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.
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!
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 (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 (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 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.
Loved the flavor and they came out perfectly. My teenage son really liked them and I felt good giving him something a little healthy. You are my go to site for recipes!
These turned out incredible, as per usual — thank you Sally!
As always, your recipes never disappoint. These were delicious!
Another yummy cookie, thank you!
I used smaller cut oats, which absorbed a lot of moisture so these came out without the oaty texture but a wonderful oat taste.
I used a tablespoon scoop, and found they needed 8-9 minutes for this smaller size (10 was definitely too long).
I halved the recipe which I usually do the first time I try something. Why did I bother? They are so good! Next time I will make them with a 2 tablespoon measure!
Yes, quick oats are more powdery and can dry out the cookies, next time I encourage you to try with whole oats! But I’m glad you enjoyed them so much anyway!!
These are delicious! Followed the recipe exactly, subbed out for milk chocolate chips. Made some after chilling and then froze the rest. Baked them off last night for 14 mi at 360 and they were perfect!
I’ve made these several times and they my whole family’s FAVORITE cookie recipe! They’re gone in a couple of days. The only thing I’ve done differently is to use half milk chocolate chips and half semi sweet, yum!
I made these today and my husband said they are ‘glorious!!! Super easy and yummy!!! Thanks for all of your fabulous recipes and tips!!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’m glad I came across this recipe. I made these cookies last night. They are delicious however they have a bit of a Sandy texture. I used smooth skippy as directed to no avail. The cookies are otherwise great! Has anyone tried this recipe with a different peanut butter and avoided the sand textured taste. The dough is delicious by the way!!!
I call these Kids Favorite Versions. My friend from years ago had given me the first version. Peanut butter, oats and chocolate chips. What is not to love??
I happened upon this recipe today and decided to give it a shot. I only had natural peanut butter in the house, and even though it was suggested not to use it, I did. These cookies came out amazing! My family is gobbling them up faster than I can bake them!
There are not enough stars to give this glorious cookie to do it justice! Do yourself a favour and make them asap! They come out like fresh bakery cookies and are so simple and easy
Looks great. How to adjust if you want to add coconut and pecans
I would keep the total amount of add-ins to 2.5 cups. I use 2.5 cups of all chocolate chips, but you can certainly use some coconut and pecans. Enjoy!
could i sub the granulated sugar for more brown sugar or coconut sugar? they look amazing! 🙂
Hi Leah! You can use either in place of granulated sugar, but the cookies won’t spread as much.
Wow these turned out way better than I had hoped. Can’t go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate! So good.
As I was searching for a cookie of this exact combination, I knew you would have a recipe for me! I seriously can’t handle how delicious these cookies smell. I also snuck a taste of batter…WOW! They are currently chilling. Thank you for always providing the weight measurements of the ingredients! I just purchased a food scale and I love that I can geek out on your blog to make sure the flour amount is exact.
I made these last week and everyone LOVED them. They are a perfect size.
Thanks for the recipe! Saving this one for sure! These cookies are the best combo of oatmeal chocolate chip and peanut butter.
I made these last night yet forgot to chill the dough… I slightly flattened them with a fork before baking. They came out hearty and delicious!! I will make them again for sure thank you!! No place to add my picture or else I would they look great too!!
Can you make smaller cookies if you don’t want the big size?
Yes, just roll the dough into smaller balls. The bake time might be slightly shorter!
Yes I just made them with my 1 TBS scoop. They are fantastic, by the way! I found they took 8 or 9 minutes to bake with 1 tablespoon of dough. 10 was a bit too long, they were too brown on the bottom at 10 minutes. I had to gobble up the evidence of over baked cookies quickly.
Made these yesterday and took them to my friends…….they disappeared so fast that I’m making another batch today!!!! Thank you Sally for an(other) amazing cookie…..<3
I love using your cookie receips, however when I make any of your peanut butter cookies they crumble after a few days. I’m not sure what I doing wrong, do you have any suggestions?
Hi Meghan! It’s the nature of peanut butter. It’s crumbly a few days after baking. If you store the cookies in the fridge, I find they are less crumbly.
I really love this recipe and it’s one of the best ones I’ve seen/done for this type of cookie! But I do have a question, my husband and son don’t like how much of a peanut butter taste it has, is there any way I can only use 1/2cup of peanut butter instead of a full cup? Please let me know if I can do this (: TIA & amazing recipe!
Hi Alyssa! Here is my other peanut butter cookie recipe which doesn’t have as strong of a peanut butter flavor. 🙂 Let me know if you try it!
Omg I have to say, I’m a devoted Sally’s fan and I’ve baked TONS of her cookies and these are my absolute favourite. A MUST TRY!!
Thanks for the recipe sally, you’re the best and my inspiration
KEEPER! These were perfect the first time – SO very scrumptious with that big, fat chunky mound of cookie goodness texture! Sadly, I overcooked the first batch but discovered they are just as good well-done as rare, or medium! Side note: my heart sank, after having just put the dough in for chilling, when I read in the tips section not to use natural peanut butter. oh no! I had just used the Kirkland (Costco) brand organic all-natural pb. Thankfully, the texture was still picture perfect. (Though I have run into this problem of a too-crumbly cookie before, using organic pb – not sure why. It may have been with vegan, or paleo recipes). P.S. I added some additional kosher salt for that sweet n salty. Thank you so much for this winner! Allison
I made these, and they are delicious! Once they cool, they are even more tasty than when warm from the oven. Thanks for a great recipe!
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. I’ve been looking for this recipe forever!
OMG!! This is my third time making these in three weeks… I may or may not have a Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie problem- haha! These are my all time FAVORITE cookie now. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe, Sally!