Luxuriously decadent fudge chocolate cookies filled with peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. So full of chocolate, I call them “death by chocolate!”
I obviously do not want to harm anyone by sharing this killer recipe, but I am almost 100% positive these cookies will make you weak at the knees.
“Falling to the ground in a chocolate trance” sums these up quite nicely.
Today, you’re getting 3 forms of chocolate in each bite of this fudgy cookie. A chocoholic’s pure dream. It’s the exact same cookie dough recipe I used for my chocolate cookies with candy cane buttercream.
Into this dough went melted pure chocolate, unsweetened cocoa powder, and semi-sweet chocolate chips. I added the peanut butter chips for fun because it’s rare I can have chocolate without my peanut butter. Along with the chocolate, this cookie dough has your standard cookie suspects: eggs, flour, and sugar. The cookie dough recipe is pretty basic and comparable to homemade brownies. There’s also a sprinkle of baking powder to give the cookies some lift and brown sugar to keep the cookies soft.
So what do they taste like? Well, as the name suggests… chocolatey. But a deep, intense chocolate. There’s no other way I’d have it.
Biting into one, think of a dense fudge truffle with a little chew. The centers are super-thick and moist, but not greasy or underbaked tasting – a texture battle you can sometimes face with brownies or cookies. If you’ve tried my chewy chocolate chip cookies, we’re getting that same unbeatable cookie texture here.
I overloaded the cookies with peanut butter chips in addition to the chocolate chips for obvious reasons. The peanut butter morsels dotted through the soft fudge interior and exterior not only provided a flavor break from the chocolate, but they look cute too. (Always a plus! Ha!)
If the quintessential pairing of peanut butter and chocolate isn’t your thing, then by all means, leave out the peanut butter chips.
You could sub some toffee, pecans, chunks of Snickers, or more chocolate instead (similar to my double chocolate chip cookies).
These cookies are like gold. A surefire way to please a crowd. My family absolutely loved them and the few we had leftover didn’t even make it more than 30 seconds in my kitchen.
*I must warn you that you may witness the truly hypnotizing effect of chocolate after baking these cookies. You won’t be able to speak or think about anything other than these cookies.
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Death by Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Luxuriously decadent fudge chocolate cookies filled with peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. So full of chocolate, I call them “death by chocolate!”
Ingredients
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1/4 cup (21g) natural unsweetened or dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (I used 2 Ghirardelli chocolate bars)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 5 Tablespoons (75g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup (180g) peanut butter chips
Instructions
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave for about 1 minute. Stir. Continue to melt in 30 second increments until fully melted and smooth. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla. Set aside. With an electric or stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth and creamy – about 1 minute. Beat in the sugars, scraping down the sides every 10 seconds or so. The mixture will be granular.
- Mix in the beaten egg/vanilla until incorporated. Add the chocolate in a steady stream and beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients on slow speed. Fold in the chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Do not overmix at any point in this process.
- Chill dough for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Scoop about 2 Tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cookies have just begun to set with the centers still appearing very soft. They will firm up as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies stay fresh and soft at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 7 days. Cookies freeze well, up to 3 months.
Notes
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
- Adapted from Cooks Illustrated.
Keywords: chocolate peanut butter chip cookies
The best cookies and my go to recipe!
★★★★★
Insanely hella good!
Went super dark chocolate on them with peanut butter chips…
Great recipe!
★★★★★
This was my first “semi-fail” Sally recipe. I chilled the dough for 24 hours, and like the previous reviewer, had a giant blob of rock-hard dough that didn’t soften after the recommended 20 minutes–or 90 minutes. I ended up softening it in the microwave on the defrost setting for 30 seconds. That worked to create the dough balls and the cookies did have a deep rich chocolate taste, but were a bit dry.
★★★
Hi Chris! If the dough was extra hard and the cookies ended up dry, I wonder if perhaps there was too much flour in the dough? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
I planned to make these for a dinner party and was on track, having chilled the dough and ready to bake an hour before our guests arrived. I could not get the dough out of the bowl! The idea of rolling the dough in my hands seemed crazy—I was trying to chop it out and wasn’t making any headway. My husband ran out for ice cream. Eventually I was able to chisel out enough dough for eight cookies, which our guests loved. I would love to make these again, but I don’t know if I can face how hard and dry the dough is. I wonder if I could scoop out the cookies before chilling.
★★★★
Same thing happened to me! Said not to over mix but I didn’t think I had?
Can you use melted chocolate chips (the same that I’ll add whole along with peanut butter chips)?
Hi Greg! We don’t recommend adding melted chocolate to this cookie dough, it will alter the consistency of the dough too much.
Can I use this as just a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips if I leave out the peanut butter chips? I cant find another recipe for just chocolate chocolate chip cookie. Besides the dark chocolate
★★★★★
Hi Suzanne, You can simply leave out the peanut butter chips in this recipe. Or use this recipe for Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookies and either leave out the white chocolate chips or replace them with regular chocolate chips. It’s our go-to chocolate cookie dough!
Can I use Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa instead of regular cocoa?
Yes, sure can!
These cookies are to die for! If you like chocolate you’ll love these. I probably won’t make again though because after I put them in the fridge the dough was hard and crumbly and I had to roll the dough in my hands, then flatten on the cookie sheet. I may change my mind though as they were wonderful. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks for a delicious recipe.
★★★★
Can I use Hershey’s cocoa powder?
Sure can!
Can I use dark chocolate for melted chocolate instead of semi sweet?
Sure can!
I absolutely love these cookies. As I live in Europe, it’s pretty much impossible to find natural cocoa powder, so I appreciate that I can use Dutch-processed cocoa for this! I’ve actually saved the recipe and called them “brownie cookies” because that’s honestly what they taste like to me – so rich and fudgy! I love them the most with 1 1/2 cup of m&m’s coupled with 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.
★★★★★
These are my go-to chocolate cookies. I’ve made them with Reese’s pieces and another time with mint chips instead of pb chips. Both were delicious! The only weird thing is that they barely spread for me. I need to flatten the dough balls, basically shape them like cookies already, or they’ll end up looking really wonky. Usually I have trouble with overspreading so that threw me off, but now that I know I need to flatten them it’s fine and the flavor is spot on! I also love that I can make these with Dutch-processed cocoa powder because that’s all I can find in Europe, thanks for sharing a recipe that uses it!
★★★★★
Could I substitute all PB chips in place of chocolate chips?
Hi Melissa! Definitely 🙂 They’ll be delicious!
Made these yesterday – skipped the peanut butter chips since we don’t have those here (Germany) and sprinkled a bit of sea salt on them at the end (highly recommend that addition). They were FANTASTIC. Will definitely make again.
These are great, Sally! The only (minor) changes I made were to add a bit of espresso powder to boost the chocolate flavor and to add quartered Snickers minis to replace some of the PB and chocolate chips. Yum! As usual, your recipes don’t disappoint.
I made these for my chocoholic friend’s birthday. They were a HIT! My husband said these are the BEST cookies he’s ever eaten! And he’s eaten a lot of cookies!!
Made these cookies tonight and they turned out just fabulous! Such a rich flavor and great taste 🙂 Thanks for the recipe Sally!
I made these cookies the other day. They were completely gone within 24 hours. My husband loved them, and so did I. Absolutely delicious!