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.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: These are the perfect PB Chocolate Chip Cookies!
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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.
What Makes Cookies Chewy, Crisp, or Cakey?
My free guide reveals the ingredients and tweaks that matter.
The best part? These Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are so quick and easy to make – you don’t even need a mixer!
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!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
How to Make CHEWY Cookies & Not Dry Peanut Butter Cookies!
- 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 with the spoon and level method) to avoid creating 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 below, showing the difference between correctly and incorrectly measured chocolate chip cookies.
The Best Peanut Butter for Baking Cookies
This recipe has been successfully tested with conventional peanut butter (Skippy) AND natural peanut butter. Only use natural PB if it’s VERY well stirred with no oily or dry bits remaining. When very smooth, natural peanut butter will yield a much more bold peanut butter flavor!
Check out my peanut butter experiment here!
Which Chocolate Chips for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies?
I prefer the taste of semi-sweet chocolate chips in these cookies, but you could also use the same amount of milk chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, or chocolate chunks.
Feel free to substitute peanut butter chips for some of the chocolate chips for more PB-forward cookies.
Cookie Size and Shape
These are large cookies, just the way I like ’em! I use my large 3-tablespoon cookie scoop to form these cookie dough balls.
You can use the medium cookie scoop to make 1.5 tablespoon-sized balls of dough, if you prefer. Just shave off about 2 minutes from the baking time.
Peanut butter in cookie recipes prevents normal spreading, so that’s why we are flattening the balls well with the palm of your hand before baking. This will encourage them to spread more while they bake.
What Type of Baking Sheet is Best?
- 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.
Do I Need to Chill Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough?
For best results, chill the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie dough overnight in a large bowl in the fridge. Here’s why:
- Chilling chocolate chip cookie dough is very similar to marinating meat – things just get so much better!
- The texture becomes chewier and thicker, and the flavor intensifies.
- If you don’t have time, no worries. You can bake the dough off after it’s made.
How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Ahead
- Make the cookie dough as instructed and portion out the dough balls using a cookie scoop.
- Place the dough balls in a single layer on a baking sheet, freeze them until solid, then place them in a freezer bag to store in the freezer.
- Defrost the dough overnight in the fridge, or for an hour or so at room temperature before baking (less if your kitchen is warm).
- You can bake from frozen, but note that with this recipe the cookies won’t spread as much.
- Get all of my tips for freezing cookie dough (and baking from frozen!) here.
More Cookie Recipes You’ll Love:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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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.
- OPTIONAL: If time permits, cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours. Let the dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop.
- 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.
Recipe Notes
The Ultimate Cookie Handbook
Learn the sweet SCIENCE of cookie baking in a fun, visual way to customize your own recipes frustration-free. Plus, my best 50+ homemade cookies!
This recipe was originally published in 2014 and has been updated with recipe improvements and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
I am a 60-year-old man and these are the first cookies I have ever baked in my life. They are noting short of fantastic!
The first time, I followed the recipe to a T and felt there was too much chocolate chip in them. In fact, after a thorough mixing, about a quarter of the chips were laying all alone at the bottom of the bowl, and I was unsuccessful in mixing them in. I know Tessa professes to hate substitutions but in this case, cutting the chocolate chip portion in half, and then adding 50% of the reduction back in peanut butter chips, not only resulted in fewer wasted chips, but it punched up the peanut butter taste, which I felt was desired even after the excellent first batch.
My question is about adding a new taste. I was thinking of crushing about 4 ounces of almonds and just adding it to the 24-cookie mix, because I like almond tastes. Then I wondered, maybe I should be subtracting one or more of the other ingredients to accommodate for the almonds? Would love your opinion on this.
Wow Chuck, so great to hear how much you love this recipe! I’m glad you were able to find a solution for the extra chocolate chips, do you use a digital scale to measure your ingredients? I wonder if perhaps too much flour was used. I’d be careful adding additional ingredients as you had difficulty mixing in the chips, but you are more than welcome to experiment reducing some of the chocolate chips to include your almonds. Please let us know how it goes if you give it a try 🙂
Thanks for the quick reply, Emily. I do use a digital scale and measure ingredients down to the gram, so unless I had a brainfart during weighing (), I’m pretty sure I got the mix right. Part of the problem might be that I tried to mix the whole thing by hand the first time! I got a hand mixer for the second batch, so much easier and better results. If I’m being honest, I just think I prefer less chocolate and more peanut butter than the recipe calls for. As for the almonds, I’ll try to remember to let you know how it goes if/when I do try it. Thanks again!
No problem, Chuck! Definitely feel free to use peanut butter chips in place of the chocolate chips 🙂 Can’t wait to hear how these are with almonds!
These may be the best cookies I’ve ever made. Lightly crispy on the outside, moist and tender within. Thanks for sharing.
Made a batch this evening, I added a little extra peanut butter. They are delicious. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐’s Perfect. Thanks for the recipe.
Loved these cookies!
These are good cookies & easy to make… I put peanut butter chips in them because my guy is peanut butter freak! Honestly I might add a bit more peanut butter for him in the recipe & try it. Oh, I also did half crunchy and half regular peanut butter in the recipe because crunchy is his favorite. They are really yummy & chewy! Thanks for the recipe.
So glad you both enjoyed this recipe 🙂
They came out very crumbly and I followed the instructions 🙁
I’m sorry to hear that, Emily! Crumbly cookies typically happen due to mis-measured flour. Do you use a digital scale to measure your ingredients? If not, I encourage you to check out the link we list in the pink tip box above the recipe on how to measure your flour correctly. I hope you give this recipe another try!
I don’t have access to unsalted butter. Can I make them with salted butter? And, if so, how should I change the sea salt measurement? Thanks!
Hi Celeste! We haven’t tried making these with salted butter, but it should be fine! A general rule is to reduce 1/4 teaspoon salt per 1/2 cup (115g or 1 stick) of butter. I hope that helps!
These turned out great. I weighed all ingredients as you suggested and let sit in fridge overnight about 12 hours. Big hit with entire family and plan to make again for the holidays. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful! So happy this was a hit with your family, thanks so much for sharing 🙂
I have been trying to find THAT cookie. You know, the one that your husband LOVES and talks about all the time. The one that you keep going back to over and over again. The one that makes you feel like a bake off competition winner.
THIS. IS. IT.
Just perfect. I would not change a thing. My quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie has ended.
THANK YOU!!!
Amazing!!! So happy you found “the one”! 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing!
These are the best I have ever made Thank you for sharing
Wonderful to hear!
These are okay. The batter does not end up crumbly and loose, quite the opposite, it was floppy and oily. I had to bake them an extra two minutes to get them firm. Could barely taste any peanut butter, or any sweetness. They were actually really bland. Quite disappointed.
I’m sorry to hear of your issues with this recipe, Becca! Did you substitute any ingredients? What kind of peanut butter did you use? Do you weigh your ingredients with a digital scale? I’d love to figure out what went wrong so you can enjoy these cookies the way they’re meant to be!
I made these last night and as always were fantastic! Thank you Tessa another family favorite of your recipes
So glad everyone enjoyed them, Liza! Thanks so much for letting us know 🙂