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.
These cookies are amazing – my new favorite cookie!
Oh my God that was the 1st time I’ve ever made cookies from scratch and that was the best cookies I have ever put in my mouth thank very much.
I made them today and only had milk chocolate. I also only had quick oats. The chips gives the cookie that extra amount of sweetness because the dough is not overly sweet. Nice and crisp on the edges, soft in the middle. Even after the cookies cooled, the chips are still gooey. Made enough dough to save a batch for the freezer to bake later. These are awesome cookies.
I fail, nearly everytime, at baking cookies. How you mess up a drop cookie, I do not know… This recipe and the directions to go along, have made me the best batch of big fat delicious cookies of my life!
If I only have salted butter, should I leave out the added salt?
Hi Nancy, if using salted butter, reduce the added salt to 1/2 teaspoon.
One of the best cookies I’ve ever had. So delicious! Just a hint of peanut butter and so soft and fluffy!
Not enough sugar. Cookie tastes very bland.
These are fabulous! I’ve made several times and it’s a great compromise for a pb cookie liver and choc chip cookie lover. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad recipe from Sally! Thank you!
Heard of these cookies before as a favorite of John Legend lol googled the recipe to make some for my best friend and I’m sooo pleased with how they came out!! Only used a few tbsp of pb and I used half pb chips and half chocolate chips. I even added an extra 1/3 cup of oats by accident and they still came out amazing!! First time making cookies from scratch and I literally could not be happier
AMAZING!! Love these cookies. Slight crunch on the outside, soft and dense on the inside. Perfect combo of pb and chocolate. I’m glad I stuck with the rolled oats. The quick oats would have dried these out. I will likely reduce the amount of chocolate chips next time (gasp!), only because my husband likes less sweet/more peanut butter. The chocolate chips came close to overwhelming the peanut butter flavor. All in all, one of my new favorites!
I made these as large bakery style cookies using an ice cream scoop and increasing the baking time to 15-16 minutes. I add a little more vanilla and brown sugar and they turned out amazing! Thank you!
These are the best cookies! I can’t get enough of them. Can I put them in a pan and make them as cookie bars? And what size pan would I use?
We love this cookie recipe. I have a really wonderful chocolate chip cookie that I made all the time, but this one has taken its place. Great recipe.
I baked these cookies at 350 and used pecans and raisens since I had no chocolate chip, I must’ve not pulled them out of the oven soon enough because as delicious as they are they are not moist at all. Dry and hard, like a scone. I pressed my finger in the center and when it didn’t bounce back I left them in for a few more minutes. I’ll pull them out sooner next time.
These Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip are wonderful. I followed the recipe exactly; even used my Pampered Chef scale to measure the ingredients. They are delicious. I baked them on parchment-lined insulated baking sheets for 12 minutes.
Your oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with molasses were my whole family’s favorite cookie. I tried making these this afternoon and this recipe has surpassed the regular oatmeal chocolate chip cookies as the new favorite. It’s the perfect trifecta of cookies- oatmeal, chocolate chip and peanut butter!
My new go to recipe for when I feel like a cookie. Makes a large batch, I get 44 cookies, so there’s plenty to share or put in freezer for later. These are EXCELLENT if you make the cookies a little smaller and make peanut butter frosting filled sandwich cookies!! YUM!
This is the perfect recipe for me – all the right ingredients and they came out beautifully.
Have you ever made them as a bar? If so, how thick do you fill the dish and any changes to bake time?
Thanks for sharing…
Hi Ted, you can definitely try these in a 9×13 inch pan to make cookie bars. We’re unsure of the exact bake time needed, but you can follow the baking time and temperature for our Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars as a guide. Enjoy!
I used Justin’s Honey Peanut Butter for this recipe and it was amazing!! Thank you!!
These were just fabulous! I bake a lot of cookies, and am particular about the quality. This recipe is the bomb! Easy, and just perfectly, crispy, chewy and complex in flavor. Perfect!
I’d like to put peanut butter chips in this recipe, but to not make the PB overwhelming would want reduce the PB in the recipe. If I half it, any suggestions to adjust the recipe?
Hi Julie! It would take some recipe testing to reduce the peanut butter in this recipe. Let us know what you try! You could also use this recipe for Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with peanut butter chips instead of chocolate chips.
The best cookies I’ve ever made. I used to double the recipe, but that’s not enough anymore. Now I quadruple it.
Holy guacamole. What a delicious and versatile recipe! I used 1 cup of whipped Earth Balance and enjoy life mini semi sweet chips to omit any dairy, used a mixture of erythritol and coconut sugar in place of the regular sugar and brown sugar, added a tablespoon of pure maple syrup and tablespoon of ground flax seed, and did 1 cup all purpose and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. Yes, a lot of adjustments but very very good.
Thanks so much for this delicious recipe! I ended up using only 1.5 cups of chocolate (1 cup semisweet chips + .5 cup chopped Hershey’s bar) and it still turned out great! I got 34 cookies out of this recipe. By the way, your pictures are beautiful and you are my go-to baking blog! Keep up the amazing work 🙂
So does this recipe still work if I halve everything? I only have 1 stick of butter, darn!!
Hi Micaella! Absolutely — simply halve all the ingredients. Enjoy!
I love this recipe! I add raisins, cranberries and walnuts in addition to the ingredients listed, cinnamon too. Thank you so much for an awesome recipe!
Goodness, I think these may be the best cookies I have ever had! I just found your site, really appreciate the gram measurements for accuracy.
The only liberty I took was after measuring the oatmeal I used a food processor to grind it a bit finer. Not pulverized to a powder, just slightly smaller than out of the package. Gives a really nice texture.
And a happy accident I stumbled on is I had 1 bag of chocolate chunks and 1 bag of mini chips. Not enough of either to use only one kind but using both together gave a magnificent chocolate distribution.
These cookies are absolutely delicious! They have the perfect texture- crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I love how thick they were and the flavour combination is on point.
This is my all time favorite cookie recipe, I have made them at least 6 times, always turn out fabulous!
Do you think I could swap Sunflower Butter for the peanut butter?
Hi Sarah! We haven’t tested it, but don’t see why it may be an issue as long as it isn’t oily. Let us know if you give it a try!
I wondered if there was a recipe for my favorite cookies all smooshed together, and here it is! Amazing flavor and texture. Unlike you, I prefer less choc chips and more oatmeal, so I added just 1 C chips and upped the oatmeal (didn’t measure past what is called for here, just added until it looked right) and absolute delicious! A new family favorite. Thank you for having a recipe for just what I wanted!