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.
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 and have recently been added to my website.
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.
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.) If you want to go even bigger and thicker, try these big fat dark chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies next!
- 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.
If you love these cookies but don’t have oats, try these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies instead. If you love these cookies but need a gluten free dessert recipe, try these flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies or flourless monster cookies instead. We’ve got all the bases covered!
One reader, Dyna, says: “Hands down the BEST cookie recipe I have ever made, and I’ve made a lot of cookies… All the extra notes and suggestions too were spot on. Following those tips made for a beautiful, delectable cookie!”
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:
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.
Whole oats: To ensure the cookies spread nicely and do not dry out, be sure to use whole oats and not quick oats. Quick oats are cut finer, and will soak up more moisture in the 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 (16 Tbsp; 226g) 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 (240g) 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 recipe for flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Can I put walnuts on this one? If so, how many cups? And should there be anything in the ingredients that need to be diminished, to add the walnuts?
You try replacing some of the chocolate chips with walnuts, keeping the total amount of add-ins to 2.5 cups. Enjoy!
So I made these totally awesome cookies and they are just fantabulous!!!
Just a lil question though, do you live in a really dry climate? I’m down in south Louisiana ,humidity central, and it took nearly 20 minutes for my cookies to bake. Oven temp was verified by oven thermometer and I’m pretty sure mine were a bit smaller as I only had a 4Tbs scoop , so I used that level and split the dough in half before putting on baking sheet. Made about 42 cookies. Anyway……was just curious about your environment to see if that’s the difference in bake times. These cookies are THE BEST!!!! will be making them again. Keep on cooking and sharing your wonderful recipes. ~Trish
Hi Patricia, our recipes aren’t tested in a particularly humid environment – and humidity can make a big difference!
Excellent cookies. The texture hits that chewy/crispy combo and the flavour is perfect. I did add an extra half a cup of old fashioned rolled oats and for the chocolate chips, used a combo of milk chocolate chips and semi-sweet mini chocolate chips. This is close to a perfect cookie and along with Sally’s Maple Pecan cookies, has contributed to the way too many cookies I’ve been eating.
Can I use browned butter in this recipe? I recently discovered it and because it is sooooooo amazing I want to do it in everything!!
Hi Lindsay, absolutely! Just make sure to allow the brown butter to solidify (in the refrigerator) before using in the recipe.
Hi I was wondering if you have nutrition facts for these?
Hi Samantha, 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
Love thick, chewy cookies. These were awesome! Added this recipe to my collection. Thanks for sharing. Bake on!
I used quick cooking oats, a mix of milk and dark for choc chips, and used a smaller cookie scoop (baking time 9 mins) and they still turned out perfect
best recipe yummy delicious cookies…kids n everyone loved it
These are by far my favorite cookies and my grandsons. It’s hard to stop at 1 or 2…..
Made these today. Changed the sugar ratios for softer cookies (1/2 cup white, 1 cup Brown) and used dark choc chips, Milk choc chips and the new “Cara-milk” choc chips ( caramelised white choc).
Very moorish and turned out lovelly and soft.
I want to add pecan. How much do you think I can add and not make them dry.
Hi Sherry, we recommend keeping the total amount of add-ins to 2 and 1/2 cups. Pecans would be a delicious addition!
Made today! I used more oats and adjusted peanut butter and egg to accommodate. Turned out wonderful and moist inside. Grandsons love raisins so Nico – 4 helped with stirring and adding that and cracking the eggs. Yummy. It’s thumbs up from Nicodemus!
Absolutely yummy. My go to chocolate chip cookie recipe. The grandkids love them.
I did use natural peanut butter and they still turned out well! (Used Justin’s creamy peanut butter and a little bit of natural creamy). otherwise followed recipe exactly and they are great! other comments are right, you can’t stop eating them! I also added raisins to make a sort-of “Everything cookie” w oats, peanut butter, raisins, and chocolate chips.
I like these cookies because w the oats you can actually **chew** them, so like more cookie taste in your mouth longer! yay!
This is my go-to cookie recipe. I use chunky peanut butter. I also add a mixture of dark, milk, semi-sweet and sea salt caramel chips. I get the most compliments whenever I take these cookies anywhere. Thanks for the great recipe.
Easy recipe to follow. Great taste. Not sure what I did wrong scooping them out, but I used a rounded tablespoon (Instead of 2) and only got 27 cookies.
This cookie became my favorite the 1st time I made it nearly 3 years ago. I’ve made them a lot & sometimes add salted caramel across the top when I take them out of the oven.
This recipe was perfect! I replaced the all purpose flour by a mix of tapioca flour, quinoa flour and potato flour in equal quantities, and a teaspoon of xantan gum to make them gluten free. Loved them
Can I make them bigger? Like 3 tablespoons of dough per cookies?
Hi Lily, that should work just fine — bake time will be slightly longer to accommodate the bigger cookies.
I made these and remembered to include my secret cookie enhancers (cinnamon, cayenne, instant coffee) to the dry ingredients bowl. My neighbors absolutely love them. Gonna have to hide them from the dog . . .
Hi Jodi,
How much do you add of each?
Substituted monk fruit brown sugar. Used 1/2 monk fruit sugar and 1/2 traditional sugar. Still delicious. Flavors are good. They came out a little on the round side, but I am sure I was careless with the flour amount. These cookies are really satisfying, not like I have to eat six to get my fix. (Of course they’re the equivalent of at least two regular-sized cookies, but whatever.) Thanks for sharing the recipe!
OMG PB + PB! So I did a thing: I subbed PEANUT BUTTER chips (Reese’s brand) for the chocolate chips. Wow. They were sooooo good. Every Sally recipe has been a GREAT addition to my cookie jar.
Yum! Great idea, Lory – thanks for sharing!
The flavour was really good but they came out quite cakey and dry. To be honest the cookie dough tasted a lot nicer than the actual cookies. They were nice but I wouldn’t make them again.
Hi Maria! How are you measuring your flour? Make sure to spoon and level next time to avoid over-packing in the flour which would lead to dry cookies. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
Hi, I was just wondering how would I be able to tell if my peanut butter was un-natural and how much it would matter if it was natural? Thanks
Hi Elizabeth, if store bought, natural peanut butter is labeled as such. It’s typically oily. You’ll want to look for peanut butter that is labeled just as creamy. We do not suggest using natural style or oily peanut butter as both produce crumbly, fragile, and sandy tasting cookies. If you already have natural peanut butter and want to put it to good use, these Flourless Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies are a delicious choice!
Hi! Do you think adding salted peanuts would be good? If so, should I reduce the amount of chocolate chips to make room for the peanuts? Thank you so much. ♥️
I love these so much! Has anyone tried using brown butter in place of regular?
I often substitute light brown sugar for granulated sugar because I like the taste it gives which with light brown sugar you probably won’t taste any difference. I use it cup for cup the same in interchanging them and have never had a problem, things have always turned out just as good. These are my daughters and my favorite cookies, I’ve made her them for 20 years. I add pecans to mine but not hers because she doesn’t like them.
About to make these again. Oh my goodness, these are the best cookies. My adult son said he thinks these are the best cookies I’ve ever made. Thank you for this deliciousness! All of your recipe’s are fabulous.
Tried these today and GREAT. I am bring to my office if my husband doesn’t eat them all by then LOL. THEY CAME OUT WONDERFUL, Big, Tasty and Pretty with the extra chocolate chips on top!
These cookies are so so tasty! I usually have no luck with cookie recipes and stick with basic shortbread with some chocolate chips and such mixed in but I’m a sucker for peanut butter so thought I’d try. I only made half a batch, I baked some and froze the rest as cookie balls. The first baked ones were tasty, the frozen ones I baked later were somehow even tastier! I think this might be my favourite cookie recipe ever! Thank you
Love!! I make them smaller and put them in the freezer. So good!!
Beware!! You will not be able to stop eating them!!!