Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are decadent peanut butter cookies studded with dark chocolate chips. A combination of yummy peanut butter cookies and our favorite chocolate chip cookies.
You’ll need only 4 ingredients and 30 minutes for this delicious, simple, and an easy treat fix.
Peanut butter and chocolate rank amongst my favorite flavor combinations, and I could eat it all day long.
Whether it is a chocolate cake topped with peanut butter frosting, peanut butter lasagna, or peanut butter fudge brownies, I am in!
These homemade cookies are like chocolate chip cookies met peanut butter cookies and had a really tasty baby.
How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
For this recipe, I took my Classic and Easy 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies, and doctored them up to get a richer cookie base, and added chocolate chips. The result is a moist, chewy, flavorful cookie with just 4 ingredients, so they are still very easy.
- Chunky peanut butter gives some chunks of peanuts that go really well texturally with the softer, melted chocolate from the chocolate chips. YUM! (Natural or Homemade Peanut butter doesn’t work as well).
- Use 1/2 dark brown sugar instead of all light brown sugar. Dark brown sugar is essentially light brown sugar with extra molasses in it. The extra molasses gives it a deeper, richer, flavor that is closer to toffee or caramel than just sugar. It pairs beautifully with the bitterness of a dark chocolate chip.
- Add chocolate chips. Dark chocolate chips are the perfect balance to the sweetness of the peanut butter and the brown sugar.
Tips for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
I have to be honest, I played around with this recipe a lot. At first, I went a classic direction with baking powder, flour, etc. but what I found that the flourless version with regular peanut butter was a consistent winner.
These peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies are a doctored up version of the easiest recipe for peanut butter cookies. The results are a soft and chewy cookie which is tender, but not crumbly. It holds its shape but will melt in your mouth.
In order to achieve the best results:
- Peanut Butter Choice – This is super important. The best brands for moist and chewy without crumbly cookies are Jif or Skippy. But a store brand would work too. The cookies will not hold together well if made with natural peanut butter.
These easy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies use chunky peanut butter. Smooth or creamy works too, but the variety in texture within the cookie with the chunks of peanuts is fantastic. If using smooth peanut butter, use 1 Tablespoon less peanut butter. - Pack the Brown Sugar – For best results, pack the sugar into your measuring cup.
Make sure to mix well, otherwise, you may end up with gritty cookies. Mix until sugar is well incorporated into the dough. - Refrigerate – The only liquid in this cookie dough comes from an egg. The dough can be fairly crumbly, so the best thing to do is refrigerate it. This makes it easier to work with, and the cookies hold their shape better too!
- Thickness matters – Press your cookies with a fork to make a cross hatch, keep them uniform in width so they bake evenly. Make them about 1 centimeter thick (just under half an inch): thicker will result in under-done cookies, and thinner will over bake.
- Bake and rest – For the best peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, bake them until golden and the edges are starting to brown. Then, let them sit on the still hot tray for another few minutes to let them set up. If you try to move them and they come apart, let them sit on the baking tray a bit longer.
To cool completely, put the cookies on a cooling rack for a few minutes, or pop them in the fridge to chill to eat them sooner. Store in the fridge to keep moist longer and they are so good cold!
Try These Delicious Cookies Recipes
- Favorite Breakfast Cookies – make ahead and freeze!
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies – ready in 30 mins!
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars – a fun twist
- Easy Triple Chocolate Cookies – thick, soft and chewy
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – with a hint of cinnamon!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter creamy or chunky, but NOT all-natural
- 1 cup packed brown sugar ½ light brown, ½ dark brown
- 1 large egg
- ¼ - ½ cup chocolate chips dark chocolate, some reserved
Instructions
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine peanut butter, sugar, and egg, and mix well to combine.
- Stir in most of the chocolate chips, reserving about 36 to use later.
- Place bowl of dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to firm it up.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking tray with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
- Scoop a heaping 1 Tablespoon of cookie dough into a ball and place on baking sheet 2 inches apart.
- Once the balls of cookie dough are on the tray, take a fork, and gently press down on the dough making a cross hatch, pushing down until the cookie is approximately 1 cm thick.
- Gently press 3 of reserved chocolate chips into each cookie on the top.
- Bake for 10 minutes, or until light golden on the surface and darker golden on the edges.
- Leave to cool on the tray for five minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.
- Let cool to set completely or they will crumble in your hands.
Notes
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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Perfect flourless cookie option that’s easy to make, uses very few ingredients and satisfies my sweet tooth. I used organic Santa Cruz crunchy peanut butter. They baked perfectly and kept their shape. After cooking they had a slight crumble to them but no biggie. These will be on rotation. Thank you for the recipe!
You’re welcome Rebecca, so glad to hear that you love these cookies!
Why should we not use all natural peanut butter?
Hi Laura, This recipe needs the added oils and sugars in the non-all-natural kinds of peanut butter to make it work.
Where do the carbs come from in this recipe? I was hoping it would be low carb because it doesn’t use flour.
A lot of the carbs in this recipe come from the brown sugar Kim. We have not tried a low carb sugar substitute but would love to hear how it turns out for you :)
As someone who isn’t great at baking, this was super easy and fun to make! I had all of these ingredients already so it was very convenient. They came out soft and delicious and I will definitely make them again!
That’s great Amelia! Happy to hear that.