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
Excellent cookies, will be my new “go-to”
THESE WERE SO GOOD!!! I baked them at 350 for 13 minutes. They tasted great but weren’t really thick.. I’m wondering what I could have done wrong?
So this is the second recipe of Sallys I have tried – did not disappoint! Thank you Sally for doing all the hard work to find out how to make the cookies come out perfect! I only baked 6 of these and they are gone within an hour! I will have to freeze the rest of the dough so I don’t inhale them all by the end of the weekend.
I halved the recipe – even made a mistake because I picked up my 1/3 cup measurer instead of by 1/4 cup one – but it still did not mess up the recipe
I used a mix of crunchy and smooth peanut butter and its nice to have a little bit of those peanuts coming through
Now I’m going to go and make your cheesecake!
OH MY GOODness!!!!!! This is now my absolute favorite cookie! I followed the recipe and oven temperature (350), cooked for 13 minutes, then let cool on the cookie sheet for an additional 5 min. before moving to a cooling rack. These cookies are PERFECT, MOIST, SOFT, CHEWEY, DELICIOUS, LOADED with chocolate chips and peanut buttery goodness.
They go great with a black cup of coffee first thing in the morning!
These cookies turned out just perfect!
These were terrific! Thank you!
I cook with Hawaiian Sea Salt which is a bigger grain of salt than traditional iodized salt, so I let this recipe hangout in the fridge over night to give the recipe time to absorb the salt. And our oven is about half the size of a regular oven so made smaller cookies. All in all, these are super delicious and they turned out AWESOME. Also, I appreciated the tip about the spoon method – never used this before but can see and taste a difference in my cookies. Thanks!
The perfect cookie!
I know this is a crazy question lol but how do I make these crunchy?
Delicious! I had to make some adjustments because my breastfed baby is sensitive to dairy (substituted with shortening) and too much wheat gives him stomach cramps (substituted half the flour with a gluten-free flour mix). Also reduced the sugar by a little. My first few also did not flatten and got quite dark at the bottom, so for the rest I also reduced the temperature to 325 and flattened them slightly by hand before baking. Not including a rating because of the changes I made, but they sure hit the spot!!
I love your recipe! I divide my batch in 1/2 & add the chips to one 1/2 and not the other…for variety! Thank you so much for sharing!
My husband just had one (really two) warm out of the oven and said it was the best cookie I have ever made. After 40 years of baking all sorts of things, I agree! Awesome recipe!
I can’t move. I’m too stuffed with peanut buttery, chocolaty, oatmealy goodness. And I doubled the recipe (overflowing my stand mixer bowl), so now I have loads of cookies to eat, to give away, and to freeze. It’s a problem I recommend everyone have. Thanks for another awesome recipe, Sally!
Hmmm, this is the second Sally’s Baking Addiction cookie recipe I have made (the first being Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookies) in which my cookies didn’t spread – they just bake and remain little cookie haystacks. I followed the recipe exactly (and even used half natural peanut butter!) I live in the Midwest, so no sea-level issues. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? I don’t like using margarine but I may have to resort to trying 1/2 butter, 1/2 margarine in Sally’s recipes to get a flatter cookie.
Hi Jill, Make sure you are measuring the dry ingredients properly. Use the “spoon and level” method mentioned in my 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.
LOVE this recipe, so much. Every time I make, it add a new ingredient like raisins, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, etc. I live in the mountains, and 350 degree setting at 9-10 minutes is perfect for soft cookies! Thanks for improving my family’s quarantine with this recipe.
Bottoms burned at 350 for 12 minutes, second batch oven set at 325 for 16. Oven correctly calibrated.
Thank you for this comment, I noticed a few minutes in that mine were cooking faster on bottom too, and turning the temperature down helped a lot. Delicious cookies!!
Best cookies EVER!!!
These are delicious and so easy. Thank you! I have made these twice now and both times they have been fantastic – so good in fact that my best friend requested them especially! I followed the recipe exactly (but had to use just a bit of crunchy PB as ran out of smooth!) and will make them again and again. Thanks!
I rarely leave comments but I just have to say – I love your recipes and this website! It’s been my go to for my baking needs. So far I’ve made your dinner rolls (my first attempt ever with making bread), cinnamon rolls, chocolate cupcakes, vanilla buttercream icing… they were all phenomenal. I can’t wait to try these cookies today! I’m sure they won’t disappoint.
Thank you so much, Belle! I hope you love the cookies 🙂
The cookies turned out fantastic! They’re quickly disappearing in our house. Mine spread out a bit more than I would have liked – maybe I overmixed it in the mixer? I’ll have to try it again and watch my mixing time carefully.
These were really good! I made a few mods – I used cashew butter and whizzed down the rolled oats a bit, in a food processor, with a quarter cup of coconut flake. In retrospect, I wish that I had used Sun Butter, for the higher oil content (for more spread during baking), but I stuck to the 12 minute bake time, and this yielded a very tender, lightly chewy cookie, when cool. I will make these again, thanks!
Amazing! I made these vegan, used vegan butter and some egg replacer for the 2 eggs and did everything else the same. I didn’t add any extra salt as there was already salt in the peanut butter I was using, they tasted great! I was too impatient to wait to chill the dough but they were fine – just spread out a lot but I wasn’t complaining!
Could I sub whole wheat flour? Running low on all purpose flour and it’s hard to find right now.
I don’t recommend whole wheat flour – you will end up with very heavy dense cookies. If you are interested, here are all of my recipes that use Whole Wheat Flour.
Hi Sally,
I was wondering if I can leave out the oatmeal or if you have a recipe for just peanut butter chocolate chip cookie? I love your recipes and don’t want to chance making cookies for any other site. 🙂
Thanks so much!
Hi Amber, You can use this peanut butter cookie recipe and use regular chocolate chips instead of white chocolate chips.
5 -star cookie recipe for the following 4 reasons:
1. delicious – everyone who tried LOVED them
2. straightforward but detailed recipe
3. perfect size and consistency for cookie
4. freezes well (freeze dough balls on cookie sheet first then toss into ziplock)
Hi! We love this recipe so much! But this time the dough spread a lot and it made a thinner cookie. The last time we made them they were much thicker. Any ideas why the cookies spread? I made sure to chill the dough overnight so not sure what could have happened!
Hi Emily! The recipe hasn’t changed– did anything change with your method? You may find my 10 Guaranteed Tips to Prevent Cookies from Spreading post helpful.
Thanks for the reply Sally! These tips are super helpful, definitely found a few that i could try for next time. Thanks!
I think some recipes are better left undiscovered! This one is dangerous for me. It is so good! I’ll have to save it for very special occasions.
Hello,
Thanks for the recipe! So good! I only slightly modified it (because of ingredients I had)…sea salt for the salt and 1/2 the amount of chocolate chips and used 60%caco Giradelli chocolate chips. We thought the cookies were actually perfect a combo of sweet, a little salty and dark chocolate…but not too much. Definitely putting this recipe into the lunch box rotation!
Is it possible to cut out or at least use less chocolate chips per batch to keep overall sugar content low? I’m a beginner baker so don’t know if making this change would affect overall moisture/other aspects of the cookies?
These look fantastic and would be super keen to try these… Thanks in advance!
These are the best cookies we have ever made! The chilling of the dough is time consuming…..but so worth it! We made them the suggested size and could only fit 6 cookies to a pan….which extended the baking time. But these were worth every minute! Sally’s baking tips link within the link to the recipe is also great!
I’ve made these 4 times now and they’re perfect every time. Today’s batch was rolled and frozen a couple weeks ago. I cooked them from frozen for 15 minutes and they’re just as good as the fresh ones. I’m planning to use these as frequent lactation cookie snacks in a few weeks when baby #2 arrives!! 🙂 Thank you again, Sally & team.