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
I made a vegan version of these: using 6 tbsp aquafaba for the eggs, and miyoko’s creamery vegan butter. I used fewer chocolate chips so I could add plenty of oats. I froze them into balls, a bit smaller than in the recipe since we like to sample ALL the varieties at Christmas! Then I thawed them before baking, as needed. I flattened them just a bit a few minutes in. Everyone loved them, so these are definitely going into our regular Christmas cookie lineup!
I used extra crunchy JIF peanut butter and it turned out great. P.S. my dad loves these!
Hi Sally! I love all your recipes and I am making a bunch of yours for christmas boxes this year (like every year!) I want to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars instead of regular cookies for my boxes. Can I adapt this recipe in someway to do so? Thank you!
Hi Cori, 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!
These turned out great! I baked the first dozen after chilling the dough 20 minutes. They still spread a little more than I wanted, so I chilled the rest of the dough 40 minutes before baking. Definitely a winning recipe!
I make these ALOT! I always make them into a monster cookie version by adding various chips and m&ms! They’re a hit every time! I know you have an actual monster cookie recipe, but I love these so much I thought why not just use this cookie as the base!
Made the recipe as is. Cookies turned out amazing!
Thank you!
Help Help, I didn’t read through the recipe and used natural peanut butter. What do you suggest I do before putting them in the oven?
Can I substitute sunbutter maybe? Do you think it would hold up in this recipe?
Hi Danielle, the texture may be a bit different, but should work! Let us know if you give it a try.
These cookies are fabulously delish! The oatmeal adds great texture to the already perfect combination of peanut butter and chocolate. My family loves these! This recipe is definitely a keeper!
Going to try this recipe next week, can I substitute “Quick 1 minute Oats” for the old fashioned oats?
Thanks,
Sherry
Hi Sherry, quick oats are more powdery and dry out the cookies. We recommend sticking with whole oats for best results.
Made the cookies & everybody loved them. Except for my daughter who doesn’t like oatmeal.
I want to make a batch of peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies & I want to drop them, after making a small ball shape (in order to shape them), can I use a regular peanut butter & chocolate chip recipe? Or do I need to change in order to shape the ball?
Thank you so much for your prompt response.
Hi Sherry, we’d recommend this recipe for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies instead. Hope they’re a hit!
If I wanted to make them smaller with a 1tbsp scoop instead of the 2tbsp in the recipe, would that alter anything?
Hi Karlene, just a shorter bake time – keep an eye on them in the oven!
Thank you !! I’ll try that!
OMG! They are so easy and so delicious! Wow, so yummy these Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate chip Cookie are my new favorite peanut butter cookies! Great Job Sally !!! P.S. If i could have given it a 10 I so would have, 5 stars just isn’t enough! Thank you for sharing all your
treats!!!
OMG! They are so easy and so delicious!
Wow, so yummy these Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate chip Cookie are my new favorite peanut butter cookies!
Great Job Sally !!!
P.S. If i could have given it a 10 I so would have, 5 stars just isn’t enough!
Thanks
Be still my heart! These are fat precious orgasmic treats! I am an old gal, and love to bake for littles in my apartment building. Now they ASK me for these. Happy to oblige. Thanks for this PERFECT recipe. Wouldn’t change a thing.
I have been baking your chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for a year and they are our favorite. I pay everybody back with these cookies, but substitute white raisins and chopped pecans for chocolate.
Such a fantastic recipe! Loved by everyone! Crisp around the edges & soft in the middle!
Super easy recipe – I had mini chocolate chips on hand and substituted melted butter flavored crisco as I only had olive oil on hand. Still turned out one of the cookies I ever made.
Too sweet
I made these for my husband’s birthday. He is a cookie connoisseur. He loved them!!! They are now his favorite cookie.
I want to try a batch using 1/2 cup more peanut butter. What would you do to balance out the extra peanut butter? Add more flour? More oats? What and how much?
Hi Jennifer, I’m so glad these cookies are a hit! Are you looking for even more peanut butter flavor? I’m not sure how the cookies will turn out with more peanut butter. You would likely need to add more of the other ingredients too, not just 1 other ingredient like flour or oats. You can certainly test it though!
It’s become my favorite cookie to make. Also the fav of all my neighbors! Always make a double batch and quick freeze cookie dough balls, then package in 6-packs…..we love them!
These are absolutely delicious!! These will be a new regular.
I just wanted to update my review to share for anyone that may be wondering. I know Sally says not to but I often make these with quick oats because that is what I usually have on hand and have no problems. They’re still delicious.
I also use just 1 bag of chocolate chips because I usually only keep 1 bag in the pantry and it is plenty. Just wanted to share for anyone who may be wondering these things 🙂
Absolutely love these.
I wish i can post a picture in this comment!
The recipe is great! Perfect texture!
Check the video i posted after i baked the cookies @iamsupermyrn
I have been looking for a soft oatmeal breakfast like cookie….WINNER! These are so delicious and very easy to put together. I made them exactly as the recipe calls but did bake an extra 2 minutes. 2 are just perfect with a cup of coffee OR a scoop of vanilla ice cream between 2 of them. My husband loves them too!
These cookies were amazing! They will be my new go-to cookie recipe! I made them for my husband to take as his birthday treat for the softball team he coaches, they were a HUGE success! My only modifications were I did half brown, half white sugar, and slightly fewer chocolate chips 2c because that’s a full bag! and I topped each cookie with a touch of coarse Kosher salt as soon as they came out of the oven. Everyone said the salt sent them over the edge!! I’d give this cookie 10 stars if I could!! Great job!
This recipe is absolute perfection! It’s delicate yet hearty, and just sweet enough without being cloying.the dough is fluffy and really easy to work with. I had about 1.5c of mini chocolate chips and used chopped peanuts to sub for the rest. Sprinkled flake sea salt on top before baking and it was a definite crowd pleaser. This recipe will go into permanent rotation. Wonderful job, Sally!
These came out so good! Used peanut butter recommended, and they had great texture. In my oven they needed close to 18 minutes to get brown on the edges. Husband loves them.
Best cookie I’ve made in a long long time. Almost healthy. I baked a bit longer to brown and they were still chewy. Love the combination. Thank you.
Great recipe Sally! I made a couple of changes. I didn’t have enough chocolate chips so I did 1/2 chocolate chips and half raisins. Still tasty but maybe a bit of a confusing taste. I also ran out of parchment paper, so I sprayed the baking sheet with olive oil. I baked my first dozen at 350 degrees for 12 minutes and the bottoms were a touch burnt. I turned down the oven temperature to 325 degrees and baked the next dozen for 14 minutes and they were perfect! Thanks!
Sally, these cookies are outrageously good! The dough is gorgeous and easy to work with. I scoop out the dough on all the cookie sheets and I place the sheets in the fridge. As each pan bakes, I rotate them out of the cool temp. Cookies state nice and fat. Thank you for a large yield with just one recipe batch!!!
I have two questions. My husband can’t eat peanut butter so I m substituting almond butter. Will that work? Plus, will I be disappointed in leaving out chocolate chips? Is there another item I could add?
Hi Jacque, we haven’t tested it but several readers have commented that they’ve used almond butter and they’ve turned out great! You can add any baking chips, chopped nuts, or dried fruit you enjoy.
These cookies are outstanding, and the recipe is easy to adapt for preferences. In place of the peanut butter, sun butter or tahini would work and would be delicious and interesting. I added dried cranberries along with the chocolate chips. I made them quite large—the finished cookies are about 3 inches in diameter and a half-inch thick. I got 23 cookies of that size from this recipe. They’re going to make excellent breakfasts/afternoon boosts for my busy kid.
I made these for Thanksgiving brunch. My family couldn’t believe how good these cookies were. Everyone really loved them. They were kinda filling & great for a quick breakfast. I will definitely be making these again for Christmas!