Soft and chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars! These cookie bars are made extra thick in a 9×9 pan and are loaded with creamy peanut butter and packed full of chocolate chips!
Chocolate & Peanut Butter: A Dynamic Duo
Is there even a better flavor combination than chocolate and peanut butter? I’m not sure that there is, and any recipe that combines these two flavors is a winner in my book.
So, it probably won’t surprise you that these peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars are among my latest baking obsessions. Recently I’ve been going through peanut butter like mad (fortunately I’d stocked up on jars over the holidays when I made dozens and dozens of peanut butter blossoms and a pan of peanut butter lasagna!), and the craze has continued as I’ve been making a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars once a week.
Tips & Recommendations
They’re soft and chewy, made with a dash of cornstarch and creamy peanut butter (I don’t recommend using natural peanut butter). These cookie bars can be made with milk, semisweet, or dark chocolate chips (or even white chocolate chips, it just depends on your chocolate preferences, I always prefer semisweet chocolate).
While I love a great chocolate chip cookie, these peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars might be even better, and not just because they add peanut butter into the mix.
How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Making the dough is as simple as making classic cookie dough, but the actual production requires half the effort because there’s no need to scoop the cookie dough into even-sized balls, wait to cook pan after pan of cookie dough, and repeat over and over until all of the cookie dough is gone.
Also, unlike with so many of my favorite cookie recipes, there’s absolutely no chilling required to make these cookie bars. Just spread the batter into the pan and you’re good to go!
This recipe can be made in a 13×9 pan if you prefer, but I like to bake it in my smaller 9×9 pan instead for extra thick and chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars (like I said… big peanut butter & chocolate fan over here, so the bigger and fatter the squares the better!).
Keep in mind that if you do opt for the larger pan you will need to shave five minutes or so off of the cook time, as the thinner bars will bake much faster than their deep dish counterparts.
More Amazing Bar Recipes
- Easy Lemon Bars Recipe – Sweet and tart!
- Apple Cheese Danish Bars – So easy
- S’mores Bars
- Chocolate Fudge Ripple Coconut Bars
- Easy Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars – Favorite!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 ½ cups light brown sugar tightly packed
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 2 cups chocolate chips semisweet or milk chocolate would work great
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a 9×9 pan with parchment paper (or lightly grease and flour the pan).
- Using an electric mixer, cream together butter, peanut butter, and sugars until well combined.
- Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir well.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt until well combined.
- Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture until completely combined.
- Add milk and stir again until mixture is well incorporated.
- Fold in chocolate chips.
- Transfer batter to prepared 9×9 pan and use a spatula to spread it evenly into pan.
- Bake on 350F for 35 minutes or until edges are just beginning to turn golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with few moist crumbs.
- Allow to cool before cutting and serving.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert
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Made these today and they are perfection!
They were sooo delicious
Used 9×13 pan followed your recipe to the T had to bake way longer than you say. I have a chef oven so don’t tell me to check my temp. Just raw in the middle. Your recipe is terrible.
I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy it K. This recipe is usually a very popular reader recipe! Were your ingredients all at room temperature?
Delicious. I used 2/3 of the batter and put it in a 9×9 pan, baked at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Worked perfectly. The other 1/3 I made into 16 round balls and cooked them on a cookie sheet, these baked for approximately 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Also worked perfectly. They are very sweet, so a little goes a long way. Thank you for the recipe.
This recipe did not work out for me. I bake nearly every day and I know that it isn’t my oven. I baked them in a 13×9 pan and after 45 minutes, the middle was still raw and the edges nearly burned. I’m not sure what went wrong, but I feel like a whole cup of butter and of peanut butter may just be too much moisture. I’d suggest one stick of butter.
I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you. Thank you for your suggetion.
Wonderful. I was a bit worried when I realized that the big bag of chocolate chips lurking in the back of the pantry was mini-morsels, but they worked fine.
Just what does the cornstarch add to the batter? I can’t recall seeing it in a cookie recipe before
Glad you enjoyed them Mary! The cornstarch mixed with the flour creates a tender and delicious cookie bar!
That was a waste of ingredients.
Oh no! Sorry to hear that Meghan. This recipe is usually a hit with readers. Is there anything specific that we can help with?
Made it vegan – split the recipe in half. Subbed the eggs out with Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer. Used Melt organic “butter” sticks. Only had “natural” peanut butter on hand thought it might be a little too oily but it isn’t. Bumped up the corn starch a bit and I’m heavy handed on the vanilla. All in all it came out great! Oh used a 11 3/4 by 7 1/2 glass baking dish @ 350 for 35 minutes in a convection oven.
I made this recipe in a 9×13” pan and it turned out fabulous! I’ve also used this recipe for chunky almond butter and milk chocolate chip bars. My oven tends to run a little cool, so I left them in for 37 minutes. This recipe also lends itself well to whole wheat pastry flour. Super versatile recipe!
Thank you for sharing Terri! Sounds like some great options!
I followed the recipe and at the 35 min mark I checked on it and the entire inside is still raw. I tried adding more time and decreased the temp. Didn’t turn out. Really sad
I am sorry the recipe didn’t work out for you Dena. Have you checked your oven temperature? I once had an oven that was baking nearly 60 degrees cooler than set.
My cookies came out soft in the middle I cooked them forever and didn’t come out like a cookie at all so sad what could have happened? I followed the recipe exact and even used a scale.
Hi Julia,
Have you ever checked your oven temperature? I hope this helps!
What should the bars look like on the inside? I am not positive they cooked all the way. I followed the exact directions and pan size. Still taste good and I love soft cookie types. Even added a few minutes cooking time didn’t want edges and top to get too dark. Any suggestions.
They’ll be very soft and chewy on the inside. You can see this in the photos in the post, that they’re very chewy, not cakey at all. Enjoy Theresa!
This is a great flavor combination but I agree with other commenters – they really need to be made in a bigger pan! And believe me I have nothing against a thick chewy cookie bar – it’s just crazy overkill for a 9×9. I dumped the unbaked dough out into a 9×13 and that’s better, but if I try it again, I’ll try to just halve the recipe or look for a less fussy alternative, sorry to say.
Wow why can’t people just make their own variations if they are not happy….It is her recipe not yours Monica. If you aren’t happy with it just make your own recipe. Sick of seeing people do this to others. Especially when they completely change someones recipe and rudely post it. People are just not very nice anymore. They get more pleasure out of insulting people. I can’t wait to try this with my granddaughter next weekend…looks great (especially the thickness) it’s a cookie bar like a brownie not a flat cookie….
Agree with you Tammy well said. I made them they turned out great.
Is it one 1/2 cup of brown sugar or is it 1 and 1/2 cup? You only wrote 1/2 cup (regular) sugar so I’m thinking it’s 1 and 1/2 cups but since you didn’t pluralize the cup like you did for the 2 3/4 cups of flour I’m confused. I may be way over thinking this as well. Thanks for clarification.
It’s 1 and 1/2 cups. I’ve updated the cups to make it more clear! Thank you for asking Peg. Enjoy the bars!
I made mine in a 13 X 9 metal pan because I wanted to have more pieces. They still came out nice and thick and are delicious!! This is such an easy recipe…used part light and dark brown sugar only because I had to without running to the store for more light brown. They were perfect. This is an excellent recipe Holly!! With my homemade peach pie and these for dessert, we’re going to have an awesome Fathers Day dinner!! Many thanks!
That’s great Julie!
Can I use dark brown sugar – how will they be different?
I have only made the recipe as written, so can’t say for sure, but it may make them slightly chewier. Let us know if you try it Ruth!
you definitely need a bigger pan, i did mine in a jelly roll pan!
I tried the recipe and a 9×9 inch pan is too small because the dough was too thick. I had to bake
for about 45 minutes for the dough to cook, which resulted in it being too brown on the top. I would suggest a 13×9 inch pan so the dough will cook all the way through. Also the recipe does not say whether a glass or aluminum pan should be used.
Belinda, they just need more time in the oven. It’s possible it may be the temperature of your oven, or if you used a glass dish, it will likely take longer to bake. You can bake these in a 9×13 pan if you don’t want them to be so thick. This should take around 25-28 minutes for them to fully bake.
I agree! Same thing happened to me. Definitely need the large pan or the middle won’t cook
I tried this recipe and they didn’t turn out right. The dough was way too thick and they wouldn’t cook through either. Not sure if one of my ingredients was bad or old or what but I’ll have to try it again.
I’m sorry to hear the recipe didn’t turn out for you. I can’t say for sure why. It’s been tested and has turned out for me, so I hope that next time it works for you Sarah.
These pictures make me want to jump into my computer and take a big bite! I’m serious, a little veganizing and I would make these in a heartbeat.
Like you, I love making cookie bars so I don’t have to chill the dough or form balls of dough! Cookie bars are truly the MVP. LOL Peanut butter totally belongs with chocolate.
Right Britt? Thanks!