Peanut butter and chocolate lovers rejoice! I’ve combined at least 3 delicious cookies into 1 mouthwatering recipe with my big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Consider yourself warned: these cookies are exploding with flavor, unapologetically thick, and hopelessly irresistible. They’re guaranteed to satisfy almost every cookie craving.
One reader, Dyna, says: “Hands down the BEST cookie recipe I have ever made, and I’ve made a lot of cookies in my time as a 50-something, mother of three. An incredibly satisfying cookie experience. All the extra notes and suggestions too were spot on. Following those tips made for a beautiful, delectable cookie! Thank you for putting this out there into the world for all to enjoy.”
A cookie to end all cookies, these big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are a mouthful. I was inspired to try these decadent treats after seeing the cover of my cookbook, Sally’s Cookie Addiction, for the first time. The glorious monster cookies gracing the book cover are loaded with M&Ms and can be found in Chapter 2.
This recipe, however, skips those rainbow candies and focuses instead on a flavor relationship like no other. Chocolate chips and peanut butter. It’s a match made in cookie heaven! In this recipe, we’re combining that perfect pairing with textured oats to achieve the thickest, richest, and most satisfying cookie.
Video Tutorial
Tell Me About these Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Texture: Loaded with so many delicious add-ins, these cookies have chewy edges, soft centers, and are unbelievably thick. (I’m always shocked by how thick they turn out.)
- Flavor: Ordinary chocolate chip cookies are buttery sweet on their own, but the peanut butter-chocolate pairing here brings a delicious decadence to these cookies. If this flavor pairing is a favorite, be sure to add these peanut butter chocolate cookies to your list, too.
- Ease: Simple to make, the dough comes together in just minutes using a few staple pantry add-ins like old-fashioned oats and peanut butter. Make them for same-day snacking or prepare them ahead of a special occasion (see Note).
- Time: This dough can be prepped and chilled in under an hour. 20 minutes in the refrigerator (the same amount of time we chill dough for brownie cookies) helps the oats soak up some moisture and prevents the cookie from overspreading.
Recipe Testing: What Works & What Doesn’t
- The weight of peanut butter. This cookie dough is adapted from my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. The addition of peanut butter here, however, can weigh down the dough. To counter this, I add baking powder for lift.
- A spreading solution. When testing the recipe, I found the cookies weren’t spreading enough. I decided to swap the quantities of granulated sugar and brown sugar. Granulated sugar—dry and thin—helps increase cookie spread. Brown sugar—moist and thick—keeps cookies compact. Increasing the granulated sugar makes all the difference in this dough for the perfect spread. You won’t even miss that extra brown sugar flavor because the peanut butter is our front-runner.
- Fewer oats + more chocolate. When testing, I originally had a higher quantity of oats in the cookies. I decided to reduce that amount to make room for more chocolate chips. Can you blame me?
Choosing the Right Ingredients: Best Peanut Butter to Use
Peanut butter. Though natural-style peanut butter is my #1 choice for eating and snacking, I recommend using non-natural peanut butter for this particular cookie recipe. Natural peanut butter can be used in my regular peanut butter cookies (though the cookies are a little crumblier than intended), but it’s not ideal for today’s recipe. Instead, use Jif or Skippy. You can use creamy or crunchy, but I prefer creamy peanut butter as crunchy can make the cookies taste a little dry. You need 1 cup of peanut butter for this recipe.
Room temperature butter. Like my basic soft chocolate chip cookies, the base of today’s oatmeal cookie recipe is creamed room temperature butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. You can’t cream butter and sugar together if the butter is too warm or too cold. (It usually spells disaster for your cookies!) Room temperature butter is about 65°F (18°C). It’s cool and slightly firm to touch, not warm or slippery. I recommend placing your butter on the counter for 1 hour prior to beginning the recipe to achieve ideal “room temperature” butter. If you don’t have an hour, here is my trick to soften butter quickly. You need 1 cup of butter for this cookie dough.
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
After you prepare the peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies dough, chill it for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. After chilling, it’s time to scoop the dough and bake the cookies. Each cookie uses 2 Tablespoons of dough which is about the same size as these regular chocolate chip cookies. Arrange the cookie dough balls 3 inches apart on your baking sheet. These cookies are large, so I use a medium cookie scoop and overflow it with dough (since the medium only holds 1.5 Tablespoons.)
More Quick Cookie Recipes
- Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches
- Mini M&M Cookies
- Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brownie Cookies
- Shortbread Cookies
Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: 32 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are easy, thick, and exploding with peanut butter, oats, and chocolate chips to satisfy your cookie cravings.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks; 235g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup (260g) creamy peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (170g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 2 and 1/2 cups (450g) semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus more for topping if desired
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, add the oats. Once combined, beat in the chocolate chips. Dough will be thick and sticky. Cover and chill the dough for at least 20 minutes in the refrigerator (and up to 4 days). If chilling for longer than 1 hour, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Scoop balls of dough, 2 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, and arrange 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops—this is only for looks!
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 4. 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. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Peanut Butter: Use a non-natural peanut butter like Jif creamy or Skippy creamy. I do not suggest using natural style or oily peanut butter as both produce crumbly, fragile, and sandy tasting cookies. (Try this flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookie if you want to use natural!) Crunchy peanut butter is OK, but I find the cookies taste a little dry with it.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: peanut butter oatmeal cookies
I Love anything with PB…” ) I never have Salt-Free butter…may I just leave out the “added salt” and the recipe will work fine? Thanks…Blessed Day to You!!
Hi Tam, if using salted butter, reduce the added salt to 1/2 teaspoon.
These are so tasty! Love the salty and sweet combo, and the oatmeal gives it substance. Mine spread out, but I don’t care about that. It’s all about the taste. And I also don’t care to know the nutritional info.
Thanks for another great recipe.
★★★★★
Hi Sally all your cookies look fantastic and delicious however it would be great if we know the calories and nutrional value.
Hi Manjari, 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
Truly delicious cookies. They’re so filling, too! I can eat one and feel completely satisfied. Yum! Thank you so much for this recipe.
★★★★★
I have used a ton of your recipes and have loved all of them. This recipe roasted great, but cookies spread out so much during baking. They were so flat. I let them chill for 25 mins before I baked them. I am not sure what happened.
Great recipe but I used crunchy no salt almond butter (trader joes) can’t eat peanut butter. really excellent.
★★★★★
These cookies are incredible. I freeze a dozen and save them for desperate times. So good.
★★★★★
I am very grateful for you sharing these with me. Thank you.
★★★★★
If I don’t have rolled oats. Could I use quick oats?
Hi Susie, quick oats are more powdery and dry out the cookies. We recommend sticking with whole oats for best results.
Can these be made in a 9X13 inch pan?
Hi Anne Marie, yes! This dough should fit nicely in a 9×13 baking pan. We’re unsure of the exact bake time, but you could use these M&M Cookie Bars as a guide. Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Can I cut the chocolate chips by 1/2 cup and add some raisins? My MIL like raisins and chocolate chips.
Hi Esther, absolutely. Keep the total amount of add-ins the same. Enjoy!
My whole family LOVES these cookies and requests I make them every chance they get. My fiance took them to work and they were a hit! Side note: can anyone tell me roughly how many calories are in each cookie?
★★★★★
Can i add protein powder to this recipe and how much. Thank u
Hi Carole, we haven’t tested that addition but feel free to give it a try. Keep in mind that protein powder is a drying ingredient, so you may need to tinker with the other ingredients a bit.
These cookies were very good-however, my family all agrees, there were too many chocolate chips (which I didn’t think could ever be possible), but it made them entirely too rich to eat. I also think the recipe could have done with more brown sugar.
★★★★
This is has been my new go to morning cookie with my coffee. I made mine with Trader Joe’s PB and add walnuts. These are always a hit when we have company!
★★★★★
Hubby’s new favorite… for 51 years I have made my husbands favorite banana, oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies from his mom’s recipe. I made a batch of these and his comment, “these are even better than the BOCC cookies. Quite an accomplishment when you can make something better than his mom’s, I think. Thanks Sally.
★★★★★
Hi Sally and team!
When you say 2 Tbs for each cookie, about how many ounces is that? I weigh my dough and would love to see ounces in your recipes for cookie sizes. Thank you!
Hi Alyssa, it’s about 40g of dough per cookie. (Close to 1.5 ounces.)
These cookies were wonderful. I live in a high altitude area (7,000 ft) and typically shy away from baking cookies. I didn’t adjust anything and these came out great – they looked great and tasted great. I brought shared them with some friends (one of them has owned a bakery and makes the most amazing baked goods) and all them loved these and asked for the recipe. Sally never disappoints!
★★★★★
Can I leave the peanut butter out?
Hi Jenny, here is our recipe for regular oatmeal chocolate chip cookies instead. Enjoy!
Saw a cookie like this on TV the other day and Googled for a recipe. Yours is PERFECT! I used a 2 Tbl. fisher, and mine needed 20 min. to bake. Short, tender and delish! Made them for a dog show this weekend. Shhh! I’ve eaten 3!!!
★★★★★
Not only did these bake beautifully but the taste was out of the park. Right amount of crispness on the outside and chewy in the center. The oatmeal gives it a nice texture that balances the peanut butter and the chips. I was just so pleased with how everything turned out and my husband’s co-workers went absolutely crazy for them and asked for more.
★★★★★