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“The texture of the shortbread, the light sweetness, and classic flavors… just so delightful! This has become one of my very favorite cookies!” ~Valerie
peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are my signature shortbread cookie
They’re closely followed in popularity by my Double Dark Chocolate Shortbread Cookies. I’m not surprised, after all, when was the last time you saw a cookie that intensely chocolaty? But there’s something magical about the epic combination of creamy peanut butter and chocolate that lures people in every time.
These cookies have a melt-in-your-mouth texture thanks to the creamy peanut butter and their shortbread base. They’ll even stick a wee bit to the roof of your mouth…better have a cold glass of milk ready.
these peanut butter cookies are made with a short list of ingredients:
- creamy peanut butter ~ I don’t recommend using natural style peanut butter for this cookie, the consistency tends to be oily. Personally I think the best pb is Jif.
- butter ~ unsalted and at room temperature
- flour ~ all purpose
- sugar ~ confectioner’s or granulated sugar, both will work.
- kosher salt
- chocolate chips ~ use milk, semi sweet, or dark, it’s up to you. I love dark chocolate with peanut butter.
slice and bake cookies are a favorite around here
Who wouldn’t love to have a log or two of cookie dough hanging out in their fridge?
You can get all the measuring and mixing and messy hands out of the way early and then have the luxury of fresh dough waiting at your beck and call. Let me put it another way: when you’ve got this dough in the fridge you’re 12 minutes away from nirvana.
If you want to try a rolled dough version of these, try my Milk Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.
tips for success with peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
- Make sure to start with room temperature butter. This helps the dough come together smoothly.
- Measure your flour carefully. I fluff the flour first to loosen it, then scoop the measuring cup and level it off. This helps insure you get an accurate measure and not too much flour, which will affect the quality of the cookies.
- I make the dough in a stand mixer, this helps the dough come together with less effort. If you’re doing it by hand, take the time to mix the dough until it comes together and there is no dry flour left.
- Use regular, creamy peanut butter, not natural peanut butter. I use Jif.
- If you have trouble with the dough crumbling when you slice it, this can be due to the chocolate chips. I just form any broken slices back into shape on the cookie sheet. It helps to use a very sharp knife, and you can also try a sharp serrated knife to cut through the chips. You can use mini chips which will solve the problem, but I prefer the taste of the big chunks of chocolate. To skirt the issue altogether, roll out your dough and cut with a round cookie or biscuit cutter.
- If you make smaller cookies (i.e. more than 10-12) adjust the baking time, it will take slightly less time for them to cook.
- Expect these cookies to have a shortbread texture, which is to say delicate, and very buttery. They aren’t the same as a regular chewy or cakey cookie. Shortbread has a distinctive texture resulting from the combination of butter, sugar, and flour, without egg.
chocolate + peanut butter is a dynamic flavor duo
The simplicity is part of the charm of these cookies, you really get to taste the pb and chocolate, which is the main reason we make them in the first place 🙂 If you’re a fan of the combo, join the club:
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones
- Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Muffins
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bread
- Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Video
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (important!)
- 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (I like Jif)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar Note: you can also use granulated sugar.
- scant 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips of your choice, milk or dark
Instructions
- Cream the butter and the peanut butter together in a stand mixer, with a hand mixer, or a wooden spoon. Make sure to get the butter and peanut butter completely combined and creamy. Beat in the vanilla.
- Add the flour, sugar, and salt and mx until the dough comes together and is no longer dry.
- Fold in the chocolate chips, and turn the dough out onto a piece of waxed paper. Gently pull the dough together and form it into a log. If it is still crumbly, work it with your hands until it holds together smoothly. Roll it up in the paper, smoothing the shape as you go. Twist the ends securely and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours. The log will be roughly 7 1/2–8 inches long.
- While the dough is chilling, pre-heat the oven to 350F
- Slice the log into slices with a sharp knife. Not too thick, not too thin, about 1/2 inch. If a slice crumbles a bit, just smoosh the dough back together. These don’t have to be perfect disks.
- Bake on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet at 350F for about 12-14 minutes, depending on how thick your cookies are. The cookies will not be browned, and they may look undone, but don’t over bake. One of the joys of shortbread cookies is that they fall apart and melt in your mouth.
- Let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack.
Nutrition
don’t forget to pin!
I’m an experienced and avid baker, followed the recipe to the letter. Epic fail! The dough never came together, it stayed crumbly like streusel topping. I’m so upset about the waste of ingredients, I even made a special trip to the store to buy Jiff peanut butter. I measure everything precisely. I don’t usually post comments but I want to sate people the time and expense!
So I found this recipe and sounds great the only thing I am wondering cuz I am not a fan of peanut butter if this would work without it or maybe a substitute hope to hear back thank you in advance
You can try other nut butters for sure, but I find that ‘natural’ butters are harder to work with because they’re so oily. It’s best if you can find another type of nut butter that is completely creamy. I think some of the big brands make almond butter, and that would work.
These are so addictive. So delicious. I made a double batch and ate them all mostly by myself in no time at all!
These are so good! Thank you! Mine worked out fine, don’t know why others’ didn’t work. Sorry about that, you’re missing out!
I made these without chocolate chips because that’s how the loml likes them best, they are awesome!
I weigh everything so for the rest of you scalers my peanut butter is 100 grams.
Thanks for the recipe!
I bake shortbread all the time.These turned out terrible 🙁 i have to agree with the previous reply. I followed and measured according to the instructions on this page. The consistency was too crumbly like sand.
You really need to work the butter (be sure it’s soft) into the flour, it will come together if you’ve measured correctly. Just keep at it!
So I don’t often leave reviews, and I really do hate to leave a bad one. But given that everyone else gave this 5 stars has me confused! I make regular shortbread cookies (3 ingredient) regularly, so I’m familiar with the texture and how they should come out. I was so excited for these. I weighed the flour and sugar to the gram, so it’s not like I had too much or little in a measuring cup. I actually thought it needed more flour, but wanted to follow the recipe as written. The flavor was good, but the texture was awful – like sand. The only thing I did differently than written was make the cookies a little smaller. I felt like I had to still bake them longer than directed as they were not done the way I expect regular shortbread to look. So it’s possible that affected my batch. But my husband actually asked me to throw them all away, and that has never happened before. I really am sorry to leave a negative review, but these just didn’t work for me.
I’m super sorry to hear this Stephanie. It’s a little hard to know exactly what might have gone wrong. Did you use a regular creamy peanut butter?
Could I use cup for cup GF flour for shortbread cookies?
I haven’t tried that Phyllis, although I have made this basic shortbread in a square baking pan with gf flour and it turned out fine, although with a different texture, of course.
I loved these cookies – so addictive! The cookies froze beautifully and tasted great from the freezer. Your tips and suggestions were right on in handling the dough and cutting it. The flavor seemed to improve each day. The texture just melted in my mouth – reminding me of the peanut butter fudge my mom use to make when I was a kid.
For those of you using natural peanut butter I added about 2 tbsp more of icing sugar, I subbed 1/4 cup of Flour with corn starch (mainly because that’s the proportion I used when making my regular shortbread) and I kept adding flour (slowly and gradually- maybe about 1/3 cup more) until I achieved the normal shortbread consistency. It helps to know what that consistency is. They came out perfect. My biggest reccomondation is to check the taste of your dough to make sure it’s sweet enough (if not add more sugar) and also tweaking the flour until you get the ideal feel. Refergeration for a few hours also made a difference. Happy baking ??.
I have been using this recipe for years, I adapted it to make lemon while chocolate cranberry cookies, and I doubled the PB chocolate one by doubling it and adding cornstarch and confection sugar. This is a very versatile and easy to adapt recipe. My friends and I have enjoyed many fantastic cookies. I also like to use this short bread recipe and and then melt chocolate to dip them into. I find that the more crumby the log the more delicate the cookie is which is fine by me.
Oh my good gracious! Lemon version of these would be wonderful! Please add the instructions!!!