Peanut butter and chocolate lovers rejoice! I’ve combined at least 3 delicious cookies into 1 mouthwatering recipe with my big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Consider yourself warned: these cookies are exploding with flavor, unapologetically thick, and hopelessly irresistible. They’re guaranteed to satisfy almost every cookie craving.
A cookie to end all cookies, these big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are a mouthful. I was inspired to try these decadent treats after seeing the cover of my cookbook, Sally’s Cookie Addiction, for the first time. The glorious monster cookies gracing the book cover are loaded with M&Ms and can be found in Chapter 2 and have recently been added to my website.
This recipe, however, skips those rainbow candies and focuses instead on a flavor relationship like no other. Chocolate chips and peanut butter. It’s a match made in cookie heaven! In this recipe, we’re combining that perfect pairing with textured oats to achieve the thickest, richest, and most satisfying cookie.
Tell Me About These Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Texture: Loaded with so many delicious add-ins, these cookies have chewy edges, soft centers, and are unbelievably thick. (I’m always shocked by how thick they turn out.) If you want to go even bigger and thicker, try these big fat dark chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies next!
- Flavor: Ordinary chocolate chip cookies are buttery sweet on their own, but the peanut butter-chocolate pairing here brings a delicious decadence to these cookies. If this flavor pairing is a favorite, be sure to add these peanut butter chocolate cookies to your list, too.
- Ease: Simple to make, the dough comes together in just minutes using a few staple pantry add-ins like old-fashioned oats and peanut butter. Make them for same-day snacking or prepare them ahead of a special occasion (see Note).
- Time: This dough can be prepped and chilled in under an hour. 20 minutes in the refrigerator (the same amount of time we chill dough for brownie cookies) helps the oats soak up some moisture and prevents the cookie from overspreading.
If you love these cookies but don’t have oats, try these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies instead. If you love these cookies but need a gluten free dessert recipe, try these flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies or flourless monster cookies instead. We’ve got all the bases covered!
One reader, Dyna, says: “Hands down the BEST cookie recipe I have ever made, and I’ve made a lot of cookies… All the extra notes and suggestions too were spot on. Following those tips made for a beautiful, delectable cookie!”
Recipe Testing: What Works & What Doesn’t
- The weight of peanut butter. This cookie dough is adapted from my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. The addition of peanut butter here, however, can weigh down the dough. To counter this, I add baking powder for lift.
- A spreading solution. When testing the recipe, I found the cookies weren’t spreading enough. I decided to swap the quantities of granulated sugar and brown sugar. Granulated sugar—dry and thin—helps increase cookie spread. Brown sugar—moist and thick—keeps cookies compact. Increasing the granulated sugar makes all the difference in this dough for the perfect spread. You won’t even miss that extra brown sugar flavor because the peanut butter is our front-runner.
- Fewer oats + more chocolate. When testing, I originally had a higher quantity of oats in the cookies. I decided to reduce that amount to make room for more chocolate chips. Can you blame me?
Choosing the Right Ingredients:
Peanut butter. Though natural-style peanut butter is my #1 choice for eating and snacking, I recommend using non-natural peanut butter for this particular cookie recipe. Natural peanut butter can be used in my regular peanut butter cookies (though the cookies are a little crumblier than intended), but it’s not ideal for today’s recipe. Instead, use Jif or Skippy. You can use creamy or crunchy, but I prefer creamy peanut butter as crunchy can make the cookies taste a little dry. You need 1 cup of peanut butter for this recipe.
Room-temperature butter. Like my basic soft chocolate chip cookies, the base of today’s oatmeal cookie recipe is creamed room-temperature butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. You can’t cream butter and sugar together if the butter is too warm or too cold. (It usually spells disaster for your cookies!) Room temperature butter is about 65°F (18°C). It’s cool and slightly firm to touch, not warm or slippery. I recommend placing your butter on the counter for 1 hour prior to beginning the recipe to achieve ideal “room temperature” butter. If you don’t have an hour, here is my trick to soften butter quickly. You need 1 cup of butter for this cookie dough.
Whole oats: To ensure the cookies spread nicely and do not dry out, be sure to use whole oats and not quick oats. Quick oats are cut finer, and will soak up more moisture in the dough.
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
After you prepare the peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies dough, chill it for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. After chilling, it’s time to scoop the dough and bake the cookies. Each cookie uses 2 Tablespoons of dough which is about the same size as these regular chocolate chip cookies. Arrange the cookie dough balls 3 inches apart on your baking sheet. These cookies are large, so I use a medium cookie scoop and overflow it with dough (since the medium only holds 1.5 Tablespoons.)
More Quick Cookie Recipes
- Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches
- Mini M&M Cookies
- Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brownie Cookies
- Shortbread Cookies
Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: 32 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are easy, thick, and exploding with peanut butter, oats, and chocolate chips to satisfy your cookie cravings.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup (240g) creamy peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (170g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 2 and 1/2 cups (450g) semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus more for topping if desired
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, add the oats. Once combined, beat in the chocolate chips. Dough will be thick and sticky. Cover and chill the dough for at least 20 minutes in the refrigerator (and up to 4 days). If chilling for longer than 1 hour, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Scoop balls of dough, 2 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, and arrange 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops—this is only for looks!
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 4. 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. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Peanut Butter: Use a non-natural peanut butter like Jif creamy or Skippy creamy. I do not suggest using natural style or oily peanut butter as both produce crumbly, fragile, and sandy tasting cookies. (Try this recipe for flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies if you want to use natural!) Crunchy peanut butter is OK, but I find the cookies taste a little dry with it.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Have you made them as pan cookies? I love making cookies, but also like to save time by making in bar pan.
Hi ES, you can definitely try these in a 9×13 inch pan to make cookie bars. We’re unsure of the exact bake time needed, but you can follow the baking time and temperature for our Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars as a guide. Enjoy!
You can ignore my last comment about the quick oats- I’m not going to do it. I want the real oat texture. Ugh, what to do with 3 bags of organic quick oats???
You can use the search bar at the top of the site and type in “quick oats” for more ideas! But to get you started you can use them in these Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Monster Cookies (with or without the peanut butter cups) and we love these Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies.
I accidentally bought quick oats (which I never buy) instead of rolled oats – can I use them instead of rolled? Thanks! Sydney is in lockdown, so it’s cookie-time!
Help! My cookies have cooked 14 minutes and they’re still in balls not flat cookies. What’s gone wrong?
Hi L, Make sure you are measuring the dry ingredients properly. Use the “spoon and level” method mentioned in our post on How to Properly Measure Ingredients. Scooping flour, oats, etc. can result in 50% more than you need which will absorb too much liquid, dry out your cookies, and prevent them from spreading.
Also, for this recipe be sure you are using whole oats as quick oats are more powdery and dry out the cookies. For your current batch of cookies, you can also press down on the cookie dough balls a little before placing in the oven.
Excellent recipe!!!! My son and I love this one! I modified it so that it has one and a half cups chocolate chips with a half-cup shredded coconut and a half-cup sliced almonds.
Best cookies ever!! I’ve baked my entire life, love these, they are the perfect combination and texture. Followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfectly!
Can I make this without chocolate chips .. just to feel a bit less guilty 😉
Hi Neelima, you certainly can omit the chocolate chips if desired. Enjoy!
Best cookies I’ve ever made! Thank you for sharing!!
I wish I could post a photo!
These are the best cookies I’ve ever made! I served them and everyone went home and made them the next day!
These are hands down THE best cookies I’ve ever made or tasted! Been a fan of Mona’s Mothers mothers best friends favourite for years but I’m a covert! This will be my go to recipe. Yeuummmmmmm! (Love your salted caramel recipe and lemon curd too!)
Hey Sally! I’m a young teenage baker that looooves occasional baking 🙂 I’d like to try this recipe because my mom only eats “guilt free” desserts. Quick question – could I use crunchy peanut butter instead?? Thanks!
Hi KM, Crunchy peanut butter is OK, but we find the cookies taste a little dry with it. We recommend sticking with smooth peanut butter for best results.
Can these be made with biscoff spread/cookie butter in place of the peanut butter?
We can’t see why not! Let us know if you do give it a try.
They turned out great with Aldi’s Cookie Butter! The flavor was not at all overpowering so I think this is a great substitute for anyone with peanut allergies.
I have made these about a dozen times now, and I have to hide them so I have some for myself.
Anyone tried these with gluten free flour?
Hi Fran, we’re glad you enjoyed these cookies! We haven’t tested them with gluten-free flour, but let us know if you do.
Es many times. They come out awesome. Thanks for a great recipe. God bless
I use gluten-free 1:1 flour when making these and it does not effect the taste or texture at all
I made these today using Bob’s Red Mill gluten free flour and a couple of additional swaps (ie sugar replacements like Swerve and half peanut butter powder/half Jif natural creamy) and they turned out great!!
I made them with King Arthur gluten free flour last week and they were AMAZING!
I used this as a base “everything” cookie followed the recipe and added all the partial bags of stuff in my pantry… white chocolate chips, chocolate chips, Carmel pieces, and the balancer unsweetened coconut shreds. Yum it turned out so good. I don’t have amounts because I literally just used the end of partial bags. Thanks for the recipe
These are super amazing as is, and also the vegan version as well.
For the vegan / plant-based version, use the two substitutes:
**Sub 2 TBS ground Flax + 6 TBS water (“2 Flax eggs”) for the eggs, and sub 1 cup no-sugar added applesauce for the butter.** There is no need to use the high speed mixer for this version!
For the sugar, I used only 1 cup of brown sugar. I have made these SO MANY times both ways, and they are scrumptious!
* I also sprinkled sea salt on top of all the dough balls before baking. This makes up for the salt in the omitted butter.
Super delicious!
made with salted caramel chips 2 cups and 1 cup semi chocolate chunks — yummy sweet treat.
I have created many recipes in my kitchen over the years. My kids were the guinea pigs for the recipes. First time I tried this one. Very, very good! I used a mixture of dark chocolate and semi sweet chocolate chips. The taste is fantastic! I highly recommend this recipe for any cookie lover!!
We swap some of the chocolate chips in this recipe for butterscotch chips and they turned out very good!
These are my go to chocolate chip cookies!! They are the best and I always get compliments when I make them.
I’d love to try this in a cookie bar form. How can I turn this recipe into bar form? Thanks!
Always amazing recipes! I’m a novice and this website is my go-to place for all cake and cookie trials . Thank you Sally for making it so easy for us newbies !!
Great recipe but I think because of the peanut butter they were a bit too salty. I know cookies definitely need salt and I don’t have a salt phobia but next time I’ll cut back to 3/4 tsp salt.
I know you already have a great white chocolate chip recipe, but what if I substituted 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chunks for the semisweet chips and added 1cup of roughly chopped macadamia nuts? Thinking that a mashup of your white chocolate chip recipe and this one would be really interesting.
Hi Chuck! That sounds like a delicious combination – we recommend keeping the total amount of add-ins to 2 and 1/2 cups. Let us know how they go!
I have a question… I don’t have a cookie scoop, so can you advise how much the individual cookie dough balls would weigh? Thanks!
Hi CK! We don’t know the weight of the dough balls, but you’ll need about 2 Tbs of dough per cookie. Hope you enjoy them!
These are absolutely the best cookies I have ever made!!! Thank you for this recipe!
OH MY!!!
Best ever!!!…and I made them!
Thank you for sharing recipe!(my sister in law is in chemo, i hope she will be able to taste how wonderful these are) i was able to use organic ingredients and pasture eggs..so they are healthy too! Like a meal!
I’m wondering how cut up pieces of maraschino cherries would work at Christmas time?
They are so perfect..i wouldn’t want to ruin this great receipe.
Thank you again!
I never make cookies good enough for my husband but these finally did it!!
These look & sound amazing! I’ll have to make them. Thank you for sharing!
Question, if I add raisins do you have any idea how much? I’m thinking 1)2 cup.
Hi Dawn! You can definitely replace some chocolate chips with raisins. Just keep the total amount of add-ins to 2 and 1/2 cups (450g). Enjoy!
These are our favorites! I sprinkle a little flaked kosher salt on them right out of the oven. It kind of punches up the PB and adds another texture to the bite… these are so so so GOOD!
Sally, You’re the best! And so are these fabulous cookies! They are everyone’s favorite!
Hands down the BEST cookie recipe I have ever made, and I’ve made a lot of cookies in my time as a 50-something, mother of three. An incredibly satisfying cookie experience. All the extra notes and suggestions too were spot on. Following those tips made for a beautiful, delectable cookie! Thank you for putting this out there into the world for all to enjoy.