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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.
I made this recipe yesterday and refrigerated the batter for 24 hours as it recommended. I pulled out the batter which was incredibly stiff so I left it to warm to room temperature. I can’t even get a spoon into it. All I have is a big blob of immovable batter. What did I do wrong?
I was able to finally get at the batter and mold it into balls and flatten them out on the baking sheet as the recipe calls for. I’m happy enough with the cookies but I have to agree with some of the other posts here that the peanut butter flavor is underwhelming. I used Jif creamy peanut butter. My only other local option is Kraft. There’s plenty of chocolate chips but really does need more peanut butter.
I was finally able to scoop the batter out and mold into balls and flatten them on the baking sheet as per the recipe. I’m happy enough with the result but I have to agree with some of the other posts here that the peanut butter flavor is underwhelming. I used Jif creamy peanut butter. My only other local choice is Kraft. The cookies have plenty of chocolate chips but really needs more peanut butter.
These cookies test like a Reese peanut butter cup and are delicious, HOWEVER…. Chilling them over night is mandatory and not a suggestion. I made 4 cookies after I mixed the dough and they were ok but not great. I made the rest of the cookies the following day and everyone loved them.
These are delicious!!! But, the batter was super crumbly and hard to hold together in clumps to bake. Is that normal? It looked different than your video. I followed the recipe exactly! Thank you!
Just like many of these other posters… my cookies came out really dry and crumbley. Worse yet, it tasted all weird and bland. The first batch seemed all wrong.. So on the second I added another egg and more butter. The texture was more cookie dough-like.. but there was no saving the awful taste.
Me and my son were pretty disappointed. Armed with determination and alot of time (thanks to Corona virus). I will try again tmrw.
It sounds like one of your ingredients could be bad – flour, butter, peanut butter, or egg maybe. Check those before trying again.
I had no idea flour could go bad. Hmm. I will take your suggestion and look at the ingredients again. thank you!
Great cookies! Making my second batch tomorrow. Thanks!
Absolutely the best peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made! So soft and chewy! Thank you for the recipe!
I was a little concerned because the dough seemed greasy. Guess because the butter is melted. I added m&m’s because I always do to almost every cookie I make. I just love them. But they cooked up beautiful. Smell great too! Didn’t refrigerate dough before because of time limits. Still works out great!
These are absolutely the BEST peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made! I chopped up Hershey kisses instead of the chocolate chips and OMG! Amazing!
I made these with the stand mixer. I beat the butter, sugars and PB, then the eggs, yolk and vanilla. then the flour mixture followed by the choc chips. I chilled dough, scooped w/\ a 2 T scoop and baked for 14 min. cooled on parchment covered cookie sheets. Perfect. I did not read directions, just made them like you would make a choc chip cookie. They were delightful.
Great cookie for those that love Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Needs a glass of milk and it is complete. Thank you
I have tried to download the recipe and have not been able to. I only get to site to your baking video which I do not want.. You got my e-mail and I got nothing. I believe this site is set up to pander your video not your recipe how is disappointing to me who may have been interested but not now.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about? If you just tap the bright pinkish red “jump to recipe” button at the top of the page it’ll take you directly to the recipe card 🙂
Catherine- there is a recipe button at the top of the page you can tap on.
When I measured out 202 g of creamy peanut butter the resulting quantity was larger than 3/4 C so I checked the web and the actual amount in grams is 190 on the “cook it simply” website. So- what’s your preference- the 3/4 C/190 g. option, or 202 g. ? Thanks for your help.
I tried both measurements and prefer the 202g of peanut butter!
The PB weight may vary from brand to brand. The weight listed in the recipe is what I used to test it, so I’d always recommend using that 🙂