Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
After baking and cooling, these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies become cakey and soft and they nearly melt in your mouth.
Based on a from long, long ago, I’ve been toodling around for quite some time with the concept to get, what is to me, the perfect peanut butter cookie.
And I finally think I’ve got it!
While I generally like to steal a cookie (or five) warm from the baking sheets, these cookies benefit greatly from cooling to room temperature (and are fantastic out of the freezer especially if you have the patience to let them sit on the counter for about 3 1/2 minutes – pure bliss).
After baking and cooling, the texture becomes cakey and soft and they nearly melt in your mouth with their peanut buttery sweetness.
I am surprised by how much I love these babies, since I am such a huge fan of my other favorites. My love for them cannot be denied. Simply consult my thighs for further evidence.
Peace out.
One Year Ago: Blue Cheese and Cheddar Scalloped Potatoes
Two Years Ago: Cookie Dough Truffles
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 g) butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups (510 g) smooth or chunky peanut butter
- 1 ½ cups (318 g) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup (212 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ tablespoons milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups (355 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (340 g) chocolate chips, or a combination of peanut butter and chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl combine the butter and peanut butter and beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy (you can do this with a hand mixer or with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment). Add the brown and white sugars and mix until well combined. Add the eggs and mix for 1-2 minutes, until the mixture is well combined and light in color. Add the milk and vanilla and mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix just briefly. While there are still large spots of flour, add the chocolate chips (or peanut butter chips or both) and mix until the flour is completely mixed in and the mixture is well combined. Let the cookie dough sit for 15 minutes before scooping onto the baking sheets. It will firm up as it sits.
- When ready to bake, scoop tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto silpat or parchment-lined baking sheets leaving about 1 to 2 inches in between the cookies to allow for spreading as they bake. Bake for 10-11 minutes, taking care not to overbake in the slightest! Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes after baking before removing them to a cooling rack. This will help them set up and be firm enough to transfer without having them overbake in the oven. The cookies may look slightly underbaked but they will firm up as they cool. Resist the urge to eat them warm as they taste much better cooled.
- I pop baked and cooled cookies into the freezer (in a large tupperware or freezer-safe ziploc bag) and they taste great out of the freezer, especially if they are left to sit at room temperature for a few minutes.
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Recipe Source: My Kitchen Cafe
Love these! My husbands all time favorites. We use all PB chips and they are divine! Thanks so much for all these yummy recipes!!
These are soooo good! An easy, no fail recipe that works every, single, time I make them (which is frequently). Freeze beautifully! Thank you for sharing!
Made these this weekend (after seeing Mel’s newest pb cookie and I didn’t have all the ingredients) and boy was I glad I ended up making these. In my husband’s words, “These are the best PB cookies ever!” It makes ALOT of cookies so we froze about half. We cooked from frozen and it was just as delicious!
These are so good! I’ve made these 3 times over the past two months. They are the perfect PB chocolate chip cookies! Thanks!
When you said peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, boy did you deliver! HOLY YUM!
These are so tender and full of that serious peanut butter flavor (we were very tempted to eat the whole bowl of dough and not even bother baking them!) That under bake was so effective at keeping the texture soft, something many peanut butter cookies lack!
Made a ton to share and our neighbors were so grateful for that! I think next time I would up my chocolate chips to 3 cups, but no one in my house complained about them, they still disappeared before 24 hours was up!
Just wondering if adding another egg would make the cookies a bit sturdier? We absolutely adore these cookies but sometimes I need to stand them up (like the store bakeries do in a plastic container) in order to take them places and they break or the edges crumble. Any thoughts? Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe! We really love these cookies!
I think it’s the peanut butter that softens the texture and makes them a big softer/more fragile. You could try another egg or and see how it goes (although you’ll want to compensate with a bit more flour, I think)
Making them now for my niece’s wedding and they are very good. I used mini peanut butter cups instead of chocolate chips.
Hmmm. I just made the first batch with my 9yo son, and they didn’t flatten out at all. Not sure what we could have done wrong? 🙁 We’re flattening the second batch with a fork to see if that helps some. Ours don’t look at all like your pictures. So sad. But the dough was delicious, and I’m betting the cookies will be too, once they cool! 🙂 If you have any tips about what makes them properly flatten, I’d be interested to know, thanks!
Hi There, daft question but what size cup do you use? Is it the size of a china cup or a mug? I’m going to bake these cookies for a cake bake at work in aid of children in need and want to make sure i get the measurements exactly right. 🙂 thank you.
It’s an 8-ounce measuring cup.
I absolutely love these cookies! I use natural peanut butter which works very well if it is cold (tried it once with it at room temperature and they were a failure). Many thanks for the roadmap to peanut butter/chocolate/cookie bliss.
Very yummy cookies! I made these with Costco natural peanut butter and omitted a 1/4 cup of flour and they turned out great.
I am a huge home baker and these are the best, bar none! I made them for company on Easter and they were as big hit. Mel, I am stealing the recipe and making it my signature cookie. 😉
Here is my own tip: It is only my hubby and I, so I make up a batch, bake a few and then I scoop the rest of the dough onto a cookie sheet, freeze them and then put the balls into a plastic bag. And voila, anytime we want a cookie I pull out a few and while the oven is preheating they are ready to bake.
PS- I hand mixed them instead of dragging out my stand mixture, it worked great, just make sure all ingredients are room temp.
Thx Mel,
Pam
Glad you loved these, Pam!
Hi,
I was wondering if you could flatten these cookies with a fork to make the traditional crisscross fork pattern in PB cookies? Can’t wait to make them.
Thanks!
You could try although these cookies have a different texture than classic peanut butter cookies and I’m not sure after baking you’ll be able to see the criss cross design since the dough is soft and flattens on it’s own while baking.
Hi! Just wondering, what is granulated sugar? I live in Australia and I’m just trying to figure what this is referring to. Is this the everyday white sugar you put in you coffee/tea or is castor sugar?
Thank you!
Every day white sugar. 🙂
Just made these tonight and my family said they are the best!
I like the fact that you just keep adding ingredients into one bowl, instead of combining wet and dry. The kitchen aid mixer works fantastic since this dough is quit firm. My dough was a little crumbly but still stuck together. I might decrease the flour a little next time after reading other reviews. I was wondering if it was because I used Kirkland (Costco) brand natural creamy peanut butter. It’s not as soft a peanut butter because it doesn’t have all the processed ingredients in it. What kind of peanut butter do you usually use? Fantastic recipe, 10 min exactly and they came out perfect. I did press them down a little with my fingers before putting them in the oven since the dough was so firm and they did come out better looking. My husband and daughter said they were the best they had ever tasted.. Thank you.
Hi Carolyn – I think you might be right about the peanut butter. I use the Jif natural brand but it is creamy just like regular peanut butter and pretty soft. I think if you decrease the flour a tad (by 1/4 cup or so) it might be perfect with the natural peanut butter.
These cookies are delicious. My husband signed my up for his work cookie exchange and decided these should be the ones I make- we both ate way too many of them. So yummy.
Thank you so much for sharing your Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie recipe. I made a batch for my father’s birthday and for my aunt (who both love peanut butter cookies). They loved them! They came out absolutely delicious. I couldn’t wait to get them out of my house and deliver them to my father and aunt because I was eating so many of them myself! LOL! In the spirit of sharing and passing on tips, I used Mexican Vanilla, Dark Muscovado brown sugar by India Tree, Jiff creamy peanut butter, Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips (which are huge), and Reece’s Peanut Butter Chips. My original intent was to refrigerate the cookie dough for at least three days, but due to unforseen circumstances, I ran short on time and was only able to refrigerate the cookie dough for 24 hours. This was the first time I ever refrigerated cookie dough and it did make a difference (cookies came out thicker). These cookies will definitely become a standard for my special occasion cookies. Thanks again!
Just made a batch of these cookies and they turned out perfect!!!! LoVe them!!!
Oh my goodness! I have made a lot of your cookies, and they are all fabulous, but these are my absolute favorite! I could not stop going back into the kitchen to have “just a little more.” Pretty sure I gained 5 pounds in about 2 days. Yum!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this well-written recipe! This batch of peanut buttery, chocolatey goodness was exactly what I was looking for and my whole family loved them too. I look forward to trying out more of your recipes. 🙂
Incredible, awesome, delicious, fantastic!!
Made these last summer and again today. I used milk chocolate chips with them and they are so yummy!! I think the texture is the best part of them.
Must freeze them quickly or I will never survive it.
Heading to the treadmill now so I can have one later!
Thanks for your awesome recipes Mel!!
OMGosh… I just made these and they are theeeeee bestest cookies ever!!! I had to cheat and taste them warm… who can resist melty chocolate chips? Thank you for sharing this recipe. It’s definitely my new favorite!
This recipe is absolutely incredible. Make them. That is all. 🙂
These look so yummy! My son, unfortunately, is allergic to peanuts so I am going to try using Sunbutter instead. It tastes very much like peanut butter, but is made from sunflower seeds. I can’t wait to try them!
Mel, these are so delicious!
My boyfriend loved them and is begging that I make him more of it. He (almost) rejected any other cookies or christmas cookies I made in the last days… 🙂
http://to-does.blogspot.de/2012/11/peanutbutter-und-schokolade-die-zweite.html
i made these and brought them to work–people gobbled them up in no time. thank you!
I have similar recipe & it calls for spanish peanuts with choc. chips! yum-a-li-cious!
CAUTION! You will not be able to eat only ONE cookie. I am polishing off my fifth one as I am writing this comment. . . . . These cookies were phenomenal. I love a chewy cookie and this hit the mark. Most peanut butter cookie recipes I’ve tried in the past end up dry, not so with this one. I used ½ milk chocolate chips and ½ peanut butter chips. The next batch will include all peanut butter chips. This cookie is a star on its own without any chocolate. Shocked as I am writing that (I’m a chocoholic), but it’s true. Great recipe!
I made these with my sister tonight, 🙁 I only put 1 cup total of sugars (1/2 white and 1/2 brown)…but sadly skipped putting a cup of flour in them (why? Waaaa!!!) they just crumble apart. They taste amazing though. I guess we’ll just use it to top ice cream…can’t let them go to waste now.
Made these with half wheat flour half white flour. Turned out great. Also didn’t have silpat but cooked on ungreased sheet at less time 9 minutes–perfect. What a fabulous recipe. I’m definitely a PB girl.
I have had a “go to” recipe for PB chocolate chip cookies for over 10 years now. Its been, hands down, my favorite cookie and recipie for 10 years. My oldest son is getting into baking and always checks ur site first when looking for a cookie recipe.. This is the cookie he chose. Instead of steering him toward our old standby, I thought ” All Mel’s recipes rock, let him try it, even if they don’t turn put AS good, they will be fine.” Boy was I in for a surprise! These weren’t “as good” they were BETTER! Holy Cow…. Thanks so much. I ate one warm because I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that a cold cookie is better than a warm one. The warm one was divine, but Mel is right, cold or frozen is even better! You rocked my PB Chocolate Chip Cookie world yesterday – Thank You!
I tried to click the link to the long ago recipe (just wanted to check it out, out of curiosity) and it was a dead link. The url said “pb chocolate heaven cookies” but it was a dead page. Does the recipe have a new name or page now?
I made these cookies with some homemade walnut/pecan butter and they were freakishly good! The nut butter was not over powering but subtle and smooth, maybe because I had a little less than two cups. But oh man are they tasty. Thank you for the great recipe and congrats on your new baby!