Using this recipe, you’ll enjoy ultra-soft and thick bakery-style peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that are filled to the brim with chocolate chips. I make them with a whopping 2 cups of peanut butter, so you’re guaranteed mega flavor in every single bite.
I originally published this recipe in 2016 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips.
One reader, Katelyn, says: “This is hands down my favorite cookie recipe of all time. I’ve baked and loved Sally’s recipes for years and this is my new favorite! I ate 3 at a time. 3 separate times. Then brought them to friends who also ate 3 apiece. Everyone agreed they were the best peanut butter cookies they’ve ever had. Highly recommend! ★★★★★”
You don’t have to go another day without experiencing what some bakers have called “one of my favorite recipes on this site (and in general)” and “the best cookies I’ve ever made.”
While there’s a recipe for classic peanut butter cookies in my Sally’s Cookie Addiction cookbook and I have my super-soft peanut butter cookies on this website, today’s cookies are EXTRA thick and absolutely loaded with peanut butter and chocolate chips. This IS peanut butter dessert perfection, after all.
These Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Are:
- Huge—3 Tablespoons of dough per cookie
- Soft for days
- Crinkly & crackly on top
- Loaded with chocolate chips
- Thick & 100% irresistible
- Relatively quick—only 1 hour of chill time
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies: What Works & What Doesn’t
This is a simple recipe, and the same base dough as my white chocolate peanut butter cookies. When developing the recipe several years ago, I learned a couple tricks and am happy to share my findings:
- Embrace a creamy cookie dough. 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of peanut butter, and 2 eggs make for an extremely creamy cookie dough. Embrace it; you do not want to add more flour. When the dough hits the oven, peanut butter acts somewhat like a dry ingredient and gives the cookies structure.
- Chill the cookie dough. You might remember from my How to Prevent Cookies from Spreading page that chilling cookie dough is important. Luckily this dough is thick and stable, which means it doesn’t need hours in the refrigerator before baking. A quick 1 hour of chilling prevents the cookies from over-spreading. My brownie cookies (and the jazzed-up version—peanut butter-filled brownie cookies) have a super-quick chill time, too.
- Flatten the dough. Make sure you slightly flatten each cookie before baking, as this will help the cookies spread a bit in the oven. If you think about it, it’s a common step when making peanut butter cookies—you flatten those with a fork prior to baking. Here, you can just use the back of a spoon or your hands.
Grab These Ingredients:
Selecting the right ingredients is important, especially when it comes to peanut butter. This recipe calls for more peanut butter than any other recipe that makes an equivalent amount of dough. So without question, you’re guaranteed an intensely flavored cookie.
- Peanut butter: As mentioned, these cookies have—front and center—highly concentrated peanut butter flavor. To achieve this, use a commercial brand of creamy peanut butter like Jif or Skippy, the same I recommend for my peanut butter balls, big giant monster cookies, and peanut butter fudge puddles.Though it’s wonderful for eating and cooking, natural-style peanut butter isn’t ideal here. The cookies will be too crumbly and, depending on the brand, may even have an oily texture. Crunchy peanut butter produces the same crumbly results. If you want to use natural-style peanut butter in a cookie recipe, try these flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies instead.
- Room-temperature butter: Make sure your butter is cool to the touch. Here’s what room-temperature butter really means. You’ll it to properly cream the butter and sugar.
- More white sugar than brown: In these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, you’ll notice there’s more granulated sugar than brown sugar. When making basic chocolate chip cookies, I recommend using more brown sugar than white sugar because it produces a softer cookie. The addition of peanut butter already makes today’s cookies soft, and using more brown sugar made them EXTRA soft—to the point where they were falling apart. As a result, I learned it was simply too much of a good thing.
- Chocolate chips: Just like with peanut butter half moon cookies, the chocolate complements the intense peanut butter. I recommend semi-sweet chocolate chips because they add a balanced flavor, and just the right amount of sweetness.
One reader, Paige, says: “What is this magic? I was a little hesitant this whole process…. two cups of peanut butter? Three-tablespoon-sized cookies? No way! But this works and the cookies are incredible. ★★★★★“
You can even replace some of the chocolate chips with peanuts, which makes for a wonderfully chunky cookie with extra peanut flavor. You can also roll the balls of dough in granulated sugar (before slightly flattening them) for some sparkle, just like these peanut butter blossoms.
I also have a recipe for unapologetically big and fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that boast the same great flavor, and have the added chew from oats.
Use a commercial brand of processed creamy peanut butter like Jif or Skippy. Though it’s wonderful for eating and cooking, natural-style peanut butter won’t do this dough any favors. The cookies will be too crumbly and, depending on the brand, may even have an oily texture.
I don’t recommend crunchy peanut butter in these cookies because, like natural-style, it produces a crumbly cookie. Feel free to swap some chocolate chips for peanuts to achieve that crunchy peanut butter texture.
You may have over-baked them. Bake just until the edges are set; the centers will still look quite soft. Give them at least 10 minutes to cool on the baking sheets before transferring to a cooling rack.
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft & Thick Monster Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Peanut Butter Snickerdoodles
Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 32 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These big bakery-style peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are super thick, ultra-soft, and filled with chocolate chips. It’s best to use creamy peanut butter, and be sure to chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour before baking.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 cups (500g) creamy peanut butter*
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (360g) semi-sweet chocolate chips*
- optional: 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the eggs and beat on high until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the peanut butter and vanilla, then beat on high until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, add the chocolate chips. Dough will be thick and soft.
- Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour and up to 3 days. If chilling for longer than a few hours, though, allow the dough to sit out at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard and the cookies may not spread that much.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
- Scoop cookie dough into large balls, about 3 Tablespoons of dough per cookie (about 60g, it’s a lot!), and, if desired, roll the balls in granulated sugar. Coating in sugar is optional. Place 8 balls onto the cookie sheets. Gently press down on each ball to *slightly* flatten.
- Bake each batch for 14–15 minutes, or until the edges appear set and lightly browned on the sides. The centers will still look very soft.
- Cool cookies for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. During this time, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. (This is optional and only for looks.) Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Cover leftover cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature, then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Here’s how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack
- Can I Halve this Recipe? Yes, absolutely. Halve the recipe by halving all of the ingredients. The instructions remain the same.
- Peanut Butter: It’s best to use a commercial, processed brand of peanut butter like Jif creamy or Skippy creamy. I do not suggest using natural-style, oily peanut butter. Avoid using crunchy peanut butter because it makes the cookies extra crumbly.
- Chocolate Chips: You can replace 1/2 cup (about 90g) of the chocolate chips with chopped peanuts for extra peanut flavor.
- Check out my top 5 cookie tips before beginning. It includes how to prevent cookies from over-spreading and why room-temperature ingredients make a difference.
Reader Comments and Reviews
My family went crazy for these! So soft and delicious!
Wow, these were absolutely fantastic. So soft, not dry at all. Everyone loved them, even those that don’t normally enjoy peanut butter. Will definitely make these again!
Will this recipe work if you make smaller cookies ( more like 1TBL of cookie dough) and if so how long would you recommend baking the smaller cookies? Thank you!!
Hi Marci, you can absolutely make them smaller — we’re unsure of the exact bake time for mini cookies but would start with between 8-10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them, especially in the first batch and then adjust the time as needed. Enjoy!
I discovered these cookies when someone else made them. When I made them, they tasted a little more “sandy” and thus not quite as good. Any idea why? I think the first ones I ate had extra large chocolate chips. Would that affect the texture?
Hi Andy, What type of peanut butter did you use? We recommend a commercial brand of creamy peanut butter like Jif or Skippy. If you were using a natural-style peanut butter the cookies tend to be crumbly.
I used Jif. Once the cookies sat overnight they were no longer sandy and had a nice texture.
Okay, these are amazing. Gone in seconds at work (I’m a veterinarian!). I used ⅛ cup measuring cup to make these and they were perfect size! As always, you have the best recipes!
Hi Sally, I’m hoping to make these this weekend. I wanted to ask you the best method to measure these cookies accurately? What I mean is I don’t have a 3tbs cookie scoop, would you suggest I scoop our 3 tablespoons using a tablespoon and then roll it all together? This sounds like a sort of stupid question but I’ve done this before and I always end up having the dough crumble and the cookies don’t come out great! Any thoughts you have would be awesome. Thank you!!
Hi Kayla, you can use a tablespoon to measure out about three total tablespoons of dough and then use your hands to roll them together. We always find it’s best to let the dough sit at room temperature for a bit (after the chill time) so that it is easier to roll them into balls. Otherwise, it can be a bit crumbly as you mention. Hope this is helpful!
How would I make this gluten free?
Hi Jane, we haven’t tested a gluten free version of this recipe, but let us know if you do!
Hi Sally! What would be a good egg substitute in these cookies?
Hi Kara! We haven’t tested these cookies with any egg substitutes, but let us know if you find one that works for you!
Wow these were sooo good and so easy to make. I was able to throw them together with ingredients I already had in my pantry.
These cookies will make your house smell amazing while you’re eating the most delicious cookies ever. Also, they’re 750 calories apiece so be careful out there people, haha! My whole family loves these.
Sorry, I divided by 12 instead of 24…it’s only (!) 375 calories of deliciousness! I’m pretty sure these are the best cookies I’ve ever made though, so thank you Sally.
hi sally! i have made these beautiful cookies dozens of times, and they are a HUGE hit! i was wondering about maybe making a different variation of these with biscoff spread and chunks of biscoff cookies?! would this recipe work with subbing equal amounts of the spread? and with the cookies..how much would you think to add in? any advice is appreciated!! thanks for all your amazing recipes!
Hi Ariel, that may require some testing. You may be better off using our biscoff cookie recipe as your base dough!
These cookies are amazing, and they really do look like they come straight from a high-end gourmet bakery. They taste like peanut butter shortbread, crunchy outside, soft inside, so indulgent, and the salt and chocolate are an amazing compliment! I skipped the chopped peanuts, and used godiva semi-sweet and milk chocolate morsels, and highly recommend it if you can find it at your grocery! Don’t skip the final step in rolling the cookies in sugar, it’s what gives it the bakery-like quality! After these cooled and my husband tried one, he said, wow…. you really have outdone yourself, AMAZING! He always says this after I make anything from your blog, Sally, Thank you so much! I am putting together my list of baked treats today and so far everything comes from your blog! I’ll be making your Peppermint bark, Piped Butter cookies, Christmas Cookie Sparklers, and Toasted Hazelnut slice & bake cookies. Love the idea of the slice and bake cookies refrigerating overnight because it’ll be a baking marathon day for me 🙂 as well! Happy Holidays!
These make the BEST peanut butter cookies!
hi Sally
I tried a few recipes and continue to make them again lol they are just perfect. But I was wondering do you have a recipe for just peanut butter cookies. Most and chewy version. Thank you
You’d love my very peanut butter cookies for plain PB cookies. It’s my favorite.
Hi Sally! Would this recipe work to cut in half? Thanks 🙂 I love all of your recipes and don’t trust myself with a full batch.
Yes you can cut it in half. Enjoy!
Hi Sally!
I hope you are doing well…
So, I am looking for a peanut butter/chocolate chip version of your chocolate chip cookie recipe intended to make 6 huge cookies. (That choc chip cookie recipe is awesome btw). I don’t know if this is the recipe that would be close? I usually make around 25 3″ diameter cookies with that recipe and my peanut butter obsessed friend said, “you need to make a peanut butter version of these”.
Thank you for your thoughts. 🙂
Hi Paula! These would actually be the closest to my giant chocolate chip cookies, yes! You can roll the balls/drop the dough to be larger. I’m unsure of the exact bake time, but it will be similar to the chocolate chip cookie version.
I absolutely LOVE this recipe! And I am NOT a peanut butter person AT ALL! But my husband is so I decided after making your super soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, that I’d try these for my husband and I substituted chocolate chunks instead of chips bc I made them with both and the chips seemed to not give it the hit of chocolate my husband and I like so the ones I made with the chocolate chunks were a complete dream! I gave them away to family and friends and I’m constantly getting asked to make them again! Thank you so very much!
Great recipe—you can really taste the peanut butter! I made only one change: instead of rolling the balls in granulated sugar, I sprinkled Skor Bits on top of the cookies as soon as they came out of the oven. I will definitely make this recipe again. Thank you!
Best peanut butter cookie recipe! My son wanted to eat the entire batch!
I am not much for peanut butter cookies but these where absolutely pure perfection!!! I am in love and so is my husband. ❤️❤️ This is the season recipe I have tried from your website Miss Sally. I followed them to the T. I sure have enjoyed learning Your great tips and all of them had worked perfectly. Thank you Miss Sally. I am so glad I came across your blog and website. I look forward to baking more of your recipes.
Thank you
Cynthia from San Antonio Texas
Can you use chunky peanut butter instead of creamy and peanuts?
Hi, Kristina! I wouldn’t recommend it. I tried chunky peanut butter during recipe testing, and they came out VERY crumbly. Hope you will still give these a try!
Hi sally, any tips on how to make this flatter? like almost to subway style?
Hi Steffi, feel free to test this recipe with less flour to produce a flatter cookie. Enjoy!
What is this magic? I was a little hesitant this whole process…. two cups of peanut butter? Three-tablespoon-sized cookies? No way! But this works and the cookies are incredible. I’m the only judge of them so far (will be given away at a party later) but I’m giving myself a little pat on the back. The flavor of the peanut butter is just incredible and there are just enough chocolate chips to make them decadent but they don’t overpower. I did have to squish them down with a little force and I cooked them about 19/20 minutes… could be my oven, could be that I’m always anxious about serving people baked goods that are actually cooked through. They’re a little harder than Sally probably makes them but the texture/flavor/wow factor is still there. I will never seek another peanut butter cookie recipe–this is the only one you need.
Made these and it was perfect!
Sally, these are the best peanutbutter cookies I’ve ever eaten. So much peanutbutter flavor! I didn’t add the peanuts but of course I included chocolate chips and rolled the balls in sugar as you suggested. I made a batch and froze the rest of the cookie dough balls for when I need a fix. How do these compare to your other very peanutbutter cookie? I don’t think anything can top this cookie.
Hands down the favorite cookies of my household. I’ve made them 6 or 7 times. I replace half or all of the chocolate chips with peanut or reg m and m chocolate bars cut into chunks- soo incredible!
These are to die for! But mine are falling apart 🙁 I will try them again soon and see if there is a difference
I’ve been making the PB skillet cookie from this blog for over a year now and decided to shake things up with Sally’s big bakery style cookies. These are the perfect size. Every cookie should be this size! I ate too many, as always, and everyone else who got to try had nothing but praise. They make excellent gifts and taste amazing. Thank you!
These cookies look amazing! Can I make them smaller- 1 Tbl of cookie dough per cookie? If so, how long should I bake them?
Hi Marci, You can make them smaller! I’m unsure of the exact bake time for mini cookies but I would start with between 8-10 minutes. When I test batches of cookies I usually bake just one cookie first to figure out the correct bake time so I don’t wast a whole try if I’m wrong 🙂
Great cookie. I live at high altitude (4500 ft) and made NO changes to ingredients or directions. I was truly amazed at the size of the dough ball even though I was warned that these made BIG cookies. For anyone interested, I measured and weighed my 3 scoops of cookie dough and the weight was 70g per cookie dough.
I Absolutely loved these cookies! When it comes to cookies I am very picky about how they are made. This recipe caught my eye right away. It was very similar to the peanut butter cookie I often make…except for the amount of peanut butter (and the chocolate chips). When I saw 2 cups of peanut butter and the great pictures of soft and mounded cookies, I knew I had to make these. They were a hit! My five-year-old niece declared, “These are so delicious!” The rest of the family loved them too! Great recipe!