A chewy, soft-baked peanut butter oatmeal cookies recipe. These peanut butter oatmeal cookies are exploding with Reese’s peanut butter cups. No mixer required, no dough chilling necessary, so easy!
Today I’m sharing a new oatmeal cookie recipe. And a new peanut butter cookie recipe! Complete with oodles of peanut butter cups chopped up inside. Surely you love peanut butter cups, right?
Today’s cookies are all about the oats. If you love oatmeal cookies, you’re in for a real treat. I pack as many oats as I can inside, making sure there is enough brown sugar and butter in the cookie dough to prevent the oats from over-drying the taste and texture.
These cookies are chewy-central. The epitome of chewiness. The reason for all the chew are the oats and the melted butter. I love to use melted butter in some of my cookie recipes, like my chocolate chip cookies. Not only is it easier than creaming butter, but it provides a ton of chew.
There’s so much peanut butter hiding inside each cookie. 1/2 cup of the good stuff will be mixed in to your cookie dough along with your other wet ingredients. Be sure not to use natural style peanut butter; I do not have luck using it in a majority of my cookie recipes (although it does work in my soft and thick peanut butter cookies). I prefer to use Jif Creamy for all of my recipes calling for peanut butter.
The first time I made these cookies earlier this week, I added way too much leavener and flour. The cookies looked like oatmeal golfballs. I rushed to the store to buy more peanut butter cups and try all over again, my third trip to the grocery store that day. My home away from home. I decreased the flour and leaveners, producing a perfectly rounded cookie in round 2.
I’m going to let you in on a few little secrets of mine when I make these. First, I prefer to use a giant cookie scoop for these oatmeal cookies. In fact, I prefer to use my cookie scoop for all of my oatmeal cookie recipes. It produces a perfectly round scoop for the texturized dough. Here’s the OXO large cookie scoop I use. It holds 3 Tablespoons of dough for each cookie round.
Another trick I use when I make these is to reserve about 6-8 peanut butter cups. You’ll have a bunch chopped up to throw inside the dough, but reserve a few extra for topping the cookies when they come out of the oven. The cookies will spread in the oven, but not all the way. After about 11 minutes, they will look very soft and sort of not fully done. Don’t worry! They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Remove the cookies from the oven and slightly press down on each top. This will create a beautiful crackled look. Then, press a couple peanut butter cup pieces into the top of the cookie.
Voila! Gorgeous peanut butter cup cookie-ness.
Look at all that super melty chocolate! Swoon.
I am in love with making these cookies because they are SO easy. There is no dough chilling, no need to lug out your heavy mixer, and tons of room to fill your dough with peanut butter cups or other candies.
More Cookies to Try
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 16 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
A chewy, soft-baked peanut butter oatmeal cookie exploding with Reese’s peanut butter cups. No mixer, no dough-chilling, so easy!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (94g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup (125g) creamy peanut butter (not natural style)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (170g) quick oats*
- 1 and 1/2 cups chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
- Toss the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then the peanut butter until combined. Finally, whisk in the vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft and slick. Fold in the oats and the 1 and 1/4 cups chopped peanut butter cups, reserving the remaining 1/4 cup for later.
- Roll the dough into balls, about 3 Tablespoons of dough each. I highly suggest using a large cookie scoop to make it easier. Place 8 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet.
- Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Remove from the oven and lightly press down on each cookie to slightly flatten, since the cookies will not spread all the way in the oven. Press a piece or two of the remaining chopped peanut butter cups into each cookie. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Baked cookies freeze well, up to three months. Cookie dough balls freeze well too, up to three months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for about 11 minutes. No need to thaw them. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Rubber Spatula | Large Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Oats: Do not use old-fashioned style oats (aka whole oats) in this cookie recipe. They are the large-cut oats. You need quick oats, which are more finely ground (and smaller) whole oats.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: peanut butter cup oatmeal cookies, peanut butter cup cookies
This is one of the most delicious cookies I have ever made- I’ve been making them for years. I really appreciate all the science and experimenting you do to make the recipe perfect!! A peanut butter lovers dream these cookies are! I use chocolate chips and peanut butter chips instead of the Reese’s peanut butter cups when I do not have them.
★★★★★
Soo a late night oatmeal cookie craving struck me and when I looked through my pantry I thought I had everything on hand… except when I looked at my PB jar. I had about 1/4 cup left.
Long story short, even with half the PB and no other modifications, these still came out pretty amazing. The PB flavor in my cookies is not strong, but the texture and taste is good and my cookie craving is adequately satisfied. I did bake mine a few minutes longer since they looked a little too raw for my liking. Thank you Sally 🙂
★★★★★
Would I need to change anything if I omit the oatmeal?
Hi Emily! We don’t recommend omitting the oatmeal from this recipe, it would take some testing to get right. Here’s out soft & thick peanut butter cookies, peanut butter cup cookies, and peanut butter chunk cookies recipes you may enjoy instead!