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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 have never left a review on a recipe before throughout my many years of baking for fun. These cookies deserve a million stars. These cookies deserve to be named the National cookie of the USA. The person who made this recipe deserves to win the lottery w/ no taxes taken out. Follow the recipe and do everything this lady says because My GOD does she know how to throw down in the mf kitchen.
WOW, this absolutely made our day! A million stars? The National Cookie? Thank you so much for baking, for trusting the recipe, and for leaving such an awesome review. We’re so thrilled you loved the cookies… and we’ll be waiting by the phone for our lottery win 😉
I have had the most compliment on these cookies! They are wonderful! Ty for sharing this recipe! 😉
These are very good. I’m in Australia and weighed all ingredients. I used Bega crunchy peanut butter and the recipe worked perfectly as written ie I didn’t need to add milk.
So glad that these cookies worked perfectly for you in Australia, Alex! Thanks so much for the comment 🙂
Can the cookies be frozen, once baked? If not, how long can they be stored in the fridge?
Hi Ombretta! The pre-portioned cookie dough freezes beautifully for baking at a later date – check out Tessa’s instructions for that just above the recipe here. As for the baked cookies, you can store them inside an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The baked cookies should also freeze fine – just be sure to store them inside an airtight container, separated by parchment or wax paper, to prevent sticking. I wouldn’t recommend freezing for more than a few weeks, to prevent the cookies from drying out. I hope that helps! Happy baking!
This recipe was soooo amazing I separated the batter into 2 colour (pink and blue) and I made a checkered design on my cookies. Although the recipient is amazing Tessa Arias added up the total time wrong if you look at the recipe it says 22 mins though it should be 32
That sounds so cute, Lola! Happy to hear you enjoyed them 🙂 And thanks for sharing the error with the total time listed, I’m not sure how that happened since it usually calculates automatically! I’ve updated it. Thanks again!
Hey hey! These turned out amazing. I made them using King Arthur gluten free measure for measure and they are soft and chewy. 💕 big hit here.
If I halve this recipe would I just use 1 egg, while also omitting the egg yolk?
Hi Glin! You can, though the end result won’t be quite as chewy. An egg yolk from a large egg is about 1 tablespoon, so break up the egg yolk with a whisk or the tines of a fork and measure out half, which is 1 1/2 teaspoons.
Have you doubled this recipe and did they turn out the same?
I doubled. Takes three men and a boy to stir it all together. Started with my electric beater and broke it. Was a workout after that. Haven’t tasted yet; in the fridge for tomorrow’s bake, so can’t rate as of yet
My best friend makes me make these cookies all the time. These are our favorite cookies. They are absolutely delicious every time 😋😋😋
What is 3-Tablespoon sized cookiers? Cookies the size of three tablespoons? That’s huge.
They seem huge but they don’t spread much. End up being a larger cookie as recipe states
Absolutely love these cookies and everyone else did too. I’d like to try monk fruit sugar brown/white what would the substitute be for that? Same as the reicpe calls for?
I searched for a diabetic friendly cookie, this pulled up, but it has 1/2 cup of sugar. Could I substitute for Stevia type sugar or something else?
I meant Truvia stevia leaf
Hi Moriah! We haven’t tested this recipe with sugar substitutes, so we can’t guarantee the results. Our recipes are developed with traditional baking ingredients for the best taste and texture. If you’re looking for a diabetic-friendly cookie, I’d recommend searching for a recipe specifically designed with a sugar substitute for the best results. Happy baking!
When I’m on keto, I use allulose sugar for baking. 1:1 ratio and very similar taste to white granulated sugar. Cooks like white sugar, it was a suburb find!