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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 these cookies. Wife told me that it is a masterpiece. Kids love it too.
Woohoo!! So happy to hear they were a hit with your family!
Really great recipe! I think the brand of peanut butter I used made mine slightly salty but I love it!
Glad you loved them, Rachel!
My coworker bought cookies in and I loved it so much I had to ask for the recipe to make it myself! My question is does it really make a difference if I use aluminum baking tray instead of the dark ones I have? I want to follow the recipe to the T but wondering if anyone used a dark baking sheet and it turned out fine. Otherwise, I’d have to purchase the aluminum one.
Hi Helen! So happy to hear how much you love this recipe! Yes, the type of baking pan does matter. Check out this experiment Tessa wrote about showing the difference in baking pans. Dark non-stick pans heat far too aggressively, resulting in overly browned cookies and burnt cookie bottoms. If you must use them, you’ll likely need to reduce the baking time and maybe even drop the temp by 10-15 degrees. I would suggest for your first time making these cookies to (always) use parchment paper, but also reduce the temperature by 10 degrees and watch the baking time, starting to check them around the 9-10 minute mark, taking them out once they’re golden brown. Let me know how it goes!
Came out really good!!!! Mine didn’t have much of a peanut butter flavor, if any at all. I wonder if it’s because I used Jif? The store was out of skippy… any recommendation?
Hi Brittany! Jif is a name brand, so that shouldn’t have been the issue. Did you chill your dough? Check out Tessa’s tips on chilling your dough in the pink box above the recipe, I think that might help get you the extra flavor you’re looking for. We’ve also had readers switch out some of the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips to add even more peanut butter flavor 🙂 I hope you give this recipe another try!
These are the BEST peanut butter chocolate chip cookies ever!! I followed the recipe to a T and boy was it worth it! This is now my go-to recipe!!!
Yay! So happy to hear that!
SO good!! Gave these out to a few people and they absolutely loved them. They have a more subtle PB flavor but it’s perfect in my opinion. Highly recommend.
Glad to hear everyone enjoyed them 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
I tried this recipe but was a little disappointed to not see directions how far apart the cookies should be or the proper thickness for the perfect soft cookie…otherwise they were tasty…I little thick, thinking they will spread a little during cooking…which they did not
Id l8ve to try your recipe but prefer crispy cookies. If I bake these slightly longer (5mins) with room temp dough, would this work. Also, I usually use 20gr of mixture per cookie. We prefer them smaller. Thanks in advance. Anna
Hi Anna! We haven’t tried that, so I can’t say for sure! Please let us know how it goes if you give it a try 🙂
I made these today, it first time in over 50 years of baking I’ve weighed my flour! They came out delicious and soft. I’m really don’t care much for peanut butter cookies as a rule but I’ll be making these again! Only thing different I did was eyeballed the peanut butter and used my 2 cup measuring cup to the top with chocolate chips… Thanks for a great recipe
So happy you enjoyed this recipe, Cynthia! And congrats on using a digital scale to measure your flour! It is definitely a game changer in the kitchen 🙂
I love to cook, but am not very good at baking. I followed your recipe exactly as written and had one happy hubby! My only question is how many calories are in these heavenly cookies?
Thank you!
Tracy
Glad you enjoyed them, Tracy! Here at Handle the Heat, we don’t count calories. We firmly believe that dessert is meant to be an indulgence and should never be punished ❤️️
Delicious and easy.
I actually used natural peanut butter brand Justin and I simply mix really well in the jar before scooping it out. Nothing separated, the cookies were perfect. (I have pictures of the different stages of the dough)
For me, it yield 30 cookies of a bit less than a quarter of cup.
Thank you for sharing this recipe
We love them and will do those same cookies next time it’s time for peanut butter cookies
So I tried to make this recipe yesterday, it was extremely oily to then touch and even left some oil with its moves. after baking, it takes about 5 minutes to cool and the cookie was not chewy but actually a wee bit crumbly. over all it tasted decent with skippy pb and 70% chocolate.
Hi Dee! Crumbly cookies can happen if the flour isn’t measured accurately. Please check out our pink tip box above the recipe for more details, I hope that helps!
I got 5 dozen cookies out of a batch. Probably one of the best Peanut butter chocolate chip recipes.