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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FYI most brown sugar is highly refined white sugar with molasses so you may want to clarify if you are using raw sugar which is typically brown but since you used light brown sugar it is most likely processed white sugar with molasses added. The difference between light and dark brown sugar we are accustomed to just differs in the amount of Molasses used.
Possibly the BEST combination of peanut butter and chocolate in a cookie that we’ve had! This cookie was so simple and yet…so good!! We were happy that no flour was included. I think it made the cookie more moist and delicious. Sometimes cookies just have too much flour. I cleaned out my pantry and ended up using 3 different kinds of peanut butter to finish off the jars (creamy and crunchy) and then mixed a combination of dark chocolate squares (chopped) with semi sweet chocolate chips. The dough was a little hard to squish together but they held together nicely when baked! Thank you for this recipe! I can’t wait to share them with friends! :)
Thanks for the awesome comment, Chastity! Loved that you cleaned out 3 jars of PB (love it when recipes help w/ pantry cleanout!) and that you used a combo of various chocolates. Perfect! Flour can be so drying; you’re right. Thanks for telling me that they were such a hit for you!
I hate to be the one (or the 10th!) to say it, but brown sugar is simply white sugar+molasses. However, I still think it’s a great sounding flourless cookie.
Yes you’re probably the tenth++
Except that brown sugar is made from white sugar and is no healthier than white sugar… So they do contain white sugar.
I am not sure, and i’m trying to be careful here, I just see people who spend time giving us recipes and beautiful photographs so we can make them at home, and they do it for free, so when people complain it is just frustrating. It can be very disheartening to spend all of this time and be met with negativity :(
It is a *very* valid point that brown sugar contains white sugar. However, there is no claim whatsoever that the cookies are “healthy”. Or health food. They’re dessert! They are thing to have in moderation. And one mention of the brown/white sugar deal was adequate!
Thank you for sharing your recipes, I really appreciate it so much!! Looking forward to trying… well… all of these! :D Peanut butter is The Yum!!
Hi Amy
Thanks for your comment and for understanding that I’m just sharing recipes and if folks don’t like them, they don’t have to read my blog or make my recipes. It’s so easy to click off a website if you’re not interested in the content. Before I leave comments to others, I always remember what my grandmother would say, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all :) But when people are online, they tend to say things they probably wouldn’t say in person. And yes, these are cookies. Not health food. And I happen to love these cookies. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Saying these cookies have “no white sugar” is deceptive. Brown sugar IS white sugar. It just has molasses added to it.
I see someone already pointed that out. I skimmed first, but missed it.
I’ve now made these 3 times and they’ve come out perfectly each time! They are my husband’s favorite (and he is a cookie fiend!). We were grocery shopping this past weekend and split up to get our list done faster. When we met back up, he had chocolate chunks and peanut butter in hand, specifically requesting these cookies! Ha!
I am so glad to hear these are such a big hit with you (and your husband)…and I get a total kick out of the story that he had choc chunks and PB in his hand at the grocery store as a hint. How cute :) Thanks for the field report and glad you love them!
I honestly think I gained 10 lbs from just looking at these! You’re photos are SO AMAZING! How I didn’t see this recipe until today is beyond me. Can’t wait for your cookbook!
Curious if in your experimentation you ever tried using honey instead of sugar? I can’t have processed sugar, so I’d have to do natural pb and honey. I’m assuming it would affect texture but wondered if you’d tried…
Honey = liquid
And combined with already runny PB and no flour…it’s unfortunately not going to pan out well. I think they will spread quite tremendously…but…please try and LMK
I *just* posted this recipe which you will have more success with with using the honey b/c the cocoa powder will absorb some of it
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/02/thick-and-soft-chocolate-peanut-butter-cookies.html
Please LMK what you try!
Hi! I am so looking forward to tasting these cookies. My dough is in the fridg now. One concern i have is how oily the dough is. I did use the Peter Pan Honey Roasted PB you recommended (not the natural kind.) I mixed in my stand mixer and it just became dark and oily, not creamy at all. Is this how your dough looks? It is chilling now, so i’m gonna see what happens! Im sure it will be a yummy mess even if we have to eat it with a spoon! :)
la
My dough is in the middle of light and fluffy and dark/oily. There is no flour so it will be oily to an extent, but when beating the PB, egg, and sugar, it should have fluffed up some. It will take a GOOD 5 MINUTES of vigorous creaming in a stand mixer (possibly longer with a hand mixer) to get it there. If your dough did not do that; I don’t how these will bake up. Because you’ve already added chocolate, it’s too late to go back and remix but in the future, it should be lighter than what you describe.
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/07/flourless-peanut-butter-cookies.html
That posts shows what my dough look like with hand-mixing, and using some white/some brown sugar. By using an electric mixer, my dough is much softer, fluffier, and smoother, not as gritty. And is more combined looking, less sticky. Albeit yes, oily; but not sloppy falling apart oily or anything. LMK how it goes for you!
So über excited to make these since I saw it on Pinterest.. Made them but the dough was super oily.. Is that Normal? Plus they spread super flat.. Used everything you said down to the t… Any suggestions?
Oily dough is normal (there is no flour to bind them). They spread flat possibly because…the baking soda was not fresh or you need to use slightly more given your climate, the dough was not properly chilled, or they should be baked in a domed/mounded-up ball, similar to the balls midway down in this post. Good luck!
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/02/soft-batch-dark-brown-sugar-coconut-oil-cookies.html