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!
Table of Contents
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.
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
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.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
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!
Easy 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies — These 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies are made with a secret ingredient…and lots of peanut butter, of course! These are so easy and fast to make!
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!!
I was disappointed with this recipe in that the cookies are oily and the texture unpleasant because of it. Although i never regret making a batch of cookies that contain chocolate, i won’t be making this one again, because the texture and oiliness just isn’t for me
Thanks for trying the recipe and because there’s no flour, there is no where for the natural oils found in PB to go or be absorbed by anything. Brands of PB vary in their oiliness, as does every person’s sensitivity to it.
does using a convection oven change the way you bake these peanut butter cookies?
Usually in convection ovens you bake for a shorter duration but being that I don’t have one, I can’t speak to baking length.
Just made these. Beautiful!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad they came out great for you!
since the author of this recipe had such a passion for this cookie, I knew it had to be as good as she stated, so I baked them for my husband (very frank and honest critic) and my granddaughter whose mother is also quite forthright in her opinion. Everyone found the cookies to be delicious! I, too, found the cookies to be quite tasty and loved the chocolate chunks. I used Bakers chocolate and Peter Pan creamy peanut butter. They look exactly like the picture. Yes, there was a little oil from the peanut butter, but I used the cookie scoop and I like to always wear gloves when touching food that I prepare. I had no mess, and I allowed the cookies to remain on sheet until cool. I always use parchment paper when I make cookies, and they turned out great. Not one cookie fell apart when cool.
I love a person who has a passion for what s/he writes. I probably would not have made this recipe were it not for the author. She made me a believer! Thanks for sharing this recipe! They were so pretty, I took a picture of them before they were all consumed.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that my passion won you over!
I’ve updated this recipe and made it even easier (and I think a little better!) in this post! https://www.averiecooks.com/the-best-flourless-peanut-butter-cookies/
Just wanted to say these cookies are so good! The only peanut butter I ever have is the natural and it worked great. I also didn’t read the instrucions fully until after the cookies were in the oven baking–oops! So I didnt flatten my cookies or chill them first, but they came out perfect when baked for 8 minutes. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
Thanks for your response…I’m glad you said to try hand mixing because that was my next idea! I made this last batch for a group of people and everybody loved them so the only issue was the oily mess in preparation. Hopefully hand mixing will do the trick but either way these are delicious cookies! Have you ever tried with stevia instead of brown sugar? They certainly wouldn’t taste as good (IMO) but I’m wondering if they would be good enough for the non-sugar health benefits.
Glad that the only issue is that mixing them is messy/oily! Me too :) You get a nice hand moisturizing session and your hands smell like PB for about 8 hours no matter how many times you wash them :)
Glad everyone loves them!!
Haven’t tried baking with stevia much at all…honestly, I use it in my coffee or tea but that’s about it because just a tiny bit too much and you ruin the whole thing, at least that’s what I’m prone to doing!
I made these for the 3rd time. And it’s a 3rd fail as far as the dough goes…but they still taste pretty amazing. So it’s not a total fail…the taste is a win, but my problem is terribly oily dough like many others and it’s horrible to work with the oily dough. I would love to know why and how some do not get oily dough (and I mean OILY)!! I’ve used 3 different kinds of PB and none were natural or low fat. The first time I used the honey roasted one. After reading comments I decided I may have over mixed with a hand mixer so today I first beat just the PB and brown sugar and stopped when it was well combined…maybe 1:30-2 minutes. Then I added the egg and vanilla. That’s when it went south. It started to get a crumbly texture and then the oil sprouted. From then on it was just an oily crumbly mess. In the past I kept mixing thinking it would come together, but after mixing for over 6 minutes it looked exactly the same so this time I didn’t keep mixing but I added coconut flour (only a few tablespoons because I didn’t want to go crazy and I really want these to be flour less) but that did nothing to help. It seems like it’s a mystery and no telling why it happens for some and not others, but are there any clues from what I wrote about the preparation that would explain the vast amount of oil I’m getting from the dough? I can’t imagine it’s the PB when I’ve gotten 3 different kinds and I’ve tried mixing a lot and a little so what??? help…
Thanks for trying to perfect this so many times…sounds like you’ve tried everything and the only thing left that I would say is just keep this super simple, don’t over-think it, so to speak. So add your PB, sugar, egg, etc and just mix it all up with a spoon! I have seen very similar recipes on foodnetwork, food dot com, allrecipes, etc and I have seen people have really good luck with just keeping things SUPER basic. No electric mixers, no long drawnout beating times, etc. Just mix it by hand with a spoon, chill the dough (although many of those said recipes don’t even call for dough chilling) and then bake them off. Thanks for trying and if you DO try again, LMK if that works.
My PB of choice for baking is either 1. a generic storebrand I get at Ralph’s/Kroger that’s honey-roasted (similar to Jif but 1/3rd the price) OR 2. Jif good old fashioned basis or their honey roasted (but not the ‘naturals’)..but I think this has less to do with the type of PB than mixing of the dough. As you said, not sure why some people have great luck and others don’t.
And just so you know, when I make these, my dough IS oily and sometimes more so than others….and sometimes I have to ‘hard-pack’ it into little mounds and just squeeze it together but eventually it all works out. Sorry just don’t know what else to say that could help!
I made these cookies today. I made them a bit smaller, 20 instead of 16, and baked them for 9 minutes. They were just right, chewy and soft but not underbaked. I have a nephew that loves peanut butter and chocolate, so the next time I go over his house, I will bring these cookies. Also, today I made your triple peanut butter cookie pie for the 5th time! This pie is completely for me – I am not sharing. Thanks for all your great recipes, Averie – they are always a success!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! You have a lucky nephew it sounds like that will get to sample these one day!
And you’ve officially made that PB Cookie Pie more times than I have…five! Wow, love it! Between these cookies and the pie, you have been baking up a storm!!
These cookies are DELICIOUS. Not sure what’s up with the previous critical posters…some people complain about everything. What makes these extra awesome is that they are flour and oil/butter free. Will definitely be making these many more times! My kids loved them!!
some people complain about everything. <--- You got that right :) It still amazes me after 6+ years of blogging! So glad you and your kids enjoyed these and that you can appreciate that they're flour/oil/butter-free!
I came upon this recipe after realizing I wanted cookies and was out of butter. The only peanut butter I had was Jif Natural Creamy…of course! I did not read all of the reviews but saw that someone else was successful with it, so I gave it a shot. The dough texture was very odd and nothing like a cookie dough, but I threw in the chocolate chips anyways. They were completely coated in oil and not sticking to the dough. I had two choices- panic and throw it away or trudge on. You can imagine what someone who really wants cookies would do! So, I used a cookie scoop the best I could and squeezed the contents tightly in my hand, making sure all of the chocolate chips stayed attached. My hands were dripping with oil but I continued to do this and got about 21 cookies. Paper towels helped soak up excess oil on the tops and bottoms. I put one in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking it while the rest chilled for two hours in the fridge. After 8 minutes in the oven, I had a delicious chocolatey peanut buttery chewy gooey cookie! They will never be as good as classic chocolate chip cookies (in my opinion) and were a bit messy to make, but I would definitely encourage others to try this out.
tl/dr: YUM!
Glad it all worked out and you enjoyed the cookies!
My dough turned out exactly the same lol!! The oil was dripping everywhere and the choc chips were not sticking!! I couldn’t bear to throw away all that dough so I used a cookie scoop to scoop out balls the best I could, then soaked up as much of the oil as I could using paper towels. The dough is now chilling in the fridge, it’s for my daughter’s bday party tomorrow as I have a friend who’s gluten intolerant. I’m heartened to hear your cookie baked up okay, can’t wait to see how it turns out when I bake it tonight. Did you use a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer? I’m wondering if that makes a difference. My hand mixer only has the whisker attachment and trying to get the dough to the non-grainy stage meant I beat the heck out of the dough. I’m thinking that’s what caused the oil from the PB to separate?
Overbeating is likely what happened and beating with a whisk is likely what was the culprit as it doesn’t act the same as beaters.
Next time I would recommend getting a hand mixer with beaters (they’re $20 at Target give or take and will get the job done) OR simply mixing by hand until everything is incorporated.