The Best Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
These are the best chocolate peanut butter chip cookies ever. Super soft, perfectly chocolatey and absolutely delicious!
Soft and chewy, these decadent chocolate cookies are probably one of my favorite cookie recipes ever. And that’s saying a lot, because if there’s one thing I’m good at, it is enjoying and appreciating cookies of all varieties.
Decadent Chocolate Cookie Dough
The cookie dough for these chocolate peanut butter chip cookies comes together with minimal fuss. Butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla…you know the drill.
When it comes to the adding the dry ingredients, here’s a quick heads up:
Because cocoa powder can hide a lot of pesky little lumps, it helps to whisk or sift the dry ingredients together before adding to the cookie dough. I know, I know, extra step and all that, but as one who normally avoids doing this, it really is worth it in this recipe so the cookie dough is cohesive and smooth.
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder vs Dutch-Process Cocoa Powder
The recipe calls for natural, unsweetened cocoa powder. Like every day, basic Hershey’s cocoa powder.
The cookies are ultra-chocolatey using this type of cocoa powder. Don’t panic if the mixed cookie dough looks lighter in color than you were expecting for a chocolate cookie. The cookies deepen in both flavor and color while baking (and cooling).
However, if you want an even darker, richer cookie, you can sub in Dutch-process cocoa powder. If doing so, reduce the amount of baking soda in the recipe to 1/4 teaspoon and add 1 teaspoon baking powder.
Peanut Butter Chips (and More)
These cookies are obviously divine with peanut butter chips. Especially if eaten warm. That delectable peanut butter chocolate combo is unbeatable.
However, that chocolate cookie base should not be discounted. It is respectably built for any number of chip substitutions or combinations.
Other Cookie Chip Add-In Ideas:
- half peanut butter chips + half semisweet chocolate chips
- all chocolate chips (I’ll let you choose the “flavor”: milk, semisweet, bittersweet)
- white chocolate chips
- chocolate chips + toffee bits
- hear me out on this one: orange zest in the cookie dough + semisweet chocolate chips
What other combinations are we missing here??
This is one of my all-time favorite cookie recipes ever.
While the cookies are absolutely divine stored in the fridge and eaten cold, nothing quite compares to enjoying one of these chocolate peanut butter chip cookies slightly warm with ice cream or a cold glass of milk.
YUM. Such a classic (and classy) cookie – these babies will never go out of style.
One Year Ago: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies
Two Years Ago: Cinnamon Lover’s Granola
Three Years Ago: Perfect Fruit Pizza {New and Improved}
Four Years Ago: Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins {Whole Grain}
Five Years Ago: Heavenly Blueberries and Cream Angel Food Cake Dessert
Six Years Ago: Teriyaki Chicken and Veggie Sheet Pan Dinner
Seven Years Ago: My Favorite Fresh Peach Pie {Lattice or Crumb Top!}
Eight Years Ago: Piled High Zucchini and Cheese Topped Pizza
Nine Years Ago: No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake
Ten Years Ago: Pesto Marinated Grilled Chicken
The Best Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 g) butter, softened to room temperature
- ¾ cup (159 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (159 g) packed light brown sugar
- 2 large (100 g) eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups (320 g) all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup (57 g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¾ to 2 cups (300 to 340 g) peanut butter chips (a 10-ounce bag)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two or three half sheet pans with parchment paper, lightly grease with cooking spray, and set aside.
- In a bowl with a handheld electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until well-combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt (this helps eliminate pesky small lumps that are common in cocoa powder).
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined and no dry streaks remain. Add the peanut butter chips and mix (with the mixer or by hand if you don't want the chips to break apart) until combined.
- Scoop the cookie dough into 2-tablespoon size portions (I use a #40 medium cookie scoop) and roll into balls. Place several inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for 10 to 11 minutes until the cookies are just set around the edges and slightly crackly on top. For super soft and chewy cookies, don't over bake.
- Let the cookies rest on the baking sheets for a couple minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (inspiration from this old recipe)
Delicious cookie! My husband even said they may be his favorite! Made them with my 4yr and 2yr old sons. Was easy to follow and the boys loved snacking on peanut butter chips. Baked for 11 minutes, they looked very soft when coming out, but firmed up perfectly after cooling. Thank you so much for this winner of a recipe.
Just made these for my son’s 15th birthday! They are SO good. Crispy on the outside and fudgy in the middle. Definitely will be on the regular rotation. Next time I’m going to try them with white chocolate chips (don’t be mad Mel! 😇) because that sounds so good! Thanks for the awesome recipe! I know all the boys at young men’s tonight will love the treat.
Hahaha, not mad at all. Glad you loved these, Tara!
I made these tonight and boy they are everything you’d hope for after reading the comments. I made mine with a combination of peanut butter and caramel morsels and they are heavenly!!
So soft and fudgy! Love these! A perfect cookie!! Very easy to make.
I made these as written, they were so good. My husband ate them all in 2days.
Thank you for all your great recipes.
Just ok. Lacked flavor. Not enough cocoa powder maybe? I’m obsessed with your one bowl chocolate chip cake though! Love your website! Thank you
This are simply amazing! The first time O made them I only used semisweet chips. Last night I made them with a cup of pb chips and a cup of semisweet. It took them to a heavenly level of delicious!!! A friend I took dinner to said they are the best she’s ever tasted ❤️
These cookies were all you said and more!!! Delicious!!!
These cookies were low effort and high reward. They are super soft and delicious! This recipe would also be excellent with other mix ins if you don’t have peanut butter chips handy. Will definitely make again!
These are amazing. Made them last night and they are gone! All the boys loved them!
I come back every day since this posting to look at these cookies, as I haven’t had time to make them. But I look forward to the day.
Super simple. Simply delicious. Thanks for another great recipe. Thank you for putting in the hard work fine tuning your recipes. All I have to do is follow them to a tee and boom, perfection!
Thank you so much, Jason!
My goodness, these cookies are a bit dangerous! I made them the day after I saw your post and wow they were so so good- I didn’t even get to share any, the 5 of us gobbled them up! So yummy and so easy too which is always a plus 🙂
Thank you for leaving a review, Carolee! So happy you enjoyed the cookies!
These are AMAZING! We made them today and are already regretting not making a double batch (there should be some sort of warning that if you have teenagers, you’ll want to make twice the cookies!). Thanks for the deliciousness!
Haha, that is a valid warning on cookie recipes. I feel the same around here. 🙂
These cookies are the best!! Chocolate and peanut butter combo is my all-time favorite. Cookies are my favorite dessert, snack, treat, etc. So this combo is beyond delicious. My family loved them too!!! Thank you!!
As soon as this recipe went live I ran to the store and got peanut butter chips to bake. All other plans were cancelled and it was well worth it!
Who knows what we are going to have for dinner, but for dessert we have the most chocolately, gooey, peanut butter perfection we could hope for!
Saw this recipe and immediately went to the store to pick up Peanut butter chips to bake.
They came out BEAUTIFULLY! Chocolate, gooey, peanut buttery perfection.
We didn’t make anything fancy for dinner and I’m not apologizing for it. Mel posted a new cookie recipe and you, too, should cancel all plans to TRY IT
Oooh, what about the dried sweet cherries from Aldi instead of pb chips? Or the sweetened dried mandarin oranges from Trader Joes?
I wish the heat would be done here so I can get into bake mode!
Yummy ideas, Kathie!
I needed something with this combination today and these were delicious. Maybe I wish I had a bag and a half of the peanut butter chips because who wouldn’t. Soft and great texture.
Great cookie!! Nice and easy to make with my toddler too 🙂
Glad you loved these, Kelbie! You’re a good momma to bake with your toddler! 🙂
Watch out, new Mel just dropped!
Went to the store just to make these, and it was WORTH IT. Chocolate and peanut butter together are one of my true loves, and these scratched that itch perfectly.
The only changes I made were to brown the butter and add a movie theater size box of Reese’s pieces. No regrets, will make again!
I have not made this recipe, but have made others using grams. I find that all the other ingredients are correct in grams except for the flour. Checking on line 2 1/4 cups of flour equals 281 grams, but your recipe calls for 320 grams. A 40 gram difference. I know humidity, etc affects the weight, but find 40 grams more is significant.
Hi Diane, I test all my recipes using 142 grams of flour per cup. There’s no one standard source of grams of flour per cup – for instance, King Arthur Flour uses anywhere from 100 to 125 grams of flour per cup (depending on the type of flour), whereas America’s Test Kitchen uses around 140 grams of flour per cup. It’s important not to modify a tested recipe’s weight measures to other sources online. I always recommend using the weight measures given in a tested recipe even if they don’t match up with other recipes you’ve used before. If you reduce the amount of flour in this recipe to 281 grams, it’s very likely the cookies will bake thin and flat. Hope that helps!
You could add mint chips too!
Oh yes, great idea!
My husband would love these cookies! He has a birthday coming up and he always requests chocolate cookies!
Hope he loves them (and you, too!).
I love the idea of some orange zest in this recipe! Mel, I am always looking for uses for my sourdough starter discard. Any idea what changes I would have to make to the recipe to use 100% hydration discard?
That’s a great question about the sourdough discard, Doug. The short answer is that I haven’t tried using sourdough discard in cookies. Having said that, taking a quick peek at some other sourdough cookie recipes online, it looks like simply adding 1/2 to 3/4 cup sourdough discard to the recipe is a good starting place! If doing so, you might need to increase the flour by another 1/2 cup or so. Let me know if you end up experimenting!
I live at a high altitude in northern New Mexico (7,000 Ft). Can these chocolate peanut butter chip cookies be adjusted to high altitude baking and how would you adjust the recipe? Thank you.
Hi Grace, I’m not the best person to give high altitude instructions since I live at 2,500 feet, but if you google “high altitude cookie adjustments” you’ll probably turn up some good results that could be helpful! Often reducing the leavening (baking soda in this case) and adding a touch more flour can help.