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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.
Dang. I got my wife to make this recipe, and I helped where I could… but wow. Seriously awesome cookies! They disappeared overnight lol. Thanks for this easy to follow recipe, no problems here!
So happy you loved them!
My husband has been asking for peanut butter cookies. Google led me to this recipe. My husband proclaimed that these aren’t just the best peanut butter cookies he has ever had, they are now his favorite cookies ever. I guess I’ll be making them again =)
The only changes I made, based on the other reviews, are that I used approximately 1 cup of peanut butter (instead of 3/4 cup) and 1 cup of chocolate chips (instead of 2 cups). I think my cookies are slightly smaller than the recipe’s and I baked them for 10 minutes. I live at around 6,000 feet and did not make any adjustments for elevation.
Wow, the ultimate compliment! So happy your adjustments worked perfectly, and we appreciate hearing how it went at high altitude! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment 🙂
Super yummy! I made them exactly as the recipe states (except for chilling them overnight because I couldn’t wait that long for cookies), and they turned out great. I used Jif Creamy PB, and Ghiradelli 60% cocoa chocolate chips. Thank you for the great recipe!
Amazing. I have never made better cookies. 10/10.
So happy to hear that!
It has been a LONG time since I have mixed cookie dough by hand, quieter than the mixer, and refreshing.
These are EXCELLENT and this recipe will be added to my regular rotation.
LOVE the measurement by weight.
I used Adam’s Crunchy Peanutbutter because that’s what we have.
There’s something special about mixing dough by hand for sure! So happy you loved this recipe, thanks for the comment!
I made these last night, I scooped the balls and stuck them in the freezer for 10 minutes and they were awesome!!!
Happy you enjoyed your cookies, Kate!
These are the BEST peanut butter cookies I have ever made! Somehow I’ve spent 49 years without a clue about how to properly measure flour. Thanks for the pro-tip!
So happy to hear that, Sarah!
I’ve never been a fan of peanut butter cookies but this recipe changed my mind. They’re amazing!!!
I deliberately was looking for a PEANUT BUTTER cookie. We followed the recipe exactly and none of us can taste the peanut butter at all. It’s a good cookie, but I’m very disappointed that all the extra work resulted in “peanut butter” cookies that have no taste of peanut butter.
I have made these cookies more times than I can count. LOVE this recipe, thank you for changing my life.
Yay! So happy to hear how much you love this recipe!
Yowza, these are so good! One of the rare cookies that is actually better cold than fresh out of the oven – the peanut butter flavor comes out more as the cookie chills. I chilled my dough for a few hours rather than overnight and they still turned out great.
I agree with a few of the other comments about the amount of chocolate chips – I think when I make these again, I’ll only add ~1-1.5 cups to the dough, then I’ll just stick extra on top of the cookie as needed. I still had a lot of chips in the bottom of the bowl as I was mixing that didn’t get incorporated. I’ll also consider adding some peanut butter chips. 🙂
I was concerned that the dough was too thick and that I was overmixing (I wasn’t using an electric mixer), but luckily I didn’t. I had to mix with my hands for a bit to get all the wet and dry ingredients combined, but it got the job done!
Thanks so much for your feedback, Lauren!
Hello. I’m a very old man (age 79) and I love baking for my grandchildren, so I made this recipe exactly as directed–I even used parchment paper on the baking sheets! Exact size, too–I have a #24 scoop which is exactly 3 tablespoons, I put 3 extra chocolate chips on each cookie–and it made 27 cookies. My daughter and her three kids (ages about 10 and 11) came to my house for their regular bi-weekly “after school cookies at Grandpa’s house” event yesterday. The kids liked the cookies very much and the cookies were just as you said they would be. Our only negative comment: the chocolate flavor dominated and rather obscured the peanut butter flavor. I think next time I’ll use just one cup (6 ounces) of chocolate chips in order for more of the peanut butter taste to be enjoyed more fully.
I have a lot more comments on this recipe, in addition to some suggestions for you, but I won’t bother your readers with all of that. If you are interested in my “other comments,” please send me a separate email to use for that purpose. I think you will enjoy hearing from me, as all of it is affirmative and perhaps helpful.
I’m so glad to hear everyone enjoyed the cookies! After-school cookies at Grandpa’s sounds like so much fun, and such a great way to make wonderful memories 🙂 Feel free to swap out some (or all) of the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips instead if you’d like to really amp up the peanut butter flavor! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, we appreciate the feedback!
Thanks for your answer! I’ve been thinking, and I think the next time i make these, I will use only 1 cup of chocolate chips..AND..omit the vanilla entirely. I think the vanilla contributes to “muting” the flavor of the peanut butter. Standard peanut butter cookies don’t normally call for vanilla at all.