Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies — These are hands down the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made. Know that I don’t say that lightly! They’re melt-in-your mouth soft and chewy, and extremely moist!
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BEST EVER Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’m not one to throw around labels like ‘The Best’ or ‘Best Of’ if I really don’t think something is. When people talk and every other thing is amazing, life-changing, or the best, I tend to not take them seriously.
But I can proudly say, these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies get my vote as “The Best” peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made.
They’re the easiest cookies you’ll ever make, with only six ingredients, and one of them is vanilla, which hardly counts. The recipe is naturally gluten-free because there’s no flour, and it’s one egg away from being vegan.
Instead of granulated sugar, this peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe uses all brown sugar. Why? Because it helps baked goods stay moist and soft, and it adds greater depth of flavor than granulated sugar!
The cookie dough itself is as robustly peanut butter flavored as you can get. There’s no butter and no flour to take away any of the intensity of flavor. Just pure peanut butter intensity.
The edges have a bit of chewiness to them, the interior is so soft and tender, the peanut flavor is distinctly present, and chunks and rivers of dark chocolate ooze everywhere.
It’s hard to believe there’s no butter, no flour, and no granulated sugar in them. They’re my definition of the perfect cookie.
Ingredients in Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Here’s what I used in these chocolate chip peanut butter cookies:
- Creamy peanut butter
- Light brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Baking soda
- Chocolate chips or chunks
A Note About the Amount of Vanilla Called For
I am a vanilla fiend and added it amply enough to matter — 1 tablespoon, to be exact. No more of this 1/2 teaspoon business!
However, if you’re one of those people who prefer less, go with less. I go with more.
How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Making soft and chewy peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips is so easy! Just make sure you plan ahead, because the cookie dough MUST be chilled before baking it.
Here’s an overview of the recipe steps:
- Add the peanut butter and light brown sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. (Spraying the measuring cup with cooking spray will help it plop out easier.)
- To the peanut butter and brown sugar, add an egg, vanilla extract, and baking soda. Mix all the ingredients until well-combined.
- Add the chocolate and beat momentarily to incorporate.
- As tempting as it is to bake the cookies right away because the dough is just so good, it must be chilled for at least 2 hours before being baked for thicker, puffier cookies.
- Using a medium-sized two-inch cookie scoop, form the dough mounds. This translates to almost 2 tablespoons of dough, or about 1.60-ounces by weight.
- Place the dough onto baking sheets about two inches apart, about 8 per tray. Prior to baking, flatten the mounds slightly. If your dough is very well-chilled, you can flatten them a bit more so they don’t stay mounded up in little puffballs while baking, just don’t over-flatten them.
- Bake at 350ºF oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
A Note About the Bake Time
I recommend baking the cookies at the lower end of the bake time range. The cookies in the photos were baked for 8 minutes exactly, with the trays rotated once at the 4-minute mark.
The chocolate chip peanut butter cookies will look underdone at 8 minutes, but firm up as they cool. Let them cool on the baking trays for 5 to 10 minutes before moving them.
If you like crispy and crunchy peanut butter cookies, this probably isn’t the recipe for you since these are all about soft, chewy, and melty. But if you prefer slightly more well-done cookies, bake them for 9-ish minutes, maybe 10.
I would not bake them longer than 10 minutes or they’ll set up too firm and crunchy as they cool, and you’ll miss out on the ooey, gooey, melt-in-your mouth qualities, which are make these the best chocolate chip peanut butter cookies!
Recipe FAQs
Of course! The honey roasted peanut butter makes for a slightly sweeter cookie than using regular peanut butter, and it’s a great contrast to the bittersweet dark chocolate. However, use what you have!
For my version, I used 1 cup Peanut Pan Creamy Honey Roasted Peanut Butter and I don’t advocate using natural or Homemade Peanut Butter.
As lovely as homemade peanut butter is for eating with a spoon, spreading on toast, or making pans of bars with, it lacks the structure that store-bought peanut butter has.
Because these cookies have no flour, which would lend structure, using peanut butter that’s oily, natural, and loose is going to result in cookies that are loose and may not bake up as thick.
You could try using natural peanut butter — and I’ve seen some people have success with it — but I get much better results with commercial. Good old-fashioned Jif, Skippy, or Peter Pan are my recommendations.
I don’t care for nuts in cookies, generally speaking, and creamy peanut butter is the only way for me, but if you like little pebbles in your cookies, go with crunchy.
Use whichever you have on hand to make these accidentally gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!
I like the darkness and slight bitterness of chopped chocolate, contrasted with the honey in the peanut butter, and with molasses that’s naturally found in brown sugar. Most semi-sweet chocolate chips are in the 50 to 55% range, and I relish the extra bump in dark chocolate intensity.
However, chocolate chips are definitely the easier and quicker option since you don’t have to chop them up before throwing into the dough. In short: use what you have!
You probably can, but I’ve never tried it myself so I can’t say for sure. But I imagine substituting chopped nuts for part of the chocolate chunks would be fine.
Yes, pre-baked peanut butter chocolate chip cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 4 months.
Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Storage Instructions
These flourless peanut butter chocolate cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can also freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months.
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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter, I prefer creamy honey roasted; plain or crunchy may be used; do not use natural or homemade peanut butter – see below *
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 6 ounces semi-sweet, dark, or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips may be substituted)
Instructions
- To the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-combined and the sugar is fully incorporated and is mixture is no longer gritty or granular. Stop to scrape down the bowl as necessary.
- Add the baking soda and beat to incorporate.
Add the chocolate and beat to just incorporate; don’t overmix or the nice chocolate chunks will break down. - Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form two-tablespoon mounds. If chocolate is falling out of dough since there is an abundance, roll ball between palms to encourage it to stay in the dough.
- Place mounds on a large plate, flatten mounds slightly, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray.
- Place mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges are set and tops are barely set, even if slightly underbaked in the center. Watch them very closely after 7 minutes and I recommend not baking longer than 10 minutes. Cookies firm up as they cool, and baking too long results in cookies that become too crisp and hard. The cookies in the photos were baked for 8 minutes, with trays rotated at the 4-minute mark, and have chewy edges with pillowy soft centers.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- *Although natural peanut butter or homemade peanut butter may work, I recommend using storebought peanut butter like Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan or similar so that cookies bake up thicker and spread less. Using natural or homemade peanut butter tends to result in thinner and flatter cookies that are prone to spreading.
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 4 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Peanut Butter Cookie Recipes:
Did you know that I wrote a Peanut Butter Cookbook? It contains 100+ recipes that feature peanut butter as the key ingredient!
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Big Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Crinkle Cookies — These soft peanut butter cookies are the peanut butter version of a molasses crinkle. They’re soft, supremely chewy, and have an old-fashioned peanut butter cookie flavor!
Peanut Butter Blossom Cookie Bars — Just like the classic cookies except made as cookie bars rather than individual cookies. Bars are faster, easier, there’s no dough to chill, they’re made in one bowl, and you don’t need a mixer!
Monster Cookies — My recipe for classic monster cookies that are chock full of creamy peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, and M&M’s makes both kids and adults reach for just one more cookie! Fast, EASY, soft, perfectly chewy, and they’ll become a family FAVORITE in no time!
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies — Soft, chewy and they’ll be your new fave PB cookies!! One bowl, no mixer, no butter, naturally gluten-free! Love it when something so easy tastes so amazing!!
Soft Peanut Butter Pudding Cookies — These chocolate-dipped peanut butter cookies are SOFT AND CHEWY on the inside thanks to the addition of pudding mix in the cookie dough! Dipping them in dark chocolate makes for the PERFECT flavor combo!!
These are PERFECT!!!
Thanks!
These are absolutely wonderful! I did use natural almond butter. As the oil started separating in the mixer, I drained it, then patted the dough with a paper towel. I used a combination of 80% dark chocolate and bittersweet. They baked nicely and taste so yummy! My husband was skeptical about how they would turn out when he watched me prepare them, but once he tried one he said it was his favorite cookie ever! Thank you so much for sharing!
That’s awesome they’re your hubs’ fave cookie ever! Great job on patting the oil dry from the natural AB. It’s so much runnier than PB, and it’s well, natural so it will separate, but sounds like you totally handled it. Great job & thanks for the detailed report b/c others will see this! :)
Baking these now. I had to re-read the recipe bc you never mentioned adding in the baking soda. I added after I mixed for a minute. Crossing my fingers!!
You know what, it was included, but it was at the very end of step 1, after a very long paragraph. So I edited the post and gave it it’s own line, it’s now step 2, so that it’s easier to see. Enjoy the cookies!
I made these the other night for a dinner party with a gluten-intolerant friend in attendance and we all loved them (gluten-intolerant or not)! Polished off the batch. Thanks for the fantastic recipe, Averie.
Glad to hear they were a hit and worked out well for your GF friend! Thanks for sharing your story!
Hi Averie,
I tried to make these tonight and I ran into a few problems I was wondering if you could help me with? My cookies wouldn’t creme together, even after like 10 minutes. They were just a dry crumbly mess. They never formed into a dough. Then i pressed them together into cookie shaped balls which were oily but for the most looked like normal cookies. then i put them in the fridge for the 2 hours then cooked them, and they stayed in the little balls i had formed, they didn’t even start to melt into what a good cookie would look like. To taste they are really grainy and crumbly. I know the problems are related to it not creaming together but I don’t know what I did wrong? Its only like 3 ingredients…
If your dough wasn’t coming together and was dry, maybe you should have tried adding a little more PB, to make it more moist. Baking dry dough will only cause it to get even more dry. I think next time make sure your dough comes together and maybe try a different brand of PB. I have great luck with Jif, Skippy, or generic super market PB.
Averie these look amazing. I’ve baked cookies before without butter or flour and they thinned out, but as you said the key is to refrigerate. OMGGGGGGG… this looks good for you too… ! Thanks for sharing.
These are delicious! Also, I don’t have a mixer so I mixed by hand, letting the sugar sit in the liquid about ten minutes before beating and then stirring until the dough started getting sticky/oily. At that point, I froze the dough a bit, then brought it out to roll into balls, stuck in the fridge for nearly 24 hours and then baked them for seven minutes. I made 20 rather than the recommended 16. My peanut butter may have made a difference – I used one with stabilizers on purpose as I thought that would help give the cookies some form. MMMMM…! I was worried about the peanut butter being overwhelming and it isn’t at all, with all the chocolate and brown sugar, tastes more like “regular” choco chunk cookies than “peanut butter cookies”. For someone avoiding gluten, these are a treat! Thank you, Averie!
Stabilizers, i.e. Skippy, Jif, the traditional grocery store pb, not ‘natural’, is the way to go for these cookies. So glad you love them, love the flavor, the choco/brown sugar and that you were able to do it all by hand. This comment will help others without a mixer so thank you for sharing!
I tried making these, but the first attempt was a no-go. I didn’t even cream the ingredients as long as the suggested time, I did 5 min, max, and the batter separated and grew very oily. Still, I refrigerated it, but alas, they did not turn out. They were greasy, flat messes. I could have over beat the batter, it could have been the flax mixture instead of egg, or it could have even been the store brand peanut butter.
Refusing to give up, I made another half batch. This time, I used dark brown sugar, Skippy peanut butter (that I had been hesitant to use the first time because it was kind of old), still used flax, beat the batter for not even a minute, and threw in the baking soda after the chocolate (because I forgot to add it). I didn’t even chill the batter very long, maybe half a hour or less. THESE cookies turned out much like the ones in your pictures. They didn’t spread out or run together and weren’t greasy at all.
I kind of wish you had posted pics of the batter throughout the steps, so the viewers could have known what to look for. I think enough people have had similar issues with the batter that pictures would be helpful.
Glad you got them to work and way to try things until you got them to be where you wanted them to be! I try to do step shots for many recipes and in another recipe I have for flourless PB cookies (linked in the post), they’re included.
Hello there! Just made these, they’re chilling in the refrigerator right now. I have one question — i dont know if the batter is supposed to ball up when i add the egg, but thats what happens to me. I creamed the peanut butter and sugar for 7-8 mins and it was all nice and fluffy, but the minute I added the egg, it becomes chunky/crumbly and balls up almost like a dough. Is this supposed to happen? Thanks!
Balls up like a dough <--- well it's cookie dough after all, right? So I think you're on the right track. Really hard to 'diagnose' this from afar :)