Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are packed with peanut butter and chocolate chips, and have the texture of a bakery chocolate chip cookie! An easy chewy cookie you can make in under 30 minutes with no need to chill the cookie dough!

One bite, and it was over. After years of development, I had finally perfected peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. There is a rich peanut butter flavor in the brown sugar cookie that stays thick and chewy!  They don’t need to chill or rest or even really cream. You can make these from start to finish in under 30 minutes!

So preheat your oven, all you chocolate peanut butter fanatics and get ready for a life-changing cookie experience. These will be a regular bake sale request, along with cream cheese chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and squares of milk chocolate brownies! Get ready to be the most popular baker on the block!

Professional Tips for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:

• Don’t cream excessively. For the thickest, chewiest cookies just barely cream the butter and sugars. Entirely mixing them by hand is totally on the table!
• You need the brown sugar here. White sugar on its own will not yield cookies that are as thick, if you only use white sugar your cookies will flatten and spread more. 
• Small flour additions: Add the flour mixture in small additions so you don’t overwhelm the batter. I wait until the flour is just barely incorporated before I add the next round.

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookie Ingredients

• All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour has just the right amount of gluten to make a soft chewy cookie.
• Baking Soda: Baking soda reacts with an acid, the molasses in the brown sugar in this instance, to leaven the cookies.
• Baking Powder: Double acting baking powder will react instantly when it is mixed with an acid and then again when it is heated.
• Kosher Salt: Kosher salt is less salty than table salt and a teaspoon weighs less than other finer ground varieties. It heightens the flavor here and will keep your cookies from tasting dull or flat.
• Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar is obviously here for sweetness, but if you add too much in proportion to the butter and flour, the cookies will spread rather than stay tall and chewy.
• Light Brown Sugar: Using light brown sugar adds sweetness along with a little moisture. This will keep the cookies soft while adding a nice, rich molasses flavor.
• Butter: I use unsalted butter for baking, because you want to control the amount of salt you are adding. Every brand is different and it makes adjusting the recipe a challenge. If you’re looking to make cookies with oil instead, head over to my Chocolate Crinkle Cookies!
• Peanut Butter: I specifically use smooth Jiff peanut butter in these cookies, forever and always. I prefer its flavor to the other brands of no-stir peanut butter. Keep up your peanut butter trend with some Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins or Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies!
• Whole Egg: The eggs are here to add fat, moisture and leavening. The fat from the yolk adds richness and helps keep the cookies chewy. Beating in the eggs just enough will add a little or a lot of leavening depending on the desired texture. Eggs also emulsify the batter and keep everything texturally perfect.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla Extract adds a beautiful flavor itself but it also boosts the flavor of other ingredients around it such as chocolate and brown sugar.
• Chocolate Chips: I use a mix of semi-sweet chocolate chips and bittersweet chocolate chips for contrasting flavors and to balance some of the sweetness. If you want to overwhelm yourself with chocolate, head over to my chocolate pound cake or chocolate filled cupcakes recipes! Regarding chocolate chips, Ghirardelli is my brand of choice, but Toll House chocolate has never let me down.

Variations

• Turn them into bars: You could adapt this recipe to be in bar shape, like my fudgy peanut butter milk chocolate bars! I recommend lining your baking dish with parchment paper for easy removal. You can also bake them in a skillet like this pizookie recipe!
• Make them mini: I’m a sucker for bite sized treats, so why not portion them extra small like my bite-sized pecan tassies? Just be careful to watch them, since the bake-time will be different!
• Ice Cream Sandwiches: You like to live on the wild side, and ice cream sandwiches are your way of doing just that. Scoop some chocolate ice cream or French vanilla ice cream in between two of these cookies or try something new like Toasted Marshmallow Smores Ice Cream!
• Oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies: Combine ideas from this recipe and the one for my chewy oatmeal raisin cookies, and you’ve got something delicious on your hands. Just add ½ a cup of quick oats! The natural creamy taste of peanut butter with oatmeal also shows up in my peanut butter banana energy bites, and it’s a home run!

Substitutions

• Natural Peanut Butter: This recipe will yield the same results with natural peanut butter. Natural peanut butter separates and must be stirred together prior to using. There are enough dry ingredients in this recipe for everything to work out if your flour is correctly measured. 
• Crunchy Peanut Butter: You can use crunchy peanut butter for a little added texture. Crunchy peanuts might be delicious to add on top of the aforementioned ice cream sandwich as well!
• Sugar: You can use dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar, that’s no problem. However, the cookies will not turn out as thick if you substitute 100% granulated white sugar. 
• Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: If you want to skip the chocolate chips and head in a Reese’s direction, check out my chewy Reese’s peanut butter cookies or Reese’s peanut butter blondies!

How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Use these instructions to make the perfect peanut butter chocolate chip cookies every time! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below!

Make the cookie dough:

Step 1: In a bowl, whisk together flour, soda, powder and salt. Set aside.

Step 2: Cream butter and sugar only just until a smooth paste forms. This is critical for thick and chewy cookies.

Step 3: Beat the egg and vanilla into the creamed butter mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl and really making sure it is incorporated. Add the peanut butter and beat until smooth.

Step 4: If using a stand mixer, reduce the speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients a bit at a time. I never wait until it all incorporates before adding more, but you don’t want to overwhelm the batter either. Easy does it!

Step 5: Once all the flour has mixed in, add the chocolate chips and mix briefly for even distribution.

Portion and bake the dough:

Step 6: Scoop or roll the cookie dough balls. 

Step 7: Chill completely or bake immediately. They even bake like a dream from frozen. The option to chill or not chill is beautiful!

Step 8: Preheat the oven to 325°F and bake until they are golden brown around the edges and no longer doughy in the center. From frozen this will take a solid 15 minutes. Baking from room temperature will be a little shy of 10 minutes.

Step 9: Cool on a wire rack and enjoy. Or just enjoy. No judgment!

Frequently Asked Questions