My Best Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies {Soft, Thick and Chewy!}
Everybody needs a crazy good peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe, and these here are amazing! Thick, chunky, chewy and moist, these peanut butter choco chip cookies are the perfect treat anytime.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup smooth or creamy peanut butter
- 1 ¼ cup plain flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 cups chocolate chips (use bitter-sweet or semi-sweet)
Instructions
- Dry ingredients: Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Butter and brown sugar: In the bowl of a stand mixer or with handheld beaters, cream the butter and sugar at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.What to look out for: When creaming the butter and sugar, the mixture will turn pale in colour similar to milk coffee. Stop once the mixture feels light and fluffy when you scrape it down with a silicon spatula.
- Egg: Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the egg until well incorporated, about 45 seconds. What to look out for: The mixture will curdle at first. Do not worry, keep beating until the mixture comes together and smoothens out.
- Peanut butter and vanilla extract: Next, beat in the peanut butter and vanilla extract to mix well, about 30 seconds.
- Combine the mixtures: Beat the flour mixture into the peanut butter mixture at low speed until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon or paddle lightly on low speed until well distributed throughout the cookie dough. What to look out for: The cookie dough will be quite soft at this point. If you bake it right away, the cookies will spread thin in a hot oven. Do not skip the chilling step.
- Chill: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes (much quicker). Note: If time permits, I recommend overnight chilling to allow the cookie dough to develop a richer, fuller flavor.
- Prep: While the cookie dough chills, position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 190°C (375° F) for electric/ convention oven or 176°C (350° F) for gas/ convection oven. Line a baking sheet/sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Portion: Scoop the chilled cookie dough with a large cookie scoop and shape into large cookie dough balls with your hands. Place on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them 1.5 to 2 inches apart. Keep the remaining cookie dough balls/ unused cookie dough in the chiller in between baking times.
- Bake: Bake for 12 - 13 minutes or until the cookies just start to brown at the edges and in a few uneven spots on their tops. Do not over bake. If desired, as soon as the cookies are pulled from the oven, let them sit for 1 - 2 minutes before flattening the tops slightly with an offset spatula (not too much if you want your cookies thick). Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes or until firm enough to transfer to a wire rack. Make the next batch of cookies and repeat until the cookie dough is used up.What to look out for: As the cookies bake, they will expand (spread) and rise slowly. The cookies will dome in the middle - this is perfectly OK. If the cookie balls are very cold when pulled from the chiller, add an extra 1 -2 minutes baking time.
- Store: When cooled, store cookies in a well-sealed, airtight container for 5 days. Alternatively, tightly wrap short stacks of 4 to 5 cookies with plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Video
Notes
- Make-ahead instructions: Make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. On baking day, pull the cookie dough from the refrigerator and bring to to room temperature on a kitchen counter. Continue with step 8.
- Freezing instructions: If you intend to store unbaked cookie dough for a longer period of time, it's best to freeze the cookie dough after shaping into cookie balls. Place cookie balls into a freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. When ready to bake, pull the number of cookie balls you want from the freezer bag and pop them into a preheated oven, no need to thaw. Bake frozen cookies for an extra 1 - 2 minutes.
- How to freeze baked cookies: Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Make short stacks of cookies (I usually stack 3 to 4 cookies) and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Put into a freezer bag and seal tightly. Freeze for up to 3 months.
- How to make gluten-free cookies: Replace the all purpose flour with gluten-free baking flour. I highly recommend Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour because it is a special 1-to-1 blend of gluten free flours, starches and xanthan gum. If using other brands of gluten-free flour, check if the GF flour incorporates a binding /thickening agent like xantham gum. These days, many brands of gluten free flours already have gum incorporated. If your 'all-purpose' GF flour does not have a gum in it already, you will generally need to add ¼ teaspoon of xanthum gum per 1 cup (120 grams) of all purpose flour. For gluten-free cookies, err on the side of less xanthum gum rather than more as too much can result in sticky or gummy cookies.
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Nutrition Information:
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 249kcal, Carbohydrates: 27g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 16g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g, Cholesterol: 37mg, Sodium: 189mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 18g
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