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These Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies are super thick, rich in peanut butter flavor, and loaded with gooey chocolate chips! Press extra chocolate chips on top and sprinkle with sea salt for an impressive presentation! A great recipe for anyone who loves the combination of chocolate and peanut butter!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hello bakers! And welcome to week 3 of chocolate month! Today we’re celebrating one of the most popular flavor combinations in the world: chocolate and peanut butter! And one of the most beloved baked goods: COOKIES!
These cookies are soft, thick and chewy! And of course, super peanut buttery!!! Thanks to an entire cup of creamy peanut butter that’s swirled into the batter! Plus, 2 whole cups of chocolate chips.
So let’s jump into the recipe so you can get baking!
My Top Tips for Making PERFECT Peanut Butter Cookies
- You’re going to need a stand mixer or electric mixer for this recipe! You’ll use it to beat your room temperature butter and peanut butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
- Use eggs AND a yolk! Don’t skip the yolk because it adds moisture and makes the cookies a little more chewy! And be sure you’re using large eggs, not medium or extra large.
- Brown sugar AND granulated sugar! This combination adds flavor and moisture to our cookies.
- Weigh your dry ingredients! Especially the flour, because using too much flour can lead to dry balls of dough that don’t bake properly. This is my favorite kitchen scale! It’s under 30 dollars, easy to clean, and most importantly, very accurate!
- Don’t use artificial vanilla flavoring! This won’t add anything but generic artificial flavor to your cookies. So if you don’t have real vanilla extract on hand, just skip it! Or add a teaspoon or two of bourbon.
- I do not recommend using natural style peanut butter, sugar free peanut butter, or chunky peanut butter!
- For an extra peanut butter kick, try subbing half of the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips!
- For evenly shaped cookies, use a large cookie scoop to divide your cookie dough. This ensures all of your cookies come out the same size and shape!
- Press down gently on the dough balls before baking. This helps them spread evenly in the oven! If you prefer super puffy cookies, you can skip this step. But be warned: they’ll the very thick!!! Not at all a bad thing, but I find most people prefer them a little thinner.
For extra pretty cookies, press a few chocolate chips on top right when the cookies come out of the oven! And if you love the combination of salty and sweet, you can sprinkle on some flaky sea salt, too!
Can I make them ahead of time?
Thankfully, this recipe doesn’t require chilled dough! Meaning you can just assemble, scoop, and bake!
That said, if you’d like to make the cookie dough ahead of time, you can. It’ll keep, covered and in the fridge, for up to 3 days! But let it come to room temperature for a bit before baking. I usually sit my bowl on the counter for 30 minutes or so before baking.
And you can also freeze the cookie dough balls for up to 2 months! Place them on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid, then transfer them to a freezer safe ziplock bag and pop them in the freezer until needed. But you’ll want to add a few minutes onto the bake time if baking from a frozen state!
More Peanut Butter Cookies Recipes:
- Soft Batch Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Cookies
- Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies
- Santa’s Favorite Peanut Butter M&M Cookies
- Peanut Butter Monster Cookies
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown Butter Salted Pretzel and Toffee Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Cookies
Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 and 2/3 cups flour (321 grams)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter (269 grams)
- 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (199 grams) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (142g) light brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus extra for decorating
- Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon (if using). Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, beat the peanut butter and butter until smooth.
- Gradually add in both sugars, one at a time, and beat until well combined, about 2 minutes.
- On low speed, add in the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla.
- Gradually add in the dry ingredients, beating on low speed until just combined. Turn the mixer off.
- Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate chips.
- Using a large cookie scoop, scoop out 1/4 cup portions of the cookie dough and roll it into balls. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, leaving at least 2-inches between each cookie for spreading. Gently press down on each cookie ball, slightly flattening the ball. This will help them spread evenly in the oven.
- Bake, one tray at a time, for 14 to 16 minutes, or until golden brown and set. Repeat with all cookie dough.
- When the cookies come out of the oven, press a few extra chocolate chips on top while they're still warm, and sprinkle with sea salt, if desired. Serve warm or cooled!
Notes
- If you're not using a digital scale to weigh your ingredients, you may want to reduce the flour to 2 and 1/2 cups. Fluff up your flour first, then gently spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off with a knife. But for best results, weigh your ingredients.
- Do not use natural peanut butter for this recipe. I recommend a regular creamy peanut butter like JIF or Skippy.
- I have not tested this recipe with crunchy peanut butter and do not know how it will work.
These cookies are some of the BEST I have ever tried. Not just best of peanut butter cookies, but one of the best of any cookie. So easy to make, so pillowy soft, and so yummy. They definitely are giant cookies, and gosh they are picture perfect! Mine turned out exactly like the photos. HIGHLY recommend these! Your taste buds will thank you. I also used a scale to measure the ingredients.
Family favorite! Great recipe!
Amazing recipe i will try it very soon. Just i have a homemade pure peanut butter without sugar and oil, so why it’s not recommended to use it please? And what should I do in this case?!
Thank you
They were really great – A tad crumbly and did not spread much at all and that’s what cost a star for me, but I still would make again.
Hi Chrystal. I’m glad you enjoyed them! If they didn’t spread, it sounds like they had too much flour. Just curious – did you weigh your flour on a kitchen scale? Also, did you press them down into a disc before baking?
These were so good! Perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter and super fluffy!
What brand of peanut butter do you use?
I used JIF!
These cookies sound like the best ever! Wish I had a couple right now!
These look delicious! I am a huge fan of all your recipes and can’t wait to try this one! If I were to make these smaller using a #40 cookie scoop how long should I bake them?
Thanks,
Judy
I would reduce the time by 2 minutes to start. You might want to do a test cookie before baking a whole batch!
Thank you so much!
I made these according to the directions and my cookies are enormous. Maybe I beat my peanut butter and soft butter too long. The balls were very soft. Only could cook 6 per sheet. They are yummy I just prefer a stronger peanut butter taste. I think it was overwhelmed by the chocolate.
Trying these cookies for the first time. I only have chunky Jeff in my pantry. Anyone used the chunky?
This recipe was on the best of the many of hundreds I’ve tried. I’ve made them once and I’m making them again tonight for a BBQ tomorrow. Love these, thank you. 🙂
Would you use milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet, or does that change the flavor too much?
Sure! They’ll just be sweeter!
Wow!! Just wow!! This is the first batch of cookies that turned out looking perfect for me! I followed the recipe all the way through and they came out chewy, peanut butter-y, and delicious. We baked it for 13 mins. I wish there was a way to cut down on sugar without changing the consistency. But other than that, great recipe that I will definitely save and do again!
I loved making these cookies! They were a hit. All you cookie recipes turn out absolutely perfect. I ate so much dough that I never tried them once they were baked but they looked beautiful. I’m curious on how long you typically keep them on the baking sheet after they are pulled out of the oven?
Followed the recipe to a T and they came out amazing! The only minor change I did was adding dark brown sugar since I ran out of light brown sugar. Very soft and chewy and very subtle in PB taste. Also froze a batch to enjoy them any other time 🙂
So yummy! I did bake them 2 min longer because my cookies were giant and the oven wasn’t cooperating but they turned out great!
The flavor Is great. I’m not sure what happened but my dough was a lot lighter than Ashley’s and it was too soft to roll into a ball. I double checked that my measurements were correct but still didn’t turn out the same. Still amazing and would make again.
These cookies are amazing.
They look fantastic! I’m going to try BUT subbing almond butter because my daughter is allergic to peanuts. Any suggestions to measurements?
These cookies are excellent! I followed the recipe exactly (weighed ingredients, flaky salt, flattened before baking, etc.) with three exceptions:
1. I only had Adams Natural Peanut butter (the No Stir kind) on hand. And I used about half creamy and half crunchy because that’s what I had (same brand).
2. My scoop must have been a bit large because I ended up with 18 cookies (three pans of six). I increased the baking time to 17-18 minutes.
3. I used milk chocolate Ghirardelli chips
— Thank you for this excellent recipe; exactly what I was looking for.
I’m so happy these were perfect for you!
Oh man!! I’ve made these twice now and they come out perfect every time!! These are SO STINKIN GOOD! I Layered them in paper and placed them in a wide tin with a see through top. My husband and guests thought I bought them at a bakery!!
Same thing happened with the white cake I tried!
Thank you so much for such delicious recipes!! They’re so much fun to try and always turn out flawless on my first try!! PS your baby boy is so adorable! Congratulations!
Awww thank you so much Amy! This comment made my heart happy!
This is a great recipe. I used my 2 1/2 tablespoon scoop, instead of the quarter cup stated in the recipe, and made 38 cookies. I baked nine at time on the cookie sheet for 14-16 minutes. I let them cool on the cookie sheet for about 10 or 12 minutes before transferring them to the cooling rack, and this creates a soft (instead of crunchy) cookie.