much. Get all of my tips for freezing cookie dough (and baking from frozen!) here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Peanut butter in cookie recipes prevents normal spreading, so flattening the balls with the palm of your hand before baking helps encourage them to spread more while they bake.
If you’d like an even stronger peanut butter flavor, try using very well-stirred natural peanut butter and swapping some of the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips.
I haven’t tested this, but many readers have successfully swapped in King Arthur gluten-free measure for measure or Bob’s 1 to 1 baking flour.
Yes! For about 12 medium cookies, use a medium cookie scoop to make 1 1/2-tablespoon portions and reduce the baking time by about 2 minutes.
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Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (318 grams) bleached all-purpose flour, measured correctly*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup (202 grams) creamy peanut butter**
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (200 grams) packed dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups (340 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large heat-safe bowl, microwave the butter until melted. Vigorously stir the peanut butter into the hot butter until well combined. Stir in the granulated sugar and brown sugar until well combined. Add the eggs and yolk, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Add in the vanilla. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Dough may be loose and slightly crumbly. It will not appear like normal chocolate chip cookie dough. If it's unbearably crumbly, that's likely due to discrepancies among brands of peanut butter and if you used unbleached flour. Add 2 tablespoons milk if that's the case.
- Divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls using a large spring-loaded cookie scoop and drop onto prepared baking sheets. Flatten dough slightly into disc shapes with your palms. Dot each disc with a few extra chocolate chips for picture-perfect cookies.
- Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
- Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Notes
This recipe was originally published in 2014 and has been updated with recipe improvements and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Hi! I made these today, and followed the recipe to a T! Has anyone else experienced a thick yet almost dry cookie?
I had the same problem.
I did too. And the batter was a little salty
Same problem. Dry and cake like. Not chewy like traditional cookie. I am an experienced baker.
Hi Peggy, I’m sorry your cookies didn’t turn out! Did you use a digital scale to measure all your ingredients? Dry, crumbly cookies are usually due to too much flour being added to the dough. And cakey cookies are usually due to overbeating the butter and sugar mixture or adding too many/too large of eggs. I hope you give these cookies another try – they’re one of my most popular recipes of all time!
I adapted it quite a bit, the adapted version is a 5 star for me.
I don’t get the ‘one egg yolk’ deal, why waste a white? So I cut it out and just added some milk at the end to bind the bind the dough, about 2 tablespoons.
Before that though, I never melt the butter. Just soften and cream the sugars, add the eggs and soften the peanut butter in then microwave. It all blended together and baked well.
Much less hassle, a normal cookie making process sans an egg yolk and plus some milk.
Delish
These turned out great !!! So easy, soft and chewy! I ran out of peanutbutter so only used 1/2 a cup but still great! Saved this recipe!
I consider myself a pretty good baker. I am not sure what’s going on with this recipe. But I followed it to perfection and when I took the cookie off the sheet it crumbles into dust? Is it because there’s only one egg?
I had the same issue, my dough was crumbly and the cookies fell apart. Granted they tasted amazing, it was a very crumbly mixture that I had to press together.
there should be 3 eggs, 2 whole plus 1 yolk.
How far apart do you space these on the baking sheet?
This is definitely the best peanut butter chocolate chip cookie I have ever made. I did make the smaller version so that I could share with more people. I love this flavorful, chewy ciookie. I will try the Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookie next.
Ridiculously good!
Made these for my Dad for his birthday – they came out deliciously! Great idea using the extra egg yolk and high ratio of brown to white sugar. Thank you! 10/10 will make again!
This recipe was amazing! The cookies were easy to make and came out well; they were soft in the middle and thick but evenly cooked. They were absolutely delicious; my family loved them and i did as well. Definitely making them again
FOLLOW RECIPE EXACTLY !!
I did put in fridge for a couple of hours–I find that works well for most all cookie dough prior to baking.
These were SO SO good. Approval from the Plumber and 2 grand-children ( little girls ages 7 and 15 )
This little ‘ole cookie baking Grand-Mama just tossed her old Peanut Butter/Chocolate Chip cookie recipe out and added this one to my Recipe Journal. Thank You Tessa.
These are perfection-my absolute favorite! BUT, I did substitute 1/2c of choc chips for pb chips because…well, peanut butter.
Not enough peanut butter taste and definitely not sweet enough. I followed recipe exactly except the refrigerate overnight part (no time). Very disappointed.