Enjoy 2 soft-baked cookies in 1 with every bite of these thick peanut butter chocolate swirl cookies. A swirly batch features the greatest dessert flavor duo out there: peanut butter and chocolate. Shaping the dough is super simple, and don’t forget all the chocolate chips!
I originally published this recipe in 2013 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more success tips.
While the likes of apple pie, carrot cake, and oatmeal raisin cookies will always be my favorite desserts, there’s no hiding my adoration for a good peanut butter and chocolate combo. And I know many dear readers share that love! These no-bake peanut butter bars are a quick and easy year-round favorite, and this towering chocolate peanut butter cake is a popular showstopper.
So when it came to developing a top-notch peanut butter and chocolate cookie combination, I turned to 2 of my very best recipes: soft and thick peanut butter cookies and double chocolate chip cookies. And when combined, they’re totally epic.
I’ve been making these cookies for years, and I haven’t changed the recipe at all. You just don’t mess with perfection. 😉
It doesn’t get much better than this:
Why Everyone Loves Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Cookies
Today’s 2-for-1 combo cookies have been a favorite since day 1. Whenever I serve them, tasters flock to the cookie tray. Here’s why:
- The cookies have soft-baked, extra-thick centers with slightly crisp edges.
- They’re ginormous and loaded with chocolate chips.
- Eye-catching, mesmerizing swirls!
- You can have 2 cookies at the same time. Who doesn’t want that?!
One reader, Sally, commented: “This is such a tasty cookie! Followed the recipe exactly… Visually striking and ultra tasty! Pillowy and rich. I love having bites of both silky peanut butter and rich chocolate. Thanks so much! ★★★★★“
Combine 2 Stellar Cookie Recipes
Yes, you’re making 2 cookie doughs today. I promise both are very easy!
If you’ve been visiting my website over the years, chances are you’ve tried both cookie doughs before; I use them all over the website. If you haven’t had a chance to try them, let me make a quick introduction.
Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
These soft and thick peanut butter cookies are my flagship peanut butter cookies, serving as the base recipe for 6+ other cookie recipes on my site. They’re PACKED with peanut butter flavor and not dry/crumbly like similar recipes can be. It’s the same dough I use in peanut butter blossoms and these peanut butter jam thumbprints. Let me just say: this recipe has the hearts of peanut butter lovers everywhere. Many readers say they taste like the inside of a peanut butter cup!
Chocolate Cookie Dough
Then comes my go-to chocolate cookie dough. My recipe for double chocolate chip cookies also makes appearances as inside-out chocolate chip cookies, chocolate crinkle cookies, and salted caramel dark chocolate cookies. When it comes to Christmas cookies, I use it for peppermint mocha cookies, Andes mint chocolate cookies, and peppermint frosted cookies. This is one versatile cookie dough!
Naturally, I knew it would be the perfect chocolatey half of these cookies, too. It’s soft-baked, chewy, and oh-so-fudgy.
Key Ingredients in Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Cookies
For both cookie doughs, you need the usual lineup of cookie ingredients. Pay special attention, though, to these 2:
- Peanut Butter: For the peanut butter dough, I recommend using creamy processed peanut butter, like Jif or Skippy. Whether you’re making today’s cookies, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter snickerdoodles, big giant monster cookies, or really any peanut butter-based cookies, processed creamy peanut butter will give you the best taste and soft-baked texture.
- Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder: Did you know that not all cocoa powders work the same in baking recipes? And most of it depends on the leavening agents. If you’re interested in the science behind it, I go into plenty of detail in my post on the difference between Dutch-process and natural cocoa powder. Because you’re using baking soda in the chocolate cookie dough, reach for unsweetened natural cocoa powder. If you’re looking for ways to use up a jar of Dutch-process cocoa, try my chocolate buttercream or these homemade brownies (there’s no leavening in either).
Swirling the Dough
Moving on to those pretty cookie swirls! The assembly process is actually quite simple:
- Take 2 Tablespoons (about 40g) of chilled peanut butter cookie dough and roll into a ball.
- Take 2 Tablespoons of chilled chocolate cookie dough and roll into a ball.
- Take both the peanut butter and chocolate cookie dough balls, and gently press them together. Using your hands, roll them into 1 large cookie dough ball. (They will be big—about 1/4 cup of cookie dough (80g) per cookie!)
That’s it! Even easier than my peanut butter-filled brownie cookies or peanut butter fudge puddles… both of which you absolutely have to try sometime.
The cookies will look very soft when they come out of the oven, but they set as they cool. While they’re still warm, feel free to top with a few extra chocolate chips like I do with my chocolate chip cookies. This is optional and purely for looks!
Success Tip: Chill Your Cookie Doughs
Chilling both cookie doughs in the refrigerator is mandatory for this recipe. It’s one of my top tips for how to prevent cookies from overspreading. If you skip the chilling, you’ll lose that pretty swirled dough and end up with peanut butter chocolate cookie puddles. I recommend chilling the dough in the vast majority of my cookie recipes.
Not to mention, dough that has not been chilled will make quite the mess on your hands during the swirling process! I’m not saying your hands won’t get covered in any dough, but the dough is much easier to handle when cold.
More Chocolate Peanut Butter Desserts
Soft-Baked Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes (includes chilling)
- Cook Time: 14 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Enjoy two soft-baked cookies in one with every bite of these thick peanut butter chocolate swirl cookies. Be sure to chill both cookie doughs, so the doughs are easier to shape, and the cookies don’t overspread.
Ingredients
Chocolate Cookie Dough
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2/3 cup (55g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk (any kind, dairy or nondairy)
- 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus a few more for topping
Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (185g) creamy peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/4 cups (156g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Make the chocolate cookie dough: Cream the butter and sugars together with a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the egg and vanilla extract, and then beat on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour into the wet ingredients. Beat on low until combined. Switch to high speed and beat in the milk, then the chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be sticky and tacky.
- Make the peanut butter dough: Cream the butter and sugars together with a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the peanut butter and vanilla extract and beat until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Once combined, beat in the chocolate chips.
- Cover both cookie doughs tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or up to 3 days. It’s imperative that both doughs are chilled, otherwise the doughs will be difficult to work with, and the cookies will overspread.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
- Measure about 2 Tablespoons (40g)—or a little less, because the recipe makes *slightly* more peanut butter dough—of chocolate cookie dough. Roll into a ball. Measure about 2 Tablespoons (40g) of peanut butter cookie dough. Roll into a ball. Press the 2 balls together between your hands and roll them into 1 large ball. Repeat for each cookie. The chocolate cookie dough is particularly sticky, so wipe your hands clean after every few balls of dough you shape.
- Bake the cookies for 12–14 minutes or until the edges appear set and the centers still look soft. Tip: If they aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2–3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven to continue baking.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. During this time, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. (This is optional and only for looks.) Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Cover leftover cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie doughs and chill in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. 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): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack
- 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
These are SO GOOD! This is definitely a “trust the process” cookie. I thought these hadn’t cooked enough when I first pulled them out of the oven, but they were perfect after they cooled.
Hi,
How big do these cookies get after baking? Could you use less dough together to make a smaller cookie?
Hi Carol, these are large cookies, so yes, you could definitely make them smaller! The bake time will be shorter, so keep an eye on them.
Can I switch out the butter for oil?
Hi Esther, you need a fat that is solid at room temperature (like butter) so that it can be properly creamed with the sugar. You could try solid coconut oil instead, but the outcome of the cookies will be different.
These were incredible. I used peanut butter chips on the peanut butter dough and chocolate chips on the chocolate dough. I chilled the dough for 2 days before baking. They came out incredible
Love this recipe so much. Major crowd pleasers. My one note is that, measuring out both doughs to the exact gram for every single cookie per the recipe does not yield 24 cookies. It’s more like 18. But they are fantastic.
These are delicious!!! I like how soft they bake up. I received many complements. I made them with 1/2 cup of mini chips in each dough and 1 tbsp (20g) each kind of dough for each cookie (total 40g) and baked them for 9 minutes. Before baking, I put the formed dough balls into the fridge for 10 minutes to chill.
Hi Sally,
I can’t wait to try these cookies my favorite combination.
Dear Sally,
We’ve loved every one of your recipes I’ve ever made. I especially love your explanations of why it’s important to follow directions in specific ways or how certain ingredients work together with others. Please keep it up!
I have one request: While I LOVE (and need!) all the detailed directions, would you please consider breaking up the longer directional steps into shorter ones? Especially when I’m making a recipe for the first time, I need to return to the recipe to read the next step. When it’s in the middle of a long paragraph, I’ve often missed it and had to go back and reread, making the prep and time quite long.
Thanks again for sharing your expertise with all us semi chefs.
Hi Maryann, I missed your comment/request until now! I love this feedback because it’s really, really helpful. I think it’s really important to break up the longer steps and we will absolutely take a look at certain recipes where that change can be applied. I’m so glad you brought this up, as I’m always looking to see where my recipes can be more helpful. Thank you again!
Hello there,
I love reading and having all the small details in a recipe, but i would recommend to add a PDF copy option for the recipe as a shortcut to all the reading .. I love ur recipes thanx for all the effort..
We made these cookies last weekend, they are fabulous! Great flavor and texture, the recipe instructions are perfectly simple to follow. A new family favorite!
I saw the post on IG and decided to try them out.
They taste great .. but I think there is too much chocolate chips .. i think since we are combining both recipes it should probably be halved. Or add something other than chocolate chips.
I would love if you gave a more detailed description on how to combine the two balls because it’s hard to get the half & half look to be honest.
The doughs cook differently .. the peanut butter dough is stiffer.
The peanut butter dough is about 60 grams more than the chocolate chips dough. So it needs a lot less than the 40 g of chocolate chips dough cookie dough per cookie.
The dough needs to remain chilled between bakes to avoid overspreading. I chilled overnight but after rolling I kept combined balls at room temperature and after my first two bakes which turned out great, the third tray of cookies spread. When i put the last tray back in the fridge to chill the results were so much better. I think that should be added as a success tip on here.
Can these cookies be made with regular chocolate chip dough instead of with peanut butter?
I LOVE THIS RECIPE SO MUCH AND IT IS A GENIUS IDEA.
So good! I chilled mine overnight for timing reasons, but let them sit out for an hour before I shaped them. I love how big the cookies are – I’m going to make ice cream sandwiches with them for my my MIL’s birthday in July! She’s a PB/chocolate fan and they’ll be perfect!
I love this recipe! The cookies always look so delicious and, of course, taste delicious! I am wondering if I can use mini M&M instead of the chocolate chips in the chocolate dough.
Absolutely!
these were SO GOOD! I halved the chocolate chip amount and used chocolate chunks instead and because I was short on time I froze the dough for about 45 min to an hour instead of refrigerating and they turned out great!! def will make these again! I have a huge chocolate and peanut butter weakness lol
These cookies were so delicious and so fun to make these cookies came out huge and had such an excellent taste as the flavours went well together!!!
Easy to follow instructions. I chilled mine for a few hours before attempting and it’s a must so the dough doesn’t get too soft while rolling the balls. I baked half and pre-rolled the others while baking the first batch so I could freeze them for later. Love that I get a taste of two cookies in one!
Do you possibly have the nutrition information?
Hi Heather, 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
I can’t believe I’m not leaving a 5 star rating because everything I make from here is amazing. BUT. I am completely ruined for, I think, ANY cookie, other than Sally’s Giant Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. They are heaven. I mean HEAVEN!! So, I saw these, and was like, “YES! MORE PB and chocolate!”. Please don’t get me wrong: These cookies are REALLY good. I didn’t have any trouble with the doughs, they baked well together. They are good together, they are good separate. This is a REALLY good cookie! But for my PB/Chocolate fix, I gotta go with the oatmeal ones.
Everyone loved these cookies. I decided to use peanut butter chips for the chocolate dough and that worked out well.
These cookies are fabulous! I used regular semi-sweet chips in the batter, then used chunky semi-sweet for the top, which made them look really decadent. I put a sprinkle of fleur de sel on the top and this brought out the peanut-y flavor. Everyone loved them.
Made a double batch for an eclipse party. Yum!!!
This is such a neat recipe first off. I had to make it. I made sure to follow the directions precisely rather than doing my self modifications to be certain they came out perfectly for the crowd but I also had the same outcome as Jen. The PB cookie dough was nice and malable but the chocolate cookie dough was very sticky and spread quite a bit. Do you know what went wrong? I’d love to share pictures on how I creatively formed them for show.
HiAnna, The chocolate cookie dough is certainly sticky and messy! Make sure it’s completely chilled, at least 3 hours but the longer the better (up to 3 days).
I chilled the dough overnight, then made the cookies the next day. Then once I formed them to bake, I chilled the dough again for at least 15 min. Mine came out perfect that way.
Love this recipe! I used half the amount of dough for each type of dough and dropped the baking time to 8-9 minutes, since the cookies were huge.
Sooooo delicious!! I have made 2 batches already as my hubby asked to take a batch to the office. 🙂 They are easy and fun to make and I love how no 2 cookies look exactly the same. Also thinking about making a double batch of just that peanut butter dough for PB cookies as that is Deeeeeelicious!!
Fantastic recipe! Everyone at work loved them. Thank you for all your great recipes.
I had difficulty with the bake on this cookie. The peanut butter dough was stiffer than the chocolate dough and cooked differently..
I know! the same happened to me..
This recipe looks delicious! Is there any way I can turn it into a layered bar and bake in a large pan? I don’t always have time to bake individual cookies.
Hi Lisa, we haven’t tested it, but we can’t see why not. We’d try layering them in a 9-inch square pan. We’re unsure of the exact bake time, but keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Love this recipe.. can i made this recipe for cruncy texture? Thank you
Hi Aisyah, these are a thick/soft cookie, but you could try flattening them a bit more before baking (to promote spread) and then increase the bake time by a few minutes to help produce a slightly crispier cookie. Glad you enjoy these!
I made these gluten free using cup4cup flour.I used Jif peanut butter and ghiradelli chocolate chips and cocoa powder. They were excellent and so popular I ended up making a second batch for Xmas.
My chocolate dough ended up splitting quite a bit after baking, looking like crinkle cookies… really not sure where I went wrong.