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
Can I add pretzel pieces to these? Can’t wait to try!
Sure can! Simply replace some of the chocolate chips with pretzel pieces.
I made this dough just before Easter and since the kids had too much candy didn’t bake them off but totally forget to put them into ball form before freezing would a slight defrost work until I can shape them? We love this recipe, well ALOT of your recipes 🙂 thank you!
The best chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookie I have eaten! Tried many of your recipes and have had great results! Thank you for your baking tips also, love your compassion and expertise!
I forgot to rate my earlier reply – 5 stars for sure!
I made these tonight and they turned out just as described, soft in the middle and crispy (but not too crispy) on the outside edges and so good, my husband had 3 with a big glass of milk!
I did use natural peanut butter, because I didn’t read the recipe to the end before putting all of the ingredients together (lesson learned) … they were a pretty greasy when scooping them out onto the baking sheet, but they still tasted great and texture is OK.
Cant’ wait to make them again using regular peanut butter! Thanks for sharing this wonderful and easy recipe.
Delish! I made them vegan (except choc chips) due to allergies in the HH. Almond flour, coconut oil & flax seed (instead of eggs). The egg replacement was due to coronavirus quartantine… we are about out of eggs! Delicious, and this way we could eat some batter, too. 🙂
Just made these tonight and they are incredible!!! The texture is on point – lightly crispy on the outside and soft inside. I’m certain between myself, my hubby and the boys these will not last long. Lol. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Phenomenal recipe, as usual. Turned out perfect. I hate waiting for dough to chill and then come to room temp, no patience for it, so I just scoop the dough out unchilled and put the whole tray in the freezer for about 10min. Then it goes straight into the oven from there. Works perfectly!
Hi Sally, this time I made them with pure butter..delicious!!!! I think I will name them our Coronacookie!!!! Thank you!
These are some of the best cookies I’ve ever made and I make a lot of varieties. Sometimes I use 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 peanut butter chips. Don’t change a thing about the basic recipe though. It’s perfect!
I give it a 2 stars because it’s a little salty for me, I can taste salt when I bites into the cookie, wish I could go back time I would only put 1/2 of the salt that the recipe called for.
Shina,
Did you perhaps use salted butter?
Mine turned out salty too and I definitely used unsalted butter. I wonder if it was the peanut butter? I had natural and it’s not as sweet as regular. Otherwise delicious and perfect texture!
Hi, these cookies were a huge hit. My 16 year old some gave me a fist bump. The credit goes to you!
I made these cookies today and they are DELICIOUS! The best I have ever had! My family loves them.
This is my go to cookie recipe!! They’re baking in the oven as I type this. Last time I made them, they weren’t as peanut buttery (lol) as I would have hoped, so this time I added a little extra. Everyone absolutely loves them! I was told they looked like cookies from a bakery!!
These were amazing!!!!!! I followed them to the t and we gobbled them all up!
My wife really loves them!!!
I would too but I am not a big fan of peanut butter (GASP). I make another type of cookies to keep me happy.
Amazing and super easy!
These cookies are wonderful and so easy to make! I followed the recipe exactly except for adding a bit of cinnamon for my husband. Thanks, Sally!
These were a big hit! I also used crunchy peanut butter, which added a nice extra texture. The other slight modification I made was to add chopped up bitter-sweet chocolate bars rather than chocolate chips. I liked how the chocolate was less evenly distributed and you could hit a nugget of chocolate 🙂 Great recipe, thank you!
Can I make this into a pan/bar cookie by placing the dough into a sheet pan?
Hi Michael, I haven’t tested it but I don’t see why not! You can use the baking instructions for my Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars a a guide.
This is such an amazing recipe! Will use over and over again! Thanks.
Three of my favorites in one cookie! Only change I made is that I used plant butter and it came out perfect.
These are phenomenal! I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour and added a touch of cinnamon to slow the blood sugar spike for my diabetic hubby. Thanks for the recipe!
Perfect! I always use all-natural unsalted peanut butter. I think next time I’ll sprinkle just a bit of coarse salt on top right before baking. I also always leave the cookie dough in the fridge overnight before baking to keep the cookies from spreading too much. Not sure if that made a difference. We LOVE these!
I love the original recipe and I’ve also used it as a base recipe for a lactation cookie. I just add in 2 – 4 TBS of brewers yeast and a cup of shredded coconut. It’s been a staple snack while nursing my little one. Thank you!
Quite possibly the best cookie I have ever had. Thanks!! My new favorite!!
These cookies are fantastic. By far, the best cookie recipe I have ever made. I am getting ready to make a batch today. My kids say they look like they are from a bakery. Thanks for the great recipe.
Never leave recipe reviews but these are seriously good! My husband found this recipe and made them and we were both super impressed. Made 3 rolls of the dough for the freezer since this recipe makes a nice big batch. Soooo good! Thank you for sharing this with the world!!
Wow, I have to say these are “bakery style cookies” category!!!! I was amazed with the outcome; they spread to perfect size. They came out fat, soft, and super crispy on the edges. Thanks so much for a great recipe.
OH MY GEEE THIS IS FABULOUS. THANK YOU THIS MAKES ME LOOK LIKE A REAL COOKIE MAKER.