A sweet & simple recipe for soft, chewy peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies loaded with melty milk chocolate candy bar pieces. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
I have a short and sweet post for you today. Partly because this recipe is so simple it needs little introduction or explanation, and partly because I’m currently still in a sugar coma from excessive chocolate bunny consumption yesterday.
I don’t often buy candy (because let’s be honest there’s more than enough sugar in my life anyway) but Zach’s mom always gives us an Easter basket full of our favorites, and we’ve already demolished over half of it so far. Things aren’t looking too good for the second half right now, either.
But anyway, let’s talk peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies. If the recipe looks familiar to you, that’s because it is, it’s a hybrid between my popular soft and chewy best peanut butter cookies and my peanut butter blossoms. I’m completely obsessed with this recipe because it yields the softest, butteriest/peanut-butteriest cookies.
Butter All The Way
Most peanut butter chocolate chunk cookie recipes use shortening rather than butter. Considering that peanut butter has a distinct enough flavor that you shouldn’t notice the lack of butter, and that shortening has a higher fat content (which should mean softer cookies) I didn’t challenge this for a long time. For years I made my peanut butter cookies with shortening.
But the flavor and texture always fell flat! The cookies crumbled too easily! The flavor wasn’t bad, but couldn’t it be improved? I wanted a cookie that was soft and chewy like my chocolate chip cookies, but obviously with a distinct peanut butter flavor (and with buttery undertones, not shortening ones!).
This is that recipe! Soft and chewy with a distinct peanut butter flavor (enhanced by real butter), once you try it you’ll never go back to shortening based recipes again. Pair it with milk chocolate candy pieces and you’ve got yourself a dream cookie.
Ok, I’m sorry, I promised you a short and sweet post today and here I am rambling about butter and shortening.
Just one more quick word about chocolate. I chopped up chocolate Hershey bars for these peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies; while I’m a dark chocolate girl at heart, nothing pairs quite as well with peanut butter as milk chocolate. You can use your preferred variety of chocolate (chocolate chips will also work) and if you found yourself with a surplus of Hershey bars or milk chocolate bunnies in your Easter basket yesterday, well what a great way to use them!
Enjoy!
Other Recipes You Might Like:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 10 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened (140g)
- 2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed light or dark (135g)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (50g)
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter¹ (140g)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/2 teasoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (185g)
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch (cornflour in the UK)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 8 oz milk chocolate², coarsely chopped (I used 5 Hershey bars)
Instructions
- Combine butter, sugars, and peanut butter in a large bowl and use an electric mixer (you can use a stand mixer instead) to beat until creamy and well-combined.
- Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir well.
- In separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt.
- Gradually, with mixer on low speed, stir flour mixture into peanut butter mixture, pausing occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl.
- Use a spatula to stir in chocolate pieces.
- Cover cookie dough with plastic wrap and transfer to refrigerator. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Once dough is almost finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F/175C. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Once cookie dough has chilled and oven has preheated, remove dough from fridge and scoop cookie dough into roughly 1 1/2 Tablespoon-sized balls. If desired, gently roll into balls between your palms and then place onto prepared cookie sheets.³
- Place cookies at least 1 1/2 inch apart on prepared baking sheets and bake for about 12 minutes.
- Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published on March 9th, 2016. Photos updated and recipe improved and updated April 22, 2019.
Janet says
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I made these exactly as written and see no reason to change anything. I did put walnuts in my second batch only because I love walnuts. But as I said, they are wonderful as the recipe is written. This will go in my recipe folder.
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Janet! 🙂
Karen says
I have a peanut allergy so I used Wowbutter instead. They turned out great! Thanks for the wonderful recipe! 🙂
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Karen! 🙂
Sheep says
I made this into a pizookie (pizza-sized cookie) and it turned out delicious! 🙂 😀 Thank you so much!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂
Sheep says
Hello! I was wondering how long this would have to cook for if all of the dough was used to make a single, giant cookie.
Sam says
I’m not sure how it would turn out or how long it would need to bake. You would definitely want to do it in a springform pan if you do try it. 🙂
Sheep says
Do these need cornstarch? I don’t have any!
Sugar Spun Run says
Hi, Sheep! The cornstarch helps break down the harsh proteins of the flour, making for a more tender cookie. You can leave it out, they just won’t be as soft. 🙂
Sheep says
Hello! These cookies have tasted delicious every time me and my sibling would make them, however, we’ve noticed that they don’t really spread out that much and are quite big. Is it the peanut butter that is causing them to not spread or is it something else? 🤔
Sam says
I am so sorry that has happened. It sounds like there may be too much flour in the cookies. You can check out my guide for how to properly measure flour so this doesn’t happen in the future. 🙂
Karen Moore says
My son and I just made these – they smell delicious even before baked ! I’m waiting til after dinner to bake them so we don’t ruin dinner cuz I have no will power ! Thanks for the recipe ! Karen
Sugar Spun Run says
I hope that you and your son had fun making them and that they were the perfect after-dinner treat, Karen! Enjoy! 🙂
Sheep says
Me and my sibling have made these cookies 4 times! They are so delicous! Thank you so much for the recipe! 🙂 😀
Sugar Spun Run says
Thank you so much for trying my recipe! I am so happy to hear that the cookies have been such a hit. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Sheep says
These cookies are delicous! Thank you! 🙂 😀
Sugar Spun Run says
Thank you so much! I hope that you enjoy the cookies! 🙂
Sheep says
You’re welcome! I made them again yesterday! 😉 🙂
Sugar Spun Run says
I love it! Enjoy! 🙂
Breanna says
Do you really have to use an electric mixer? Can I get away with mixing it by hand?
Sam says
It depends on how strong you are and how much of an arm workout you want. So long as the butter (it should be softened, but not so soft that it’s melt-y) and sugar get nicely creamed together that’s all that really matters 🙂
Momof11gifts says
I just tried these cookies & I followed the recipe exact. They looked great when they came out of the oven. They just didn’t taste as good as I had hoped. They didn’t have a sweet taste at all & had more of a cake like texture, instead of the chewy cookie texture.
It might be though that I had been eating the cookie that I made from your other recipe (the worst ever cookie) 😁
I think that recipe is so good, that it’s ruined the taste of all the others. 😉
I’m sure it’s a great recipe. I must have done something wrong.
Sam says
You’ll just have to give them another try when you aren’t making the other cookies. 😉
Nicole says
Thank you so much for this great recipe. They are absolutely delicious. Mine just didn’t spread very much, they stayed quite thick, but the taste is great.
Sam says
I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed the cookies, Nicole! Thank you for commenting 🙂
Rosellen Fareri says
I made these just the other night and they were absolutely delicious !!! I followed the recipe exactly as it is written and they came out so nice and chewy and incredibly delicious that I am planning to make them again tomorrow !! They stayed so fresh too, although I must admit they didn’t last too long in my house lol !! I’ve tried other recipes like this, but nothing compared ..yours is by far, the BEST. ! Thank u so much for sharing it. I love all your recipes !
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed the cookies, Rosellen! 🙂
Medha @ Whisk & Shout says
These chocolate chip cookies look amazing- the only thing missing from the classic was totally peanut butter, these are spot on! 🙂 Pinning!
Sam says
Thank you, Medha!
Marsha | Marsha's Baking Addiction says
Oh my, these cookies look good! I just wanna grab that stack of cookies!
Sam says
Thank you, Marsha!!