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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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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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!!
My go to recipe for peanut butter cookies. Better than any other I’ve eaten! Hoping to win a holiday baking contest at work tomorrow with them. Plus our gluten free judges can enjoy and dairy free if you get the right chocolate chips!
My go to recipe for peanut butter cookies. Better than any other I’ve eaten! Hoping to win a holiday baking contest at work tomorrow with them. Plus our gluten free judges can enjoy and dairy free if you get the right chocolate chips!
Thanks for the 5 star review and great to hear this is your go to recipe for PB cookies!
Hi Averie, do you have a “normal” recipe for these exact cookies? I would love to try, but i still want the flour and all that. Lol T.I.A
Just Google Averie Cooks peanut butter cookies and all of them will pop up and you can see what looks good to you. I have probably 25 different recipes for peanut butter cookies.
Although these are missing the flower, they are really really good and some of my favorites.
We made your recipe. Exactly as specified, I can see why you recommend peanut butter such as Jiff, thinner for sure. Great tasting though. We used Reese’s brand. It has the lowest carb count that wasn’t Natural organic. Secondly we tried the recipe substituting Swerve Brown Sugar and Bake Believe Semisweet Chocolate chips. This made it lower carb. Also the dough is thicker making much chunkier cookie. It was an excellent Keto friendly, low carb cookie. Next I want to try it with Natural Organic peanut butter to lower the carb count. I’m thinking it will almost exactly replicate your original recipe for the low carb conscious. Thanks for the great recipe.
We made your recipe. Exactly as specified, I can see why you recommend peanut butter such as Jiff, thinner for sure. Great tasting though. We used Reese’s brand. It has the lowest carb count that wasn’t Natural organic. Secondly we tried the recipe substituting Swerve Brown Sugar and Bake Believe Semisweet Chocolate chips. This made it lower carb. Also the dough is thicker making much chunkier cookie. It was an excellent Keto friendly, low carb cookie. Next I want to try it with Natural Organic peanut butter to lower the carb count. I’m thinking it will almost exactly replicate your original recipe for the low carb conscious. Thanks for the great recipe.
Thanks for the five star review and sharing what you’ve tried to make these low carb.
Blue Skies, Thank you for the conversions!
I can’t seem to get the recipe for the flourless peanut butter cookies using the peanut butter with honey.
Can you email this recipe ?
Thank you so much.
Linda
I don’t believe I have such a recipe.
You can Google ‘Averie Cooks Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies Honey’ and see if any of the photos that pop up look familiar but all my flourless cookies use sugar since honey would make the dough utterly too moist, especially without then using flour to sop it up.
So you think the brown sugar can be substituted for golden monkfruit sweetener?
I really don’t know, I haven’t experimented.
If you want this recipe to be vegan or you don’t eat eggs for whatever reason then just swap out the egg for about two table spoons of Aquafaba which is juice strained from a can of chic peas or garbanzo bean juice which is close to the sane texture as an egg and much healthier for you then eggs and cruelty free option. I’ve made these cookies both wars time rest them the Aquafaba actually made them taste even better and you can lick the spoon before baking them sense there’s no chance of getting salmonella poisoning or sick from eating a raw egg!
These are absolutely the best cookies ever! My husband loves them, and we have to keep a batch of dough frozen for quick pb cookie fixes. They are my go to for a quick cookie/dessert to take somewhere or give as Christmas cookies. We usually don’t use as much chocolate – 1/2 c to 3/4 c.
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad they’re the best cookies ever for you guys!
I just made these and they truly are amazingly amazingly good!
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad they were amazingly good!
Oh my goodness… I made these exactly to the T….. And they are perfect and amazing. My girls said they are better than the gourmet cookies we get. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️… Thank you so much Averie, they are a HUGE hit in my house 🏡😁😁😁❤️❤️
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad that your girls said they’re better than the gourmet cookies you get! Glad they are such a big hit!!!
I just wanted to let you know that your recipe is fantastic! I live in Berlin Germany and I was a little concerned about the peanut butter because it’s not exactly the same as in the states. I made these cookies for a neighbor’s birthday party who is celiac. Anyway I made the cookie dough and was a bit concerned because it seem quite oily not to mention that I’m so stupid and didn’t read ahead that one should chill the dough for two hours at least. Well I had a half an hour in the freezer and let me tell you the cookies came out fantastically! Crispy chewy crunchy goodness and everybody was amazed that there was no flour used! Now all my German neighbors have to have the recipe so I am converting it to metric for them. I hope you don’t mind. :-)
Thank you again so much!
Thanks for the 5 star review and I’m glad the recipe came out great for you! Yes this is a super oily dough (since it’s all fat and nothing to soak it up, no gluten/flour). Glad that your peanut butter worked just fine, too! And that’s so nice of you to convert to metric for your friends/neighbors!
I just made these cookies for the 3rd time and I have to say they are The Best! It’s 1am right now and the 2nd batch just came out of the oven. I have already eaten one from the first batch “just to check how it turned out”. Hubby was sleeping with our son, woke up, ate one himself, moaned with pleasure and went back to bed. I didn’t have brown sugar so used white, and also only had 4 oz of choc chips, but they still turned out divine. I only wish there were fewer calories in these things, so I could make them more often…
Hahah! I wish all the good stuff didn’t have calories either! Glad you love these and that they’re a hit with your family as well!
Very good cookie. Easy to make. My husband loved them.
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad your husband loved them!
This recipe minus the chocolate chunks makes a great peanut blossom cookie! I was skeptical but I think this is better than my previous peanut butter cookie recipe. To make peanut blossoms, do everything the same minus the chocolate chips. Cook your peanut dough balls and when you remove them, press a dark chocolate hershey’s kiss into the center and let cool.
Thank you for creating this!
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad you think it’s better than your previous PB cookie recipe!
Hi Averie! We were looking for a decadent cookie to bring to a holiday cookie exchange. We like chocolate and peanut butter combos that are simple to make & tasty… and, this worked for us. True, these cookies can be a bit soft and gooey to handle, but they hold together just fine for a nice chew.
The key, as you mentioned, is proper chilling and cookie size. We chilled overnight and chose a smaller (one tablespoon) portion of dough, so the finished cookie was easier to handle. We found store-bought, honey roasted peanut butter, as you recommended and loads of intense chocolate goodness from combining semi-sweet and bitter-sweet bars. As a note, we thought the gooey chocolate upstaged the peanut butter flavor some… it’s all good!
We experimented with size and cooking time and will definitely try even smaller dough portions next time. We used a hand mixer with equal success, too. And, we agree, keep the cooking times precise and very short, to avoid the dough from spreading the cookie too much. We even tried speeding up the final recipe by freezing the dough (for about 15mins. after mixing) and baking right away… what a mess that was, lol. The overnight refrigeration was the ticket–keeping the dough always chilled until use. Oh, and the somewhat soft, oily batter, like others might have experienced, was nothing to worry about with us. Thanks!
We posted a few pics on Pinterest, if anyone is interested: https://pin.it/gn52klelh6spql
Glad that you enjoyed the cookies!