Soft-baked and brownie-like chocolate peanut butter cookies loaded with peanut butter cups and drizzled with melted peanut butter. Pass me a glass of milk!
I have my go-to peanut butter cookies. I have my go-to double chocolate chip cookies. Both soft-baked, thick, and lusciously tender. I even have a peanut butter filled brownie cookie. What I don’t have is a peanut butter-chocolate cookie recipe. And it was high time I created one.
To make peanut butter-chocolate cookies extra special, I stuffed them with chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups and drizzled each with melted peanut butter. This turned them into the ultimate peanut-butter chocolate treat. And had me running to the kitchen for a tall glass of vanilla almond milk.
(Am I the only one who doesn’t like the taste of regular milk?)
Making the cookies isn’t that difficult. The ingredients are easy and convenient, like most of my cookie recipes. They’re a great excuse to take advantage of all the Reese’s peanut butter cups on sale for Halloween!
There isn’t *too much* peanut butter in the cookie dough. Just enough to lend a slight peanut butter flavor. Chocolate is overpowering in practically anything you add it to. That’s why I drizzle each cookie with peanut butter on top. 🙂
You’ll need to chill the cookie dough for about an hour, so be sure to plan accordingly. The cookie dough will be MUCH too sticky to bake unless it has been chilled. Chilling is mandatory for a lot of my cookie recipes, like chocolate chip cookies and big giant monster cookies. Chilling not only makes the cookie dough easier to work with, it binds the flavors together as well. Sort of like chili simmering on the stove, cookie dough needs time in the fridge to allow the flavors to “settle” and get friendly with one another. But if you’re ever in a rush and need a cookie without the chill time, shortbread cookies or snickerdoodles are for you.
Once the cookie dough is chilled, simply roll it into balls. I took this photo in the morning with gorgeous orange sunlight beaming in:
The cookies take about 10-12 minutes in the oven. Try not to overbake them. It’s tough to tell when the cookies are overbaked because they are so dark. When it comes to my cookie recipes, always err on the underbaked side of things. The cookies will continue to bake on the cookie sheet when you remove it from the oven.
I find that the cookies only spread slightly in the oven. That’s not a problem at all! Once you take them out of the oven, gently press down on each cookie with the back of a spoon or fork to get it to spread out. This will create little cracked tops. And the melted peanut butter on top with melt right inside. For the drizzle, just melt a bit of peanut butter and drizzle it all over the tops. The more, the better. You’ll never see me pass on the opportunity to add more peanut butter to anything…
They’re messy, gooey, drippy, and perfect.
Kevin compared these cookies to brownies. Fudgy brownie cookies. He’s totally accurate—the inside of the cookies is reminiscent of moist fudgy brownies! We could not stop eating them. Soon enough, they were completely gone before I could even share them with my hungry dog park friends (the owners of course).
One bite will have you forget everything else going on in your busy life. Forget the deadlines, errands, and unmade bed. After you taste these cookies, all you will be thinking about is peanut butter and chocolate.
The only change to the recipe that I would make? DOUBLE it. Seriously, 16 cookies will disappear quickly.
Print
Ultimate Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
- Yield: 16 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft-baked and brownie-like chocolate peanut butter cookies loaded with peanut butter cups and drizzled with melted peanut butter. Pass me a glass of milk!
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 (188g) cups all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 cup (41g) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (60g) cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk
- 1 and 1/4 cups Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, chopped (about 16 Reese’s miniatures)
- for drizzle: 1/3 cup (85g) creamy or chunky peanut butter
Instructions
- Toss the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl as needed. Switch the mixer to medium speed and beat in the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and peanut butter until combined. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Turn the mixer off and pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Turn the mixer on low and slowly beat until a soft dough is formed. Beat in the milk on medium speed. Once mixed, beat in the peanut butter cups until evenly disbursed. The dough will be very thick and sticky. Cover the dough tightly with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Drop 8 rounded balls of dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each (I like to use a medium cookie scoop), onto prepared baking sheets. Bake each batch for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven. The cookies will not have spread much, so gently press down on them with the back of a fork or spoon. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- As the cookies are cooling, melt the peanut butter. Drizzle over warm or cool cookies. Allow peanut butter to set for about 10 minutes. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking success tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi Sally, this is the first recipe I made from your blog. Hands down the nicest cookies I have ever made. I made them into big peanut butter and nutella cookie sandwiches (RIP summer bod).
The only problem I have now is deciding what to make next from your blog as I want to make literally everything.
What would you say your favourite cookie and cupcake recipes are?
I am SO happy to share! Here are some favorites:
Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Iced Oatmeal Cookies
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Super Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
Let me know which you try!
Thank you!! Already bought the ingredients for your soft bake white chocolate molasses cookies to make this weekend, I’m planning on sandwiching them with biscoff spread. But next on my list will be those chocolate cupcakes. They look dreamy.
I post them all on insta @browniejon if you want to see how they turn out anyway.
I’ve made these cookies a few times now and they were so delicious and appealing to the eye I had to send them to relatives I couldn’t resist thank you Sally your cookies are amazing
Sally, I tried these cookies last weekend and I have to say……you killed me! They can’t be improved because they are just perfect. The consistency and even the taste. I’m lost of words.
Wow, thanks Sabine! So happy you love them as much as I do!!
These are still my favourite cookie EVER. Every cookie / treat I try is compared to this and some have come close but nothing has passed it.
Hi Sal! Just wanted to let you know this recipe is fantastic! I made them last night as a gift for my teenage nephew, who loves PB and chocolate. Of course we hadn’t rob test taste them first and the kids LOVE them – even my son’s girlfriend, and she is soooo picky lol 🙂 Super soft and choclatey and the PB drizzle is the perfect topper. Thx for another sure fire recipe!
You did it again! I forgot to put the drizzle on before I ate one
I want to make these but I have everything except the Butter. Will Margarine work or does it strictly need butter?
I put bits of bacon on top. Yes I did. Oh my gosh, I died and went to heaven!
Sally, I’m a lifetime baker, and I’m very particular (maybe even snooty) about my cookies. You are top of the game, girl. Only recipes I touch are yours and Alton Browns. Lol!
I just finished making these cookies for a cookie contest at work tomorrow. I followed the recipe and they turned out perfectly delicious. I doubled the batch and it made about 4 dozen cookies. I placed them on a cookie rack, very close to eachother and lined newspaper under the cookie rack and drizzled Pbutter all over them. It was a fairly easy clean up. I’ve already ate 2 right off the cookie rack. I’m pretty sure I’ll win the cookie contest tomorrow 🙂 Thanks for a great recipe.
I’m making these right now, they’re in the fridge for 1 hour. I’m excited to cook these and eat them. They look so yummy.
These are awesome! I made them today because I had Resses pb chips that I wanted to use up, (instead of using the chopped up candies, which I’ll try next time, I’m sure it’s to die for). I love that you have a little PB in the dough. It’s just a hint so the chocolate doesn’t dominate. The family & I loved them. Thanks for the great recipe.
Made these cookies last night and were too die for! Turned out perfectly and were so thick, chewy, chocolatey and the perfect amount of peanut butter. Thanks for the great recipe Sally! 🙂
I’m in cookie heaven… these were the perfect hit of chocolate and peanut butter… de-lish!!! Thank you Sally for another outstanding recipe.
These look amaziiiiing, but can I make them without the Reese’s and maybe just up the amount of peanut butter?
You can leave out the Reese’s. I wouldn’t alter the amount of peanut butter– maybe use peanut butter chips?
Sally. You. Are. A. Genius!
I made these for a “Hey, we finished our project, let’s eat cookies!” cookie and oh. my. goodness. were they delicious!
I just love your recipes! My go to blog when I feel in the mood to bake something yummy. Didn’t have and reeses on jams so I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead. WOW. these cookies are absolutely to die for. My whole family enjoyed them. I wish I would have doubled the recipe because they really do go quick! Thank you again for the wonderful recipe 🙂
I made these in response to a request from a friend. As usual, Sally, your directions are perfect and the results were divine! I like small cookies–portion control, ya know!– and made mine about 1 Tbsp., got 41 lovely cookies. I used a small plastic baggie with the corner snipped off to do the PB drizzle. My only “problem,” if you can call it that, is the drizzle doesn’t get firm so that packaging the cookies may mess up the drizzle! Thanks again for another great recipe.
Hi Sally!
You mentioned doubling this recipe…I am always afraid to do that. When you double it, do you simply double the ingredients and make the cookie dough all at once? Or would you make two separate batches?
Thanks!
Kristin
Hi Kristin! Yep, simply double all of the ingredients. I normally bake two separate batches when I double cookie recipes– this guarantees a uniform texture AND helps me avoid overmixing.
Can I use this recipe to make peanut butter cups with a reese’s peanut butter cup pushed in the center after the cookies are baked. I want to use mini muffin pan. Any suggestions?
Definitely – I am unsure of the exact baking time when baked this way though.
Hi. I just made these…seriously YUM! huge hit, I wish I read past the recipe as I agree you need to make a double batch. Thanks for all the great recipes
These just came out of the oven! They look fantastic. I used dark chocolate almond milk, 55% cacao chocolate chunks and dairy free, soy free “butter” due to my daughter having a dairy protein allergy. Hopefully they still are as amazing as everyone says!
Oh my god. Truly one of the best cookies I’ve had in my entire life! And considering my diet is mostly cookies that’s really saying something. I upped the brown sugar to 3/4 c and did 1/8 cup sugar plus a few stevia packets (just since that was all my pantry had left!) and it was perfection. Thank you for creating and sharing this!
Sally – I just made your peanut butter chocolate cookies and OMG what a killer recipe! They are glorious! I followed your process to a tee and I would not change a thing. You should patent this one. : )
These are the best cookies I’ve made. Everyone loves them!! I add a tablespoon of nutella too. Deliciousness
I fell in love with this recipe the moment I saw it! So far I have made these cookies on 3 different occasions and they come out so delicious every single time. I used peanut butter chips in place of the peanut butter reese cups and they are even more addicting than what the recipe calls for! Absolutely must try!
Just ate two of these for dinner with some ice-cream (six months pregnant so I’m thinking it’s allowed!) Absolutely yummy. Another thank you for including the UK measurements.
Thank you SO much for publishing this recipe! I made these over the holidays to give to friends. ALL who received them begged me to make them again (so of course I had to!) This is the perfect balance of savory and sweet! Recommendation to those baking this recipe: freeze your peanut butter cup “bits” before incorporating them into the dough. It makes the pieces stay together much better and sets a great stage for when it is time to make the dough balls. A++ recipe!