Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

It only takes 15 minutes to whip up a batch of these super SOFT & CHEWY Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies! A combination of sweet & salty will put these bakery-style cookies on your weekly craving rotation!

Plus, they're made with melted butter which means no need to soften the butter for 2 hours beforehand!

What makes these the BEST peanut butter chocolate chip cookies?

1. Melted Butter = I tested this recipe over 10 times and concluded the using melted butter resulted in the softest, chewiest, most irresistible cookies. Plus melted butter means you don't have to let the butter soften to room temperature before baking!
   
2. Chopped Chocolate = by using a mixture of whole & chopped chocolate chips, you get lots of chocolate in each bite! I used Trader Joes Chocolate Chunks in these, which I LOVE because they're smaller shards of chocolate. But if you use whole chunks or normal chocolate chips, I just recommend chopping half of them!
   
3. Bakery-Style Size = By scooping the dough into 3-tablespoon sized scoops, you get giant bakery cookies that have a slight bite on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside.

What You Need to Make Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

• ½ cup unsalted butter (you will be melting this)
• ½ cup creamy peanut butter (I used Skippy brand)
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks or chips (I love Trader's Joes Chocolate Chunks for these!)

How to Make The Best Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies:

Before starting, just a note that you want to work quickly while making the dough because we want the hot butter to help melt the chocolate, resulting in a deeper cookie color!

Step 1: Melt Butter

Cut the stick of butter into pieces (about 6-8 is fine). In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter for 45-60 seconds until melted. I recommend covering your bowl with a paper towel because it will splatter! We do want the butter hot, so after it "pops" once, check on it. If it's still not fully melted, microwave in 5 seconds intervals until totally melted.

To make melting go quicker, I recommend cutting butter into cubes before microwaving.

Step 2: Add Brown Sugar, Peanut Butter, Then Remaining Ingredients

Immediately after removing butter from the microwave, add brown sugar and mix on low speed for 10-15 seconds until combined. Mixing the hot butter with the brown sugar will help create the deeper caramely color - this is important!

Add peanut butter and mix for 10-15 seconds on low speed until combined. While the mixer is on low speed, add in eggs and vanilla followed by the baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in flour and mix for 10-15 seconds until all the flour disappears into the dough.

Step 3: Add Chocolate Chunks

Immediately add the chocolate chunks (or chips) into the dough and mix on medium speed for 30 seconds. Allow dough to sit for about 5 minutes to slightly set so it's not as sticky.

After letting it sit for 5 minutes, turn the mixer back on and beat for 20 seconds on medium speed. This will add a little air back in & also work any melted chocolate into the dough to give it a deeper color - this step is also important for deep-colored, chewy cookies!

Step 4: Scoop Dough

Use a 3-tablespoon-sized cookie scoop to scoop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Tip: If you notice 2-3 chocolate chips are stuck together, separate them before baking. This will allow the chocolate to be evenly dispersed and prevent the cookie from having a giant clump of chocolate in one spot.

For a pretty bakery-style cookie, you can also press a few chocolate chips onto the top of each dough ball before baking!

Step 5: Bake

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-11 minutes. You want them to be slightly brown on top and look slightly underbaked (my oven was perfect at 10 minutes). 

Remove from oven and place entire pan on a cooling rack. If desired, press in a few more chunks to the top. Allow the cookies to cool on the hot pan for 10-15 minutes before removing them. This will allow them to finish baking on the hot pan. Once cooled, use a spatula to transfer them to a wire cooling rack.

Step 6: Eat Warm, Freeze or Gift!

To Store: These peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are delicious warm but are also really good on Day 2 or 3 if stored in an airtight container or bag. They're still fine after 3 days but the texture starts to dry out a bit.

To Freeze: Being that these are super soft, these are also really dang good straight from the freezer. I find them best to eat after letting them thaw for about 5-10 minutes out of the freezer!

Use for Ice Cream Toppings or Ice Cream Sandwiches: These would also be SO GOOD chopped into little bite sized pieces then frozen for ice cream toppings. Pair with my no churn chocolate ice cream for the ultimate, decadent gluten free dessert!

Or since they are chewy, flat cookies these would also be tasty turned into an ice cream sandwich. I would just do the slice-a-pint method rather than trying to scoop on ice cream, as the cookies are soft and make break easier if scooping and pressing.

To Gift: allow them to completely cool (so the chocolate chips harden) and place in a plastic cookie bag, box, or wrap individually and slip in a printable cookie pouch.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What kind of peanut butter do you use for cookies?

For this recipe, I tested with Skippy, Peter Pan and generic store-brand and all worked just fine! You just want to avoid all-natural peanut butter in this recipe, as it is too oily and would not turn out the same.

If you want a different recipe using all natural peanut butter though, try my Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies. They use almond flour & all natural peanut butter and are also so good & chewy!

Can you use natural peanut butter in cookies?

For this recipe, I do not recommend using natural peanut butter since the melted butter & the added oils of the peanut butter will likely give you trouble.

But I do have a Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookie recipe that is very similar to these peanut butter cookies with chocolate chunks that uses natural peanut butter & almond flour making them super chewy, as well!

What kind of chocolate chips do you use?

In this recipe, I used my newest obsession: Trader Joes Chocolate Chunks (Semi-Sweet, shown above). I also love Kroger's Private Selection Dark Chocolate Chunks.

But you don't need to use anything fancy! If you want to just use normal semi-sweet chocolate chips (like Nestle or Hershey), I just recommend chopping half the chocolate chips so that there is chocolate scattered throughout

Does melted butter make cookies chewy?

Oh boy does it ever! The melted butter makes the best peanut butter cookies in my opinion because it a) makes them chewy and b) the heat of the butter mixed with the brown sugar and chocolate gives them a deeper, caramel-ly color.

I also think the melted butter helps prevent them from being too dry, as this dough is on the wetter side so it's a little more forgiving. So if you've ever asked yourself, "why are my peanut butter cookies falling apart?", try this recipe because that usually has to do with flour & soft butter ratios being a little more finicky!

How do you keep cookies soft?

These cookies will naturally stay soft for 3-5 days but in general, you can also put a piece of white bread in the container to keep them softer.

Did you make these chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
cookies? Be sure to leave a comment below with how you liked them!