These giant peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy with slightly crispy edges. They have BIG peanut butter flavour with tons of chocolate chips. There’s no need to chill the dough, and the cookies taste better than your favorite bakery.
**This post was updated August 7, 2020 with new photos, recipe tips and a slightly updated recipe for chewier cookies**
Today I’m sharing this easy recipe for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. They’re ginormous bakery-style cookies that are thick, chewy, super soft, but still have slightly crispy edges. The peanut butter flavor is prominent, the chocolate chips are plentiful, and the recipe is super easy. I’ve made a lot of peanut butter cookies – whether it’s ones made with only 3 ingredients or these oatmeal peanut butter cookies – but these are my favorite.
This recipe yields cookies that are big, thick, chewy and super flavorful for a few key reasons:
- We’re using a higher ration of peanut butter to butter for big peanut butter flavor.
- Brown sugar for softer, chewier cookies.
- 1 extra egg yolk (in addition to 1 egg) makes the cookies softer and more tender.
- Just enough flour so that the cookies are thick and chewy, but never dry. Measure the flour carefully, or the cookies can become dry.
- Extra chocolate chips for obvious reasons.
How to Make these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Now, making the cookie dough is super easy. It comes together in about 10 minutes flat.
- First beat together the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar.
- Then mix in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla.
- With the mixer on low speed – mix in the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Then stir in the chocolate chips.
- Form the dough into balls about 3 tablespoons in size, then place on a lined cookie sheet. You don’t need to flatten the cookies here – they’ll spread as you bake them.
- Then bake for about 12-14 minutes, or until the tops look just set. I always like to slightly underbake my cookies for a chewier, softer consistency. Baking the cookies for a little longer will lead to crispier edges.
- And when they come out of the oven place a few chocolate chips on the top of each. This gives the perfect bakery-style look.
Tips, Questions & Variations
- Do not use natural or homemade peanut butter – they can separate and add oil to the recipe, therefore leading to inconsistent results. This recipe was developed using smooth peanut butter that contains sugar. Something like Kraft, Skippy or Jiff smooth peanut butter work perfectly.
- For smaller cookies, form the dough into balls about 1 – 1.5 tablespoons of batter each (about the size of a golf ball) and flatten slightly. They’ll bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until the tops look set.
- I prefer using smooth peanut butter for this recipe. If you only have chunky peanut butter on hand – smooth peanut butter can be substituted with ⅔ cup chunky peanut butter. Reduce the flour to 1 ⅓ cups.
- To freeze the dough, make the dough as directed and form it into balls. Put the cookie dough balls on a plate, and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. Then pop the dough balls in a freezer bag, remove the air, and pop it in the freezer. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven and place the balls 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. There’s no need to thaw the dough first – you can bake the cookies straight from frozen. They’ll take an extra minute or 2.
- My cookies spread too thin and ended up flat and crispy – what happened? This can be caused by a few things. Either a little too much butter, not quite enough flour, or an oven that runs too hot.
- My cookies turned out dry and crumbly / they didn’t flatten out at all – what happened? This is caused by too much flour. Before measuring the flour give it a good whisk. Then spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level the top. Or better yet – use a weigh scale to measure out your ingredients. You can also press down the tops slightly before or after baking if needed.
These chocolate chip peanut butter cookies are seriously peanut buttery, extra thick and chewy, and the best way to up the ante from plain old peanut butter cookies. You’ll love how quick and easy they are to make, and with soooo much peanut butter, you really can’t go wrong.
Recipe Video
And if you love these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, don’t forget to check out these other favorites too:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
These giant peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy with slightly crispy edges. They have BIG peanut butter flavor with tons of chocolate chips. There's no need to chill the dough, and the cookies taste better than your favorite bakery.
Servings: 16 cookies
Calories: 289kcal
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- ⅔ cup peanut butter*
- 1 cup brown sugar light or dark
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk in addition to the whole egg - discard the egg white
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups chocolate chips I used a combination of regular and mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or baking mats.
- In a large bowl beat the butter, peanut butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Mix in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla.
- With the mixer on low speed beat in the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Stir in 1 cup of the chocolate chips.
- Form the dough into balls about 3 tablespoons in size (I use a large cookie scoop for this), then place 2 inches apart on the lined cookie sheet. Flatten the dough balls slightly so that they are slightly wider than they are tall.
- Bake one tray at a time on the middle rack of the oven for 12-14 minutes or until the tops look just set.
- Remove from the oven and dot the tops of each cookie with a few more chocolate chips.
Notes
- Do not use natural or homemade peanut butter. This recipe was developed using smooth, peanut butter that contains stabilizers and sugar. Brands such as Skippy, Jiff or Kraft work perfectly.
- Crunchy peanut butter is ok - but if using crunchy peanut butter, reduce the flour to 1 ⅓ cups.
- For smaller cookies, form the dough into balls about 1 - 1.5 tablespoons of batter each. Cookies will need to bake for 8-10 minutes at 350F degrees.
- To freeze cookie dough, form the dough into balls and place on a plate in the fridge for 30 minutes for the balls to firm up. Then place dough balls in a freezer bag, remove the air and freeze for up to 2 months. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F degrees and place frozen cookie dough balls 2 inches apart on lined sheets. The cookies will need 1-2 extra minutes to bake.
- After cookies have fully cooled, place in an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 4 days. Baked and cooled cookies can be frozen for up to 2 months.
- Nutrition information is an estimate only and based on 1 cookie - assuming the recipe yields 16 equal-sized cookies.
Nutrition
Calories: 289kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 156mg | Potassium: 105mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 241IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 39mg | Iron: 1mg
Thank you very much! Me and my little girl baked these up and they are delicious. 🙂
So glad you and your daughter loved the cookies! Thanks for reporting back!
These cookies are fabulous thank you
These cookies are absolutely amazing.
I just made these with my daughter as well, & wowza! I’m bookmarking! We did everything as you specified, even underbaking & adding the extra chips on top, & they’re the most beautiful (& delicious!) cookies I’ve ever made! Thank you!
I’m so glad you all loved the cookies! Underbaking is always key 🙂
These are fantastic! I did Half plain peanut butter because those are my hubbys fav & added the chocolate chips to the other have for my girls! Thank you!
I just made a batch. Your recipe was easy to follow. The cookies turned out so good; slightly crispy on the edges and soft and gooey on the inside! 😍
Sadly this didn’t work well for me, I measured correctly and still had the not flattening out/kind of crumbly issue. I split the dough between two pans, so the second pan I tried flattening out by hand before putting them in the oven. They came out sightly less crumbly and cooked more thoroughly, but not a complete success. I think the chocolate chips measurement could be less, I found when I was rolling the cookies there were way more chips than dough, you could probably ditch the extra 1/4 cup. They taste ok, not as peanut buttery as I would’ve liked but I think that’s probably partly due to the amount of chocolate chips overpowering the peanut butter. I hate to give a low rating, but for me it’s two stars as I struggled with this recipe and the outcome doesn’t warrant another try. The plus is that it requires few ingredients that many people will already have on hand and it’s an easy recipe that could be done with children. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Eileen,
No need to apologize – thank you for being honest. Assuming that the measuring was correct (especially for the flour) – my initial thought would probably be the type/brand of peanut butter. When I moved to Australia, I found that the brands of peanut butter were quite different than North American peanut butter – so depending on where you live, this could be the culprit. This recipe was developed when I lived in Canada with smooth peanut butter. However, I now use a peanut butter from a grocery store here that’s specifically called “North American Style Peanut Butter”, which I find much more comparable to what I bought in Canada and the US.
Baked these today, the first batch I did for the 14 minutes and was a tad too much, second batch at 12 minutes were perfect! Thank you!
Hi. Why does it say one large egg, plus one yolk, but then it says discard the egg yolk? I think it just means discard the egg white…
Ah – thank you so much for catching this error. I’ve updated the recipe now
YUM!!! I’ve been on a peanut butter cookie baking adventure lately, and this is as close as I’ve come to for the copycat recipe I’ve been looking for. I’m thinking it must be due to the added egg yolk and no white sugar. Thanks for the recipe, Fiona!
So glad you enjoyed them! A peanut butter cookie baking adventure sounds delicious
Do not spread very much.