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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.
Thank you! This recipe is fabulous! Follows it to the tee. Everyone loves it. You rock.
Hi can I use crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth?
Thank you
Stay safe
Hi Tessa, I made these cookies yesterday and they were good and chewy. I made these off of the cookbook I bought from you and the recipe doesn’t say to flatten the cookies slightly. So my cookies came out super thick which was ok but when they came out of the oven I had thought they needed to be flattened slightly. I just watched your video right now and read the recipe off of your post today so I didn’t know they should be flattened until after the fact. I wonder if you have anymore errors in the recipes of your cookbook?
How much flour? It’s not listed omg, I got everything ready.
Big Time Disappointment! I am seriously doubting whether the comments on this thread are from people who actually made these cookies. These cookies are actually kind of dry! (Healthier maybe?) They are more cake or brownie like cookies, not the thinner normal cookies one would expect. Some people might like that, but even my young daughter was disappointed and we make cookies together pretty often.
Hi there, I’m sorry your cookies didn’t turn out! Did you use natural or conventional peanut butter for these cookies? Using natural peanut butter will result in dry, crumbly cookies. Also, these cookies are meant to be thick and chewy, not thin and crispy, as I indicate throughout the post. Feel free to check out my recipe for Thin & Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies if you prefer that sort of texture: https://handletheheat.com/thin-crispy-chocolate-chip-cookies/
My son wanted to add a different cookie to our annual Family Christmas cookie baking day. He’s 26 so it had to be sophisticated!! Best cookie recipe ever! Best cookies of the day!
This is an excellent recipe. I had to change two things. 2 cups of chocolate chips is too much. I could only manage to get 1 1/2 cups into this mix.
Also, for me, 12 minutes baking time would have been too much. 10 minutes, at most 10 mins. 30 sec. is enough.
I’m glad you tried this recipe out! Baking time may vary on the size of your cookies, what kind of pan you’re using, and how accurate your oven temperature is 🙂
I had a request from one of the trainers at the gym to do a peanut butter chocolate chip and I didn’t expect to find a recipe. I’ve never used this method before to make cookies but they turned out beautifully! The crumb was exactly what you’d expect. I used mini chocolate chips instead of the regular size and they’re perfect. I will definitely be making these again.
SO glad you loved these cookies!
Everybody loved them. Mom is in the kitchen sneaking her 6th!!!
Haha I’m so happy to hear that!
These are the best cookies I’ve ever made. Seriously so impressed. Perfect chewy texture, great flavor. I cooked for 11 minutes and removed from the pan immediately. You could also go less chocolate chips if you wanted, this is chocolate chip heavy (if such a thing exists). So. Dang. Good.
So thrilled you enjoyed these cookies!
I made these and they turned out DELICIOUS. I did around 1 1/2 cup of chocolate chips onward of 2 full cups and I added a little cinnamon. I rolled about 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie and arranged them on a pan 3×3 and they were amazing. I baked for about 13-14 minutes since they were pretty big. I hope this helps anyone <3
Hooray! I’m so glad you loved these cookies, Gracie!
WOW!!!! Probably some the best cookies I’ve ever made! I used half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate chips because that’s what i had on hand. Absolutely delicious!
Yay! I’m so glad you loved these cookies.