My chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are crisp on the outside, soft and bendy inside ~ studded with melting shards of Hershey’s milk chocolate bars. It’s gonna be your new favorite cookie.
I suggest we bake up these bakery style chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies together, right now. Make sure you’ve got some creamy pb in your cupboard, I can’t survive without a big jar of Jif at the ready. Then check your sweet stash, you’re going to need a few Hershey bars to chop up, (ok to use chocolate chunks or chocolate chips in a pinch.) The rest is standard cookie stuff so you’re good to go.
Chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies baking notes
- SUGARS: I combine brown and white sugar and that’s essential. Dark brown sugar = more moisture + more chew + deeper flavor. It’s the molasses that does it.
- NO CHILL: these cookies should be baked right after mixing the dough, do not chill or they will not spread properly.
- SIZE: I use a standard medium cookie scoop to portion out nice sized balls of dough. That’s a heaping 1 1/2 tablespoons. These cookies need to be of a certain size to bake up correctly.
- CHOCOLATE: roughly chopped Hershey milk chocolate bars give these cookies a unique, nostalgic flavor.
- SPACING: don’t crowd your pan or your cookies will spread into each other.
- FLATTEN: use the now famous ‘pan banging’ method to deflate your cookies right out of the oven.
Common questions
Yes the dough makes nice peanut butter cookies. You might also add chopped peanuts for texture. For a plain recipe see my Classic Peanut Butter Cookies or my fun 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies.
You can use chunky pb as well, but I do recommend regular style peanut butter, the kind that is emulsified so it stays smooth and consistent. Avoid baking with natural types that separate out into an oily layer.
No two ovens are alike and no two cooks will scoop the exact same size cookies ~ even your baking pan makes a difference! But luckily the baking time is a little bit forgiving and variable. If you like your cookies really soft, they will still look pale and not quite set when you take them out. If you like a slightly crunchier cookie, bake a minute or two longer and your chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies until they just take on a light golden color.
A sharp rap on a hard surface deflates any puffiness in the cookies and creates a flatter shape with those nice crinkly edges.
Cooling on the pan lets cookies keep baking from residual heat, so they firm up more and stay softer in the center.
Yes, I would scoop it first and then flash freeze until solid first, then package to freeze for up to 3 months. Let the dough come completely to room temperature before baking. This is not one of those cookies you would bake straight from the freezer.
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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- parchment paper
- stand mixer or electric beaters
- medium cookie scoop (1 1/2 tablespoons)
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened, (2 sticks)
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter*
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla paste or extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 5 ounces Hershey candy bars, chopped (about 3 standard bars)
optional for rolling
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
optional topping
- flakey sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer or with electric beaters cream together the 1 cup unsalted butter, softened, 1 cup creamy peanut butter, 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed and 3/4 cup white sugar and 1 Tbsp vanilla paste or extract. Make sure to work out any lumps in your brown sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you work.
- Blend in the 2 large eggs,one at a time. Scrape the bowl and be sure to get everything well blended.
- Beat in the 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt.
- With the mixer on low blend in the 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour, I do this in several batches.
- Fold in the chopped milk chocolate.
- Scoop the dough with a medium cookie scoop and place, 2 inches apart, on your lined cookie sheet. I usually bake 5-6 cookies per sheet to give them plenty of room. Optional step: roll each ball of dough in sugar to create a subtle crunch on the outside of the cookies.
- Bake, in batches, for 12-13 minutes. They'll still look soft and slightly under done. Take the pan out of the oven and immediately give it a sharp bang on the counter, or other hard surface. This flattens the slightly puffed cookies and creates all those lovely wrinkles.
- Let the cookies cool and firm up on the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a rack.
Notes
Nutrition
more chocolate chip cookies to try
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