Using this recipe, you’ll enjoy ultra-soft and thick bakery-style peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that are filled to the brim with chocolate chips. I make them with a whopping 2 cups of peanut butter, so you’re guaranteed mega flavor in every single bite.
I originally published this recipe in 2016 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips.
One reader, Katelyn, says: “This is hands down my favorite cookie recipe of all time. I’ve baked and loved Sally’s recipes for years and this is my new favorite! I ate 3 at a time. 3 separate times. Then brought them to friends who also ate 3 apiece. Everyone agreed they were the best peanut butter cookies they’ve ever had. Highly recommend! ★★★★★”
You don’t have to go another day without experiencing what some bakers have called “one of my favorite recipes on this site (and in general)” and “the best cookies I’ve ever made.”
While there’s a recipe for classic peanut butter cookies in my Sally’s Cookie Addiction cookbook and I have my super-soft peanut butter cookies on this website, today’s cookies are EXTRA thick and absolutely loaded with peanut butter and chocolate chips. This IS peanut butter dessert perfection, after all.
These Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Are:
- Huge—3 Tablespoons of dough per cookie
- Soft for days
- Crinkly & crackly on top
- Loaded with chocolate chips
- Thick & 100% irresistible
- Relatively quick—only 1 hour of chill time
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies: What Works & What Doesn’t
This is a simple recipe, and the same base dough as my white chocolate peanut butter cookies. When developing the recipe several years ago, I learned a couple tricks and am happy to share my findings:
- Embrace a creamy cookie dough. 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of peanut butter, and 2 eggs make for an extremely creamy cookie dough. Embrace it; you do not want to add more flour. When the dough hits the oven, peanut butter acts somewhat like a dry ingredient and gives the cookies structure.
- Chill the cookie dough. You might remember from my How to Prevent Cookies from Spreading page that chilling cookie dough is important. Luckily this dough is thick and stable, which means it doesn’t need hours in the refrigerator before baking. A quick 1 hour of chilling prevents the cookies from over-spreading. My brownie cookies (and the jazzed-up version—peanut butter-filled brownie cookies) have a super-quick chill time, too.
- Flatten the dough. Make sure you slightly flatten each cookie before baking, as this will help the cookies spread a bit in the oven. If you think about it, it’s a common step when making peanut butter cookies—you flatten those with a fork prior to baking. Here, you can just use the back of a spoon or your hands.
Grab These Ingredients:
Selecting the right ingredients is important, especially when it comes to peanut butter. This recipe calls for more peanut butter than any other recipe that makes an equivalent amount of dough. So without question, you’re guaranteed an intensely flavored cookie.
- Peanut butter: As mentioned, these cookies have—front and center—highly concentrated peanut butter flavor. To achieve this, use a commercial brand of creamy peanut butter like Jif or Skippy, the same I recommend for my peanut butter balls, big giant monster cookies, and peanut butter fudge puddles.Though it’s wonderful for eating and cooking, natural-style peanut butter isn’t ideal here. The cookies will be too crumbly and, depending on the brand, may even have an oily texture. Crunchy peanut butter produces the same crumbly results. If you want to use natural-style peanut butter in a cookie recipe, try these flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies instead.
- Room-temperature butter: Make sure your butter is cool to the touch. Here’s what room-temperature butter really means. You’ll it to properly cream the butter and sugar.
- More white sugar than brown: In these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, you’ll notice there’s more granulated sugar than brown sugar. When making basic chocolate chip cookies, I recommend using more brown sugar than white sugar because it produces a softer cookie. The addition of peanut butter already makes today’s cookies soft, and using more brown sugar made them EXTRA soft—to the point where they were falling apart. As a result, I learned it was simply too much of a good thing.
- Chocolate chips: Just like with peanut butter half moon cookies, the chocolate complements the intense peanut butter. I recommend semi-sweet chocolate chips because they add a balanced flavor, and just the right amount of sweetness.
One reader, Paige, says: “What is this magic? I was a little hesitant this whole process…. two cups of peanut butter? Three-tablespoon-sized cookies? No way! But this works and the cookies are incredible. ★★★★★“
You can even replace some of the chocolate chips with peanuts, which makes for a wonderfully chunky cookie with extra peanut flavor. You can also roll the balls of dough in granulated sugar (before slightly flattening them) for some sparkle, just like these peanut butter blossoms.
I also have a recipe for unapologetically big and fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that boast the same great flavor, and have the added chew from oats.
Use a commercial brand of processed creamy peanut butter like Jif or Skippy. Though it’s wonderful for eating and cooking, natural-style peanut butter won’t do this dough any favors. The cookies will be too crumbly and, depending on the brand, may even have an oily texture.
I don’t recommend crunchy peanut butter in these cookies because, like natural-style, it produces a crumbly cookie. Feel free to swap some chocolate chips for peanuts to achieve that crunchy peanut butter texture.
You may have over-baked them. Bake just until the edges are set; the centers will still look quite soft. Give them at least 10 minutes to cool on the baking sheets before transferring to a cooling rack.
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft & Thick Monster Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Peanut Butter Snickerdoodles
Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 32 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These big bakery-style peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are super thick, ultra-soft, and filled with chocolate chips. It’s best to use creamy peanut butter, and be sure to chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour before baking.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 cups (500g) creamy peanut butter*
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (360g) semi-sweet chocolate chips*
- optional: 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the eggs and beat on high until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the peanut butter and vanilla, then beat on high until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, add the chocolate chips. Dough will be thick and soft.
- Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour and up to 3 days. If chilling for longer than a few hours, though, allow the dough to sit out at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard and the cookies may not spread that much.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
- Scoop cookie dough into large balls, about 3 Tablespoons of dough per cookie (about 60g, it’s a lot!), and, if desired, roll the balls in granulated sugar. Coating in sugar is optional. Place 8 balls onto the cookie sheets. Gently press down on each ball to *slightly* flatten.
- Bake each batch for 14–15 minutes, or until the edges appear set and lightly browned on the sides. The centers will still look very soft.
- Cool cookies for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. During this time, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. (This is optional and only for looks.) Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Cover leftover cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature, then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Here’s how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack
- Can I Halve this Recipe? Yes, absolutely. Halve the recipe by halving all of the ingredients. The instructions remain the same.
- Peanut Butter: It’s best to use a commercial, processed brand of peanut butter like Jif creamy or Skippy creamy. I do not suggest using natural-style, oily peanut butter. Avoid using crunchy peanut butter because it makes the cookies extra crumbly.
- Chocolate Chips: You can replace 1/2 cup (about 90g) of the chocolate chips with chopped peanuts for extra peanut flavor.
- Check out my top 5 cookie tips before beginning. It includes how to prevent cookies from over-spreading and why room-temperature ingredients make a difference.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Followed your instructions to the letter. This is most definitely a new family favorite. Perfect cookie. These will be added to my Christmas cookie trays for neighbors and friends this year.
These are unbelievable. Crispy outside. Soft inside. Perfect balance of sweet and salty. Followed the recipe exactly. Not dry at all. Total perfection. Family devoured them.
I made these today, following the instructions to the letter. I even weighed each cookie as I put it on the sheet. (Might sound silly but my cookies always come out wonky sizes. I just got a tare on my scoop and popped each one on the scale in the scoop before dropping, no big deal.) They came out perfect. Since they’re peanut butter cookies I assumed they wouldn’t be gooey/chewy. But they didn’t crumble either. The one batch that got slightly overbaked looked like they were going to crumble but I let them cool a long time before moving them and they were fine. These are very intense cookies! Flavorful and rich. I ate one, and although it was delicious, one was enough! Can’t wait for my family to try them!
This has become my favourite peanut butter cookies recipe – and I don’t usually eat cookies at all!
I will be having some friends over and I was wondering if it possible to make this lactose free by replacing the butter with vegetarian butter or something similar?
Hi Rachel, we haven’t tested this recipe with a plant-based butter, but let us know if you do!
I made 4 cookies (using a preferred 1 tbsp scoop) to check incase they came out dry like a lot of review mentioned. They did so I added maybe 2 tsp molasses and about 1/4 cup (I didn’t measure) of high protein milk and it seemed to make the difference! First time I’ve had to modify a recipe on this site, but the flavour was great.
Might switch the sugar measurements in future runs to naturally up the molasses, and probably add the milk earlier.
(I think it was lacking protein, thus the structure fell apart)
Do you have the carb info per cookie?
We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
I made these and swapped gluten free (King Arthur) measure for measure flour. They were tasty but a bit dry. Other than being a bit dry, they were perfect. I will drink some espresso with them.
I absolutely love your recipes and always swap out ap for gf. Pancakes and waffles are amazing. Cakes and cookies a tad dry. Do you have any tips?
Hi Brooke! We’re so glad you’re enjoying our recipes. We don’t have much experience baking with gluten free flour, so can’t offer much advice for adapting our recipes. Here’s all of our naturally GF recipes, if you’re interested!
I unfortunately only had crunchy PB on hand, but these still turned out pretty good! Texture was a bit crumbly but they mostly stayed together.
Baked them in an air fryer at 160 for 14 mins, then flipped to cook the bottom for 2 mins.
The salt from the peanut butter gives it a nice kick, will be making again 🙂
Just made these cookies and they came out great! I actually went against the peanut butter recommendation and used Lily’s peanut butter (Pinoy rep!) which is oily and the guests looooove them as it gave a sweet peanut butter taste. Consistency was great! Not crumbly at all. Love your recipes Sally!
This by far, my family(and my) all time favorite cookies. Friends and family shovel these down. Making sure you cream the butter and sugar very well( I cream for 5-6 minutes) and then refrigerate are key points. AND not overbaking them. I do not let them sit out for 30 minutes after refrigerated for several hours or overnight. They don’t spread out but, instead, stay little clumps of heaven. Thank you!!
Can I use Almond Butter instead of Peanut Butter for these cookies?
Hi Susan, we haven’t tested it these cookies with almond butter, so aren’t sure of the result. Almond Butter and other nut butters like sunflower seed or pumpkin seed butter tend to be more of the natural-style and could cause the cookies to be too crumbly and may even have an oily texture. If you’re not a peanut butter fan, these Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies might be a better choice for you.
These cookies look amazing delicious. If I used only 2 tbsp of dough instead of 3 as the recipe calls for. Would the baking time be the same or bake a few minutes less?? TIA.
These cookies look amazing delicious. If I were to only use 2 tbsp of dough.
Hi LuAnn, bake time should be just slightly shorter. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
These are THE BEST peanutbutter chocolate chip cookies!! I baked my on a baking stone and they were perfect! Thanks for the recipe!
Just baked a batch of these and they’re delicious! I substituted chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for the chocolate chips.
Sigh, these cookies used to be our favorite go to. I made these a ton of times with absolutely no issues– always getting rave reviews, however, I haven’t made them in the last 2 years & just gave it a whirl! Wow, given the amount of reviews stating these are crumbly it’s gotta be the peanut butter! Sadly, I experienced the crumble effect, too. Noooooo— these used to turn out perfect like bakery-style! Seriously –was our favorite recipe. The flavor is excellent overall, but they are very crumbly. Chilled these, followed all directions–flour was measured carefully and bake time was spot on. What gives? I may try a different brand of peanut butter– Skippy is not workable anymore, something changed in their formulation. Sally is the best so we know it’s not the recipe. Signed, hoping to get our favorite cookie back!!!!
Hi Judy, so sorry to hear that these didn’t turn out for you! We would try another peanut butter to see if that helps – we usually use Jif. Thank you for giving these a try again!
These had an intense peanut butter flavor but were very dense. Also the dough was very crumbly. I’m an experienced baker and I also followed the recipe exactly, down to buying creamy Jif. Seems like the fat to flour ratio was off (I weigh my flour too). At any rate, not the recipe for me but Sally has many other FABULOUS recipes, will stick to those 🙂
So I made these cookies for a bake sale and I like melted marshmallows on top of them but it says that it’s 32 cookies but I made mine in a smaller size and it made 84 cookies!!!! It was still delicious and we only had 8 leftover from the bake sale so it all went good. But I’m just saying that if you want smaller cookies but you don’t want that many cookies then I’d recommend halving the recipe! But Sally I love this recipe.
Can I cut this recipe in half?
Hi Susan, yes, you can halve this recipe if needed. Or, see freezing instructions to make a full batch but freeze extras.
I had high hopes for this recipe. Never had made these cookies or anything else by this site before. My husband had a hankering for a peanut butter cookie and I love Reeses so I thought this cookie would be a perfect choice. The dough came out crumbly. I live in KS and is is humid August currently so I was surprised that the dough was dry after 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of peanut butter. Thats a lot of moisture in the form of fat. I had sifted the flour and lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled off as I don’t own a kitchen scale. Luckily I happened to check the comments to see if anyone else had a similar problem. They had, so I only chilled for 15 min., pulled dough out and incorporated by hand an extra 1/4 cup peanut butter and a generous splash of 2% milk. The dough was much softer and easier to work with. I chilled for another 15 min, scooped and flattened the large dough balls, and sprinkled tops only with sugar. I have a convection only oven so I checked them at 11 min and pulled out at 12. The edges were starting to brown. They looked like heavy hockey pucks. My husband inhaled a couple and gave his approval however he eats most any sweets and calls it good. I found them very heavy and weirdly lackluster. I was expecting amazing bakery flavor with all the extra fat and sugar in these. At least they didn’t crumble and fall apart which was nice. They are ok but not great. I will not be making these again and continue on in my search for a scrumptious bakery- style cookie.
Good flavor not the texture is identical to sand. Sally is usually the cookie wizard, so I’m not sure what happened here. Wouldn’t make this one again.
I followed the recipe exactly, everything measured to the gram with a digital kitchen scale and mixed with a kitchen aid mixer for the exact times suggested. I used king arthur flour, regular JIF creamy peanut butter, measured each dough ball to the gram and flattened them as described before baking. I baked the cookies on high quality baking sheets at exactly the temperature in the recipe (I have an oven thermometer) for the time suggested (I pulled some exactly at the minute and some 1 minute later to see if they were any different. They were still soft in the middle and I let them cool for however many minutes in the baking sheet before removing to cool on a wire rack. I am at sea level. I followed the recipe as exactly as you possibly could down to exact grams of ingredients and time for each process and they still came out crumbly and lacking density. All 3 batches were crumbly, with the ones I cooked the minute longer being the most crumbly. The flavor is good, but the texture isn’t. They don’t bite or chew like a normal cookie, it’s almost like biting into thin air that crumbles all the way around and collapses. I’ve seen a lot of negative reviews on this recipe and wanted to give it a try anyway, but I do think there are some measurements in the recipe that need to be altered because I should be able to replicate their result. I’m not sure if they measured the flour in volume instead of weight, or if they used some special kind of peanut butter, but the cookies did not turn out like they should have.
This recipe was a disaster for me and I am a seasoned baker. The dough was dry and crumbly after chilling it. I’m not going to make it again.
I was going to critique that this was the first time I had tried a recipe of Sally’s that did not turn out great. And then, I re-read the notes and the recommendation not to use a crunchy or natural brand of peanut butter because the cookies will be crumbly. I can confirm that Sally is correct! Next time, I will use smooth-style peanut butter. Otherwise, the taste was great.
Can I make the dough and keep in refrigerator for how many days or could the dough be frozen
Yes! See Notes after the recipe for our recommended make-ahead instructions.
I followed this recipe exactly, and they were very delicious! They were easy to make, especially by using one 16 oz. (2 cup) jar of Jif peanut butter. I used a combination of chocolate chips–semi sweet and 60% chocolate. Follow the baking instructions as listed with the cooling first on the baking tray, then take them off and move them to a brown bag on the counter. This will absorb some of the grease and complete the cooling process. Excellent cookie recipe!
I followed this recipe exactly, and they were very delicious! They were easy to make, especially by using one 16 oz. (2 cup) jar of Jif peanut butter. I used a combination of chocolate chips–semi sweet and 60% chocolate. Follow the baking instructions as listed with the cooling first on the baking tray, then take them off and move them to a brown bag on the counter. This will absorb some of the grease and complete the cooling process. Excellent cookie recipe!
I live in Brazil where commerial peanut butter is interchangeable with Nutella. I made my own peanut butter with roasted peanuts ,honey, salt and coconut oil. Substituted M+M’s for for chocolate chips. Chilled the result into a roll ready to cut and bake to have warm cookies whenever. Note: bring the sliced dough to room temp be for baking.
Missed the part about natural peanut butter, but added an extra egg and milk after first batch was a bit chalky and they turned out fine. Didn’t add sugar on top and used semi sweet chocolate chips and they were not too sweet which was nice.
These were absolutely delicious, but definitely not structurally sound and a bit too crumbly. I should have added a little milk or something when I saw how crumbly the dough was, but they were still SO yummy so I’m giving it 4 stars. Not all the cookies fell apart, but enough of them that I had to warn everyone to just grab a paper towel or plate to eat them.
question, for my friends graduation I was thinking of making these only to realize I only have crunchy peanut butter, with the crunchy version will it still work?
Hi Ian, We don’t recommend crunchy peanut butter in these cookies because it will always produce a crumbly cookie. It’s best to wait until you can get creamy peanut butter.
I keep this recipe in my favorites file. The cookies are amazing. It’s the “optional” rolling in granulated sugar before baking that takes them over the top.
The cookies crumble when the dough has been chilled. Do not chill. Bake them immediately and they will be the tender bakery style cookie that is pictured.
This Debra again! I submitted before realizing that I rated this cookie a 2! I am sorry for my mistake. These cookies (baked without chilling) are a 5t!
I do love this recipe. My kids ate them all up.
The only thing I tweaked in the recipe was taking the flour down to 2 and 1/4 cup and chilled no less than 2 hours. And baked 13-14 mins at 350.
They were perfect!