Thick and chewy, these Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies are packed with flavor. Freezer friendly and easy to make, these cookies are bursting with peanut butter chips!
Peanut Butter and Chocolate go hand in hand. If you love the combo of flavors, be sure to whip up one a Chocolate Peanut Butter Lasagna. Or give this delicious Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Swirled Cookie Bar a try next time you bake!
Why this Recipe Works
When you’ve created the perfect Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie, it’s only necessary to give it a peanut butter twist.
Today’s cookie recipe does not disappoint.
- Chocolate Flavor. The cookie dough is rich and fudgy and bursting with flavor thanks to the high quality cocoa powder (and melted butter).
- Peanut Butter Flavor. No skimping on the added peanut butter chips in today’s cookie recipe.
- Soft and chewy. Adding all brown sugar with the melted butter creates the perfect chewy cookie texture!
- Freezer Friendly. Whether you freeze the cookie dough in scoops before baking, or freeze the cooled cookies, either way this recipe freezes well!
If you love thick and chewy chocolate cookies, our cookies and cream cookies are massive and delicious.
Ingredient Notes
Just a quick overview of a few of the ingredients for these chocolate peanut butter chip cookies:
- Cocoa Powder. My favorite brand is Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder. It’s rich and delicious, without leaving an unpleasant bitter flavor to chocolate desserts.
- Vanilla Extract. Pure vanilla is key when baking. My homemade vanilla extract will give you great results!
- Light Brown Sugar. You won’t find any granulated sugar in today’s chocolate cookie. The brown sugar adds moisture, which enhances the chewiness of today’s cookie recipe!
- Peanut Butter Chips. If you love peanut butter, use the full amount in the recipe. Or swap out some of the chips for chocolate chips if you’d like. Or, use Reese’s Pieces for a little crunchy peanut butter treat.
Easy Instructions
Make Cookie Dough. Beat melted butter with brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients and fold in peanut butter chips.
Chill. Refrigerate cookie dough for at least one hour. You can chill dough for up to 24 hours before baking.
Prep Oven & Pan. Preheat oven and place a piece of parchment paper on your cookie sheet.
Scoop Dough. Use a cookie scoop for more uniform cookies. I use a 2Tbsp scoop for these peanut butter chip cookies. Press extra peanut butter chips on top of each mound of cookie dough before baking.
Bake. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, being sure not to OVERBAKE. Cool and enjoy!
Tips and Tricks
- Chill the Dough. Don’t skip this step. Because of the melted butter and all the brown sugar, you don’t want these chewy cookies to fall apart or spread too thin on your cookie sheet.
- Cool on Cookie Sheet. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes. This allows them to continue baking while they cool, creating the perfect texture!
- Storage. Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week. Or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Substitutions. Love chocolate cookies? So do we! Try our Salted Caramel Chocolate Cookie recipe. Or give this Chocolate Macadamia Cookie recipe a try for a nutty twist. Swap out the peanut butter morsels for M&M’s and make these tasty Chocolate M&M’s cookies instead!
Recipe FAQs
Use a light-colored baking sheet with parchment paper to avoid burnt cookie bottoms. Light colored cookie sheets prevent overbrowning because they don’t absorb heat like their darker counterparts. However, they are prone to sticking, so use parchment paper.
Chocolate cookies are hard to tell when they are done baking. The edges should look firm and if you press your finger into the center, it should only make a SLIGHT indentation. Cookies will continue to cook and set up on the cookie sheet once removed from the oven.
To achieve the perfect chewy cookie, I always lean towards underbaking my cookies.
More Cookie Recipes
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Revel Bars
- Tagalong Cookies
- Lemon Ricotta Cookies
Best Dessert Recipes
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup melted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 2 packages peanut butter chips 11 ounce each
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine melted butter with brown sugar. Mix until completely blended. Add in eggs, and vanilla extract until fully combined.
- Add flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda to mixing bowl. Beat just until incorporated. Fold in all but ½ cup of the peanut butter morsels. Chill dough 1 hour, if desired.
- Using a 2 Tbsp cookie scoop, drop dough two inches apart on prepared cookie sheet. Using the reserved peanut butter chips, press 5 or 6 on top of each cookie before baking.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies will be slightly underbaked, but not runny. Allow to cool on baking sheet 5-10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Storage– store cookies in airtight container at room temperature after they have cooled completely. Freeze for up to 3 months. You can also freeze cookie dough balls instead of the baked cookies.
- Cocoa Powder– I love the Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder because of it’s rich flavor. Hershey’s special dark is delicious as well. Do not choose off brand or Nestle as I feel like they leave a bitter taste in this cookie recipe.
- Substitutions- Use a combination of peanut butter and chocolate chips for a fudgier treat.
How can I make these gluten free
I am not a gluten free expert, but swapping out the flour for measure for measure from King Arthur Flour always works.
Question….is it 2 sticks of butter melted, or 1 cup of melted better?
2 sticks melted is nearly the same as 1 cup melted. 🙂
much on the dark(almost bitter- but I love that) side. Cookies were perfectly cooked and looked great! Only suggestion- add white sugar. These cookies can’t be eaten (at least in my home) without lots of milk! The texture was perfect. But…. Whoa…. Needs sugar to sweeten (and lighten) the flavor.
This recipe was easy enough that my 8 year old could make it all by himself (except he had to ask what a “morsel” is. 🙂 I found them to be very much on the dark (i.e. bitter) chocolate side. if you like a sweeter cookie, I’d bump the sugar up (like maybe add a half-cup of white sugar).
These are sooo delicious! I browned my butter since it needed to be melted anyway and I love the extra flavor it adds. Also it only took 8minutes to be perfectly cooked in my recipe—so check your cookies early !! Thanks for the recipe. Loved these. 🙂
I have put my mixture in the refrigerator but I didn’t add cocoa instead I am making a chocolate cream sauce to pipe onto the peanut butter cookies to make a ice cream sandwich I also changed it up a bit by adding peanut butter as Chocolate chips I am really looking forward to it
Wow, delicious! I wanted a cocoa peanut butter chip recipe that didn’t use a mixer (the cats are scared of it). I made the recipe exactly as written, but halved it. Even my roommate who usually isn’t into sweets liked these! It was very rich (I used Ghirardelli cocoa because I splurged on it, and I don’t know if it’s the dark or regular kind but it’s lovely). Thanks for the recipe!
These were delicious! They were a great consistency and the Ghirardelli cocoa and two bags of chips made such a difference! I blended the melted butter, sugar, eggs lightly with a mixer then gently folded in dry ingredients that I mixed prior. Refrigerated for an hr as mentioned and baked for 10 minutes….Perfecto! Thanks for the great recipe👍👍
the making of the dough was easy, a bit on thick side but hope that means will come out ooey gooey…
The one thing I noticed in your recipe print out, you do not mention the chill in refrigerator for 1-hour.
Thankfully I read all your details prior to printing. Went to make and thought do I need to roll the dough out or what should I put dough in to refrigerate. but reading printout, there is no mention of chilling.
pulled up your site again. read it to my son and wrote it on the recipe. I just left in the bowl and put a glass dish over. Now cooking dinner and will then get the oven temp adjusted and get my chilled dough onto cookie sheets… cannot wait to try:)
They are excellent. We did half the dough with white chocolate chips and half with PB chips. I will say we prefer them warm as they have a more “brownie” like consistency versus room temp.
OMG! My son I law has Celiac so when they come for a visit, I
Make sure to make all gluten free! You knocked this recipe out of the park! Combination of chocolate
And peanut butter, a win win!
I am totally freezing some next time!! They were gone so fast! I love the peanut butter & chocolate combo!
Oh my gosh! These remind me of the cookies that came out from Reeses I think. They were just like this and so so good! Thanks for the recipe!
These were so good!! Making them again this afternoon. 🙂