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
This is my go-to cookie recipe. I’ve made this countless times, and have been asked for the recipe multiple times! I don’t ever chill it and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, and they’re usually just barely done enough to be the perfect fall-apart texture.
Thanks!!
Thanks for this recipe! Satisfied my late night craving
These were honestly so good, and I’m a harsh critic about oatmeal cookies. There’s a lot of disappointing ones out there. But the texture is perfect. I did use more like 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats because I was running low, so I don’t know if 2 cups would change my opinion, but I can imagine them still being delicious.
Hi. I am excited to try these! What is the weight of the two tablespoon scoops of dough that will be baked? I would like to use my scale to make sure I measure them out correctly. Thanks! Also, I really appreciate that you always include the weight of the ingredients in your recipes.
Hi Michelle, we haven’t weighed this dough to add that specification yet, so we’re unsure of the exact weight of the dough balls.
The recipe is too hot for too long. They burn. I recommend 325 and watch them – around 10 minutes if edges are browning, they are done.
Ive used several of your recipes for quick breads and coffee cakes, they’re all good. Tonight I made these cookies and I swear, they are just about the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. I am something of a cookie snob, so I don’t say that lightly. But these hit the sweet and a little salty and the chocolaty and the peanut buttery tastes all in one. I’m hooked!
In my opinion, these are perfection. Chewy, thick, perfect combo of ingredients at all the right ratios. I happened to have some PB chips from Trader Joe’s so I threw in a handful… so, so delicious.
Spectacular recipe. I usually don’t alter recipes the firs time I make them, but only had natural PB so used it and used 1 c. brown and 1 c. white sugar, and they turned out so great that I would feel guilty not to send a thank you! Holy smokes.
These were wonderful! I did substitute with 3/4 cup of packed light brown sugar and just 1/4 cup of granulated sugar because I am trying to eat less sugar. They were still wonderful. I also put just a cup of chocolate chips. I might add chopped walnuts next time. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!!!!!
These are soooo freaking good! Followed recipe exactly but my baking time was a bit longer than called for but they have perfectly crispy edges with a nice soft chew in the middle. Will now be my go to chocolate chip cookie recipie!
This is the best cookie I have ever made. Perfect chew and crisp. Delicious.
Love these cookies!! My daughter would like me to make them without the chocolate chips. How much extra oatmeal should I add?
Hi Angela! We haven’t tested these cookies without chocolate chips so can’t say for sure. We would try adding 1/2 cup extra oats to start. Let us know what you try!
I baked these cookies using a rounded tablespoon and doubled the recipe. I also used natural peanut butter and the cookies turned out moist and chewy!
These are delicious! Will definitely make again.
These cookies are definitely rich. My wife likes sweets and even she said they are deliciously rich. I tried to make them Godzilla size and they were to big and fell apart, but hey the mistakes are just as good. Word of warning: if you can eat more than two at a time good job, but they are rich; have I said already? Thanks for a cookie that is satisfying and delicious as well as rich. Okay, enough. Enjoy everyone.
Delicious, and my husband agrees!
hello, can I use homemade peanut butter, and since it is more oily, can I add walnuts to the 2 & 1/2 cups of chocolate?
Hi Malak, for best result, we recommend using non-natural peanut butter here. Using natural/homemade peanut butter could produce crumbly, fragile, and sandy tasting cookies. If you’re looking for a recipe that does work with natural peanut butter, these flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies are a favorite! You can replace some of the chocolate chips in either recipe with walnuts, keeping the total amount of add-ins about the same.
One of my families favorite
I love these cookies…too much! The texture, the flavors what’s not to like? I make them on the smaller side and sandwich them with peanut butter frosting. Delicious!
It took some time to get my husband to try them “ I don’t like oatmeal cookies” well let me tell you once he finally gave them a try he has changed his tune!!
This is an easy fun recipe to make. The cookies are delicious. I just made the mistake of making them too big. Do they freeze okay?
Hi Nancy, so glad you enjoy these cookies. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months.
This is now my favorite cookie and cookie recipe! I used coconut oil once to make them and another flavor came thru and blended magically! Thank you Sally!!!
I swear by your recipes and I love how much details you give us readers! However, I recently moved to a new house. Ever since then, all my cookies have been coming out extremely flat and super spread out. And usually, they become hard after cooling. I’m using the same pans as I did in my last home. Any idea how to help me or what I’m doing wrong? I followed your recipe to a T. Thank you so much!
Hi Kate, we’re so glad you enjoy our recipes! Do you have an oven thermometer? You may find that your oven is hotter/cooler than it reads, and an oven thermometer will be helpful for detecting that. Have you changed any ingredients/brands since moving? This post with our best tips to prevent cookies from spreading may also be helpful to review. We hope this helps!
Im wondering if the elevation is a different level and also your oven temperature…is your oven gas or electric?
I’m a pretty serious baker, so my kids & neighbors are jaded — they’ve been taste testing my recipes for 20 years now. So it really says something that these are now my daughter’s favorites. Really REALLY good cookies.
I’m debating between these and the Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. The other recipe calls for 3 tbsp (about 60g) of dough per cookie. Would that translate to about the same in weight for these cookies, which call for 2 tbsp of dough per cookie (so 40g)?
Hi Amanda! We haven’t weighed this dough to add that specification yet, so we’re unsure of the exact weight of the dough. This dough may be a little lighter because of the oats.
This recipe sounds so good
Can I add walnuts or. Pecans?
Hi Teresa, You try replacing some of the chocolate chips with walnuts or pecans, keeping the total amount of add-ins to 2.5 cups. Enjoy!
Absolutely the best cookie ever. Was wondering caloric content in each
Hi Peggy, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
These cookies are amazing!
I have tried so many of your recipes and there hasn’t been a bad one I always search your website first when needing a recipe.
I love this recipe
could you use quick oats
Hi Linda, quick oats are more powdery and dry out the cookies. We recommend sticking with whole oats for best results.
Another home run! I have never eaten oatmeal cookies, I have tried. These are the perfect mix of peanut butter, chocolate chips and oatmeal so that nothing over powers the other. My husband is an oatmeal cookie connoisseur and not a fan of my attempts at baking lol. Until now! I bit the bullet and placed an order for my first ever, at 59 years young, stand mixer! I cannot wait! Sally!! 4 out of 4 perfect recepies for this beginner. Thank you
Update: I have my 4th batch of these cookies in the oven. We were out last week and that is not acceptable! Just wanted to say that I have found that 39g to 40g cookies at 13 mins are perfect here in Tennessee at about 1600 feet, lol. Another thing that I have learned, the hard way, is to be sure to bring that oven back up to temp between cookie sheets