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
My four bears love these! I browned the butter first, let it cool, then followed the recipe. Definitely making these again!
I have made this recipe many times now. It is always a big hit. I use Kerry gold salted butter because my audience likes it a little more salty. Also, a single bag of chocolate chips is about a half cup short from the recipe. My family asked if we could had pecans. I make up that last half cup with pecan pieces. They really love it with that little bit of pecan.
REALLY Good
Followed the recipe exactly. These cookies were a huge hit! Very tasty and filling, yet hard to eat just one! The extra steps of whipping the butter first and then the sugars and eggs made a big difference in softness. Easy to follow and quick to make. Great recipe!
This is a great recipe. I only cut the sugar in half because it’s too sweet fir me and my kids. A little bit crumbly but really very tasty.
These cookies turned out precisely as described and are quite tasty … however, despite generally enjoying the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, I find myself wishing it was either a peanut butter cookie OR a chocolate chip cookie. So many great recipes on this site, will try another one next time!
This is the recipe I take to all my gatherings, going to a retirement party this weekend and can’t wait to show these off. I use the crunchy peanut butter, I like that extra crunch
These are so yummy! Soft and moist and great peanut butter flavor! I used less chips, 11/2 cups, for less chocolate flavor.
What a great recipe! I have made it twice so far and both times people couldn’t stop eating them. I will be making them again soon for entry into my local agricultural fair. I can sense a blue ribbon!
Big hit at our summer family get together. This is my everyday go to cookie recipe.
Delicious blend of peanut butter, oats and chocolate chips. Used my food scale to measure cookies at about 48 grams each and they took 15 minutes in my oven. The dough is very sticky and soft even after 20 minutes in the fridge but they came out terrific. Going to freeze some of the dough for future cookies. We love the taste of the cookie dough and cut down on the amount of chocolate chips but the texture and taste are still rich with flavor.
I used this recipe yesterday, with lots of additional add-ins.
I jokingly referred to what I made as Slumgullian Cookies, since I added Butterscotch chips, English Toffee chips, raisins, cinnamon, walnuts to the mix.
Turned out fine!
Neighbor said they were ridiculously good. Nephew said don’t ever make them again after eating several at midnight. They’re a keeper.
Best Cookies I’ve ever made! I scooped the cookies and froze them, baked them later for a family event! Everyone LOVED them!
I followed instructions and temps and ties exactly but my cookies are flat.They are good,but I prefer chewy cookies. I’m thinking of changing sugar to 3/4 c each of the sugars.also I live at high altitude 6000 feet.I added 2T flour but perhaps I should reduce the sugars by 2 T each ?
Hi Carolyn! I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Best cookies I have ever made. I accidentally grabbed milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet and did half milk and half dark chocolate. Husband loved them so much and wished he tasted more peanut butter (he’s a peanut butter fanatic), so I’ll be making these again and do peanut butter chips and either milk chocolate or dark. Thank you for an amazing recipe.
UPDATE!!! I made these again using peanut butter chips and chocolate chips and they had the perfect peanut butter taste for.my husbands liking. I sent him some to work to share… came home and asked how the giys liked them and he said he wouldn’t share. Lol. Hands down my go-to cookie recipe. Thanks again.
Great recipe! I love the peanut butter flavor in the oatmeal cookies. I used my small scoop and baked the cookies for 10 minutes. I also tried baking them in my mini-muffin pan (using cupcake liners) for 10 minutes and would do that again. (The advantage to using mini-muffin pan is that I could bake 24 at a time.) I will definitely make these again!
I baked some in liners in mini muffin tin. They browned nicely.
I baked some in the silicone mini muffin pan, without liners. They were “squishy.” I won’t use that pan again.
Made this recipe and they’re the best peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had. I doubled the recipe and froze over half of the dough in balls, ready to bake from frozen. Every time I baked these, people went back for seconds, asked for the recipe, and/or asked if I was bringing them to the next church event! I replaced the chocolate chip with roughly chopped bars of baker’s chocolate and that was delicious, having the big chunks of chocolate in there too. Hiiiighly recommend this recipe. Thank you Sally!
These cookies are an instant hit in our house. I tried half chocolate chips and half mini Reeses pieces. Fun and colourful!
Hi Sally,
Could I use quick oats instead of old fashioned? Thanks!
Hi Sarah, quick oats are more powdery and dry out the cookies. We recommend sticking with whole oats for best results.
I made these last night, and they’re quite tasty. Crumbly and kinda crispy, while still being thick cookies. I didn’t have any granulated sugar, and hardly any brown sugar, but I had coconut sugar and cane sugar, and it worked out great. I think if I had more brown sugar they wouldn’t be so crumbly, so next time I’ll test that out. I also added in some peanut butter chips and cinnamon chips alongside the choco chips, and turns out that was a great decision, lol. I’ll definitely be keeping this recipe bookmarked. Thanks!
This cookie checks all the boxes! Crisp outside chewy, no maybe melt in your mouth inside and the best parts of my three favorite cookies rolled into one!! *****
Unbelievably Awesome!!!! I was looking for an oatmeal peanut butter cookie recipe for my VBS class and came across this one. It looked good so I tried it! WOW!!! These cookies are amazing! I wasn’t sure I could stop “taste testing” them. I searched Sally’s site and found many other excellent recipes. Where has this site been all these years! This is my new go-to site for sweet recipes! Thank you, Sally!
If I’m out of unsalted butter, can I substitute with salted butter and just reduce the teaspoon of salt?
Hi Lori, if using salted butter, reduce the added salt to 1/2 teaspoon.
I love making cookies and this recipe was perfect!! Absolutely delicious!!!
These are the best cookies ever! They’re my best friend’s favorite, and she had a special request for her birthday this year: Could I turn this recipe into a cookie cake? The answer is yes!
The dough fits perfectly in two 9” rounds. I baked for 24 minutes at 350 and let cool in the pans for an hour, and the rounds came out perfectly.
P.S. This recipe works just as well with gluten-free flour and oats :).
Okay so this was an experiment for me. I’m very allergic to peanuts, but my 2 year old son loves Wow butter sandwiches (it’s a soy based butter that’s supposed to mimic peanut butter). So I had to try these cookies and use Wow butter as a substitute for the peanut butter. My Wow butter enthusiast devoured these cookies. My older son also gave a thumbs up. My husband liked the flavour but said it was too dry (I think the Wow butter was the culprit for that one.) For me it was just weird eating a cookie that smelled and tasted kinda like peanut butter, something that I’ve stayed away from for 25 years! So I’m going to try tweaking the recipe and see if I can add more moisture to the dough…
I thought this review might help if there’s anyone else making these cookies with a similar peanut butter substitute.
Thanks for the recipes Sally!
These cookies were great…..my family loved them! Followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfectly!
Delicious cookies I only had self rising flour so I just added baking soda. Wasn’t sure it would work but They still were amazing! I would definitely make again! Thank u for the recipe
Can almond or cashew butter be substituted for the peanut butter?
Hi Susan, we haven’t tested it but several readers have commented that they’ve used almond butter and they’ve turned out great. Cashew butter should work well, too. Let us know if you try it!