Peanut Butter and chocolate is a combination that will never get old. These peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies bake up crisp around the edges and soft in the middle.
These cookies were first added to our cookie archives back in 2013, but they are such a staple (and always such a hit at our house) that it felt like time to bring them back to your attention with some fresh new photos. They are completely classic. A salty and sweet peanut butter base studded with chocolate chips or chocolate chunks - depending on what sort of mood you’re in.
Peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies are great for freezing, so I wanted to share these now in case you wanted to tuck some in the freezer to bake a few on a chilly winter night.
You may already have everything you need to bake these. Here’s all it takes.
Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour - Just regular AP flour needed for these cookies. I’ve also made these with a gluten-free 1:1 flour sub (I like King Arthur’s) with great results.
- Creamy Peanut Butter - I have always made these with conventional creamy peanut butter (like JIF), but I’m sure they would be great with crunchy peanut butter as well. If you try them with natural peanut butter, I’d love to hear how it turns out!
- Unsalted Butter - As with most baking recipes, it’s a great idea to use unsalted butter and then add measured salt to your recipe for consistent results.
- Sugar - You’ll need both white (granulated) sugar and light brown sugar to give these cookies that tender, chewy texture.
- Cornstarch - Cornstarch helps the cookies to bake up thick and stay and soft and tender for longer after baking.
- Baking Soda, Kosher Salt, Pure Vanilla Extract, Large Eggs - Standard cookie baking ingredients.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips / Chunks - When I first made these cookies, I used chips. This time around, I went for the larger bites of chocolate that came from semi-sweet chocolate chunks. They’re also great with dark chocolate (either chips or chopped from a bar). Pick your favorite!
How to Freeze Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies
To Freeze: Prepare dough as directed. Line cookie dough balls up on a sheet pan and transfer to the freezer. When dough balls are frozen solid (3 to 4 hours), transfer to a freezer-safe bag. Freeze for up to 6 months.
To Bake from Frozen: Bake on a prepared sheet pan directly from the freezer at 300°F for 15 to 17 minutes.
My Master List of Christmas Cookies
- Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Crisp Gingerbread Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookie Cups
- Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
- Crispy and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Mint Pinwheel Cookies
- Candy Cane Meringues
- Chocolate Peppermint Blossoms
- Christmas Tree Meringues
- Chocolate Candy Cane Truffles
- Sweet and Salty Snack Mix (not a “cookie”, but this snack mix is a fun addition to a cookie box or holiday dessert spread)
Favorite Tools
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Equipment
- Mixing Bowls
- Stand or Handheld Mixer
- Half Sheet Pan
- Wire Cooling Rack
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups All-Purpose Flour
- 2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter, softened to room temperature (1 cup of butter = 2 regular sticks / 16 Tbsp)
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar, packed
- 1 cup White Sugar
- 1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 11 oz Chocolate Chunks or Chocolate Chips, semi-sweet
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.
- Using a standing mixer or hand mixer, beat butter, both sugars, and peanut butter until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix until evenly combined.
- Add dry ingredients and mix on low just until combined.
- Mix in chocolate chunks.
- Refrigerate cookie dough for 30 minutes to 2 hours. (This will help prevent them from spreading out while baking.)
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 177°C. Lightly grease a sheet pan / cookie sheet.
- Form cookie dough into golf ball-sized balls. Place on prepared cookie sheet, leaving a few inches of space between the cookies.
- Bake just until the edges begin to turn golden brown, 9 to 11 minutes. Let cool on the sheet pan for five minutes before transfering to wire racks.
Notes
Nutrition
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Katrina
I didn't taste those when I made them, but my family sure went crazy over them and they do turn out looking like a perfect cookie. Thanks for baking from my blog.
Katie (The Muffin Myth)
Gosh those look good. You know we don't get chocolate chips here? It's not like chopping up a bar of dark chocolate is all that big a deal, but I love the look of the chips, especially now that I pine over them in a homesick kind of way. I have a go-to peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe, but this one looks so gorgeous I'll have to give it a whirl. I've never tried that cornstarch trick, but it makes sense! Thanks for sharing the recipe, I'm excited to give it a try.
sara
Wow, I love the look of these cookies - so perfect with a glass of milk! 🙂
Ashley
I think peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are probably my favorite flavor. And these look delicious - especially that last photo with the glass of milk. My guilty pleasure is dunking cookies in milk - so good!
Jess
And these are SO dunk-able, Ashley! I have a weakness for anything peanut butter/chocolate.
Alyssa D. {Suitcases & Sweets}
Love the cornstarch tip! Will definitely give that a try. And I am also grateful for you and Frank. It's a blessing to have such fun, kind friends -- even if they are on the other side of the world for the moment. 🙂
Jess
And WE are so lucky to have you!! Miss you tons - can you believe it's been over a year since you were here???
Shanna
Gratitude is such a beautiful fruit of the spirit and one I am hungry for in my own heart. Thanks for this sweet post. So amazed with you that the cell phone was found!
Jess
So true, Shanna - I think I don't take time to feel gratitude enough. The cell phone return made me feel so hopeful for the goodness in people - we were so sure we would never see it again!
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious
I could use about a dozen of these right now for breakfast!
Jess
Haha - no kidding, Chung-Ah - here I sit eating oatmeal and staring at what's left of these cookies...dangerous!
Delishhh
Hmm - great tip about cornstarch going to give that one a try! Thanks!
Monica
You totally described my ideal chocolate chip cookie with that texture. I have to try the cornstarch addition, which I've heard about but haven't actually done. I have you have many more great weeks with tons of things to be grateful for!
Jess
Definitely try the cornstarch trick, Monica - it's amazing what a difference a little bit makes. This is totally my ideal cookie texture too - I need my cookies to be soft inside, but that crisp edge is so tasty!
Elizabeth@ Food Ramblings
I LOVE these photos!
Jess
Thank you, Elizabeth! That's so nice!
Leigh
Your photos are beautiful - like looking through a glossy cooking magazine and those cookies.....perfection!
Jess
Leigh - that is a huge compliment coming from you! Your photos are always gorgeous. Thanks so much.
Averie @ Averie Cooks
Wow Jess they are perfect! I saw them on FG and had to come right over! They almost look like choc chip cookies but they're PB cookies. Just talking the dough base. It has the texture of a choc chip cookie from the pics. Interesting! How peanut butttery are they?
I love using cornstarch in cookies as well. Such a great thing. I would love a couple of these!
Jess
Averie - you're so right - they're really similar to chocolate chip cookies in texture and ingredients, but that peanut butter flavor is not hiding. They pack a good PB punch!
I wacked them on the counter right when they came out of the oven, as you have so often said to do (!), which made them extra photo friendly. 🙂
Lokness @ The Missing Lokness
These cookies look so soft and perfect. I really hope to have one right now. My husband doesn't like peanut butter. What do you think about substituting it with nutella?
Jess
In my humble oppion, anything is made better with Nutella. 😉 I would definitely give it a try. And let me know how it goes - that might have to be next on my list!
sally @ sallys baking addiction
I love these cookies Jess! They look amazing. I'm glad you added cornstarch. I seriously swear by that stuff. Your photos are making me want to put down this pumpkin cookie I'm eating and go grab some peanut butter... NOW.
Jess
The cornstarch tip is the BEST, Sally! I'll never bake cookies without it again. 🙂
ATasteOfMadness
Wow! These cookies look perfect! I would love to try some of these!
Jess
They're so good, and so easy! No mixer required. That's my kind of cookie. 😉
Jen @ Savory Simple
These sound unbelievably good!
Anne ~ Uni Homemaker
How fortunate that someone returned Frank's iPhone. If it was here in SF or Oakland, that would have been the last of it for me! Anyway, these chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies look perfect. I love the combination and the chewiness of this. Pinned! Have a great week Jess. 🙂
Erin @ The Emerging Foodie
Wow. These look sooooo good. Love that last picture! 🙂 And no mixer? Winning!
kelly
These look amazing!!! I'm going to bake some today, I don't have chocolate chips though which is ok because I love peanut butter. Would I needed to add more peanut butter since I don't have chocolate or just make as is? Thanks 🙂
Jess
Hi Kelly - no need to change the recipe at all. They should work just fine even without the chocolate chips! I'm getting back to you a bit late, but hopefully they worked out!
Sandra
I made these, and froze them. They are so delicious. I didn't use any corn starch, and it didn't seem to matter. They didn't last long, as I used the freezer cookies in my sons lunch!
Paige
I'm so excited to make these cookies! I am going to try to make them today.
Monica Dingess
These cookies are very good. Nice combination of peanut butter and chocolate chips. I made a little smaller cookie so they only took 10 minutes to bake. I also used milk chocoolate chips
Steph
Hi! I make these cookies a few times a year and they’re always amazing.
The last two times I’ve made them the texture has been a little lighter than usual. Did anything change with the recipe when you updated it? We loved the old ones and I’m not sure what I’m getting wrong 🙁
Jess Smith
Oh no Steph! I'm so sorry to hear that. I didn't change a thing about the recipe when I updated it. Measurements and instructions are just the same as they've always been. Is there any chance you're using a new brand of butter or peanut butter? This is random, but I recently made some of my go-to cookies with a generic grocery store brand butter and they came out totally different than usual. (Just a thought since it's fresh on my mind.) The other thing that sometimes messes with the texture of cookies is the temp of the butter. If it's too melty / soft you might get flatter, lighter cookies.