The perfect chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Your favourite chocolate chip cookie kicked up a notch.
I have a rather bold statement to make about these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies: These soft, chewy, sweet and salty peanut butter chocolate chip cookies rival my favourite chocolate cookie recipe. I honestly did not think that was possible. No cookie has ever come close, but these ones give the traditional chocolate chip cookie a run for its money.
Switching that recipe up to include peanut butter was surprisingly simple. I just replaced some of the butter with peanut butter and hoped for the best. It worked!
Can I use Natural Peanut Butter?
It’s important to note that the kind of peanut butter you use will make a difference. Natural peanut butter is much oilier than the regular kind and it will not work. The cookies will have too high a fat content and they will spread a lot more. I used Kraft smooth peanut butter in these cookies, but any normal peanut butter will work.
I recommend using a smooth peanut butter for best results, but you could give it a try with crunchy!
You can make these straight up with just peanut butter, but I like chocolate chips in my cookies, and who doesn’t like the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip combo? Seriously.
Though I will say the chocolate chips took away a bit from the peanut butter flavour, so if you really want a PB cookie, I’d halve the amount of chocolate chips or leave them out entirely. You can add chopped peanuts as a substitute if you like!
Before you bake them though be sure to chill your cookie dough, especially for these cookies. The peanut butter in them could cause them to spread more than your average cookie and no one wants that. A bit of time in the fridge to firm up will make a huge difference! Not ideal if you’re nursing a serious cookie craving, but worth the effort.
I like to bake my cookies until they start to get golden around the edges but are still quite unset in the center. They will continue to cook on the pan once you take them out of the oven.
Slightly crunchy golden brown edges with a soft and chewy center. I love how pretty and crackled these turned out.
One interesting thing I did notice while baking these is that my silicone baking mats yielded different results. I have a couple of different ones — the traditional ones from Silpat and a few from Fat Daddio’s. I baked 3 trays of cookies, 5 on each tray, since these were rather large and I wanted room for them to grow.
The ones on the Silpat mats spread a bit more and were larger than the ones on the Fat Daddio’s. This was a lightbulb moment, since I’ve been having issues with my chocolate chip cookie recipe spreading too much, and it’s likely due to the fact that I started using the Silpat mats. They are a bit thinner, so that may be the cause.
Overall, these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies were a huge success. Even my husband, who isn’t a huge fan of peanut butter, loved them.
Looking for more cookie recipes?
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brownie Cookies
- Peanut Butter S’mores Cookies
Tips for making these chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:
- Do not use natural peanut butter. It is too oily and will affect the consistency of the cookies.
- You can leave these plain, without chocolate chips, or replace them with something else like nuts or other flavoured chips.
- Be sure to chill your cookie dough! The peanut butter in them could cause them to spread more than your average cookie.
- I used a large (3 Tbsp) cookie scoop for these cookies, but you could make smaller ones if you prefer. Baking time will need to be adjusted though.
- Bake your cookies until they just start to brown around the edges, but are still a bit unset in the middle. They will continue to cook once out of the oven.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
The perfect chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Your favourite chocolate chip cookie kicked up a notch.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter not natural or homemade
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place flour, baking soda and salt into a small bowl and whisk to combine.
- Place butter and peanut butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on med-high until combined.
- Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy, approx 3 minutes.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat until well combined. Scrape bowl if needed.
- Reduce mixer to low and add flour mixture. Mix until just incorporated.
- Add chocolate chips and mix until just incorporated.
Using a large cookie scoop (3Tbsp), portion the dough into 15 cookie portion. Round the mounds into balls and press down slightly to flatten.
- Place mounds on a tray, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 3 hours. Do not bake unchilled dough! Cookies will spread too much and flatten.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat.
- Place cookie mounds on baking sheet at least 3" apart. I use a half sheet pan and baked 5 cookies per sheet.
- Bake for 10-12minutes or until edges have browned and center is almost set but still glossy.
- Cool on baking sheet for 10mins and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
The nutritional information and metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this important to you, please verify with your favourite nutrition calculator and/or metric conversion tool.
Thanks for this recipe. It looks delicious. I only buy limited ingredient peanut butters, for example, just organic valencia peanuts and sea salt. Does this mean my cookies are going to come out runny or flat?
Hmm, I’m not sure… Is the PB separated? Like is there oil on top that you need to stir in? If so, it won’t work. But otherwise it should be ok!
I find to reduce the spreading, chilli g the cookie dough in the fridge for like 5-minutes really helps.
Hi Shanno! I agree, I recommend chilling for 3 hours actually in the recipe, but any amount of chilling helps.
Do these have a strong pb taste and what brand of pb you use
Hi Anisa! They do taste like peanut butter, but not crazy strong. I use Kraft.
I’ve made these twice and they’re fantastic! I made them pretty big, so instead of being thin like yours they’re thicker but still that perfect soft cookie texture. My husband seriously wants me to make them everyday. Great recipe! Both times I’ve made it without the vanilla (just didn’t have any) and the taste is still great!
Hi Felicia! So glad you guys liked them :).
I followed the recipe to a t and mine turned out like cake texture too. Used Skippy creamy pb. They fell apart. Kind of dry too.
Hi Michelle! Sorry to hear you had trouble with these 🙁
I was looking for a peanut butter cookie recipe because for some reason I had 3 jars of peanut butter in my pantry. I came across this recipe, and I am glad I did! These cookies were delicious! Crunchy on the outside and nice and chewy on the inside! I will definitely make these again, and again, and again! Thank you for posting this Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe!!
Thanks so much Crystal! I’m so glad you liked this recipe 🙂
Can you double the recipe to make a larger batch?
Hi Sara! Yep, just make sure to double all of the ingredients and it should work no problem :).
I have used this recipe and they turned out great. Thank you
Thanks Dawn! Glad you liked it 🙂
Can you tell me where I went wrong because my cookies came out like cake texture and not very sweet at all.. Matter of fact they were horrible 😕
Hi Vee! That’s strange… What kind of peanut butter did you use?
Hi. These sound too yummy. I’ll try them out this week. As soon as I get my hands on some creamy peanut butter. Or does crunchy work too?
And doesn’t baking soda call for some lightly sour ingredient?
Anyway, trying these soon. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Maria! The brown sugar and peanut butter are acidic so help activate the baking soda :). I think the crunchy PB would add a great texture! Definitely try it and let me know how you like them!
Why not natural peanut butter?
Hi Karen! Natural peanut butter is a lot oilier and would affect the consistency of the cookies. They would spread too much! So if you were to use natural you’d need to adjust the recipe to reduce the fat and/or add flour.
I love this recipe! I want to try it with out the peanut butter though, have you tried this?
HI Tahnee, if you take out the peanut butter, you’ll need to replace it with butter. In which case they would be regular old chocolate chip cookies. Check this recipe out for those!
http://livforcake.com/2014/09/perfect-chocolate-chip-cookie.html
These sound delicious!! Your photos are beautiful too!
Thanks Kathryn! 🙂
These look amazing!! Definitely going to try your recipe soon 🙂
You will LOVE them. So yummy 🙂
Wow! These cookies look amazing and they’re my favorite flavor combo! Have to try them soon 😉
Thanks Megan! They are really, really good. I hope you like them! 😀
Yum! Peanut butter and chocolate are a match made in heaven. To turn them into a cookie is such an awesome idea, thanks for sharing!
Totally agree on the PB and choc combo. Thanks!
I’m amazed by your photography, so beautiful and sharp, well done! And well, the cookies, oh the cookies look delicious! So happy to have discovered your blog.
Thanks Oana! That’s so nice of you to day! 😀
I love this! And it looks like a classic chocolate chip cookie too! I’ll definitely be making these!
Thanks so much Alice! You won’t be disappointed!
These cookies look perfect! My favorite are the ones with chewy centers and crispy outsides! Plus, who can resist peanut butter and chocolate?!
I know, right?? Thanks Michelle! 🙂