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These thick Peanut Butter Cookies are a peanut butter lover’s dream! They are thick, chewy, and loaded with peanut butter chips in every bite. Serve these big peanut butter cookies with a big glass of milk for the best experience!
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BEST Thick Peanut Butter Cookies
Sometimes there’s nothing better than the classics, and one of my favorite classic cookies is peanut butter cookies. Well, I should clarify – these are giant peanut butter cookies because giant is so good, especially when we’re talking about cookies.
- They are thick, chewy, and all about the peanut butter. It’s like a classic peanut butter cookie on steroids – extra big and filled with Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips.
- These are easy peanut butter cookies, and each one is made with a whopping quarter cup of dough.
- These giant peanut butter cookies are also freezer-friendly, which is what I usually do. I’ll make a batch, freeze them, and then pull them out whenever the peanut butter craving hits. They are so good!
Ingredients in GIANT Peanut Butter Cookies
Butter: Softened unsalted butter is the norm for cookies
Peanut Butter: You can use creamy or chunky but don’t use one you have to stir.
Sugar: Brown sugar and granulated sugar make these sweet and perfect.
Large Eggs: The standard size to buy!
Vanilla: For flavor
Milk: My secret peanut butter cookie ingredient!
Salt, Baking Soda, All-Purpose Flour: Typical for cookies. Be sure to measure your flour correctly.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips and/or Chopped Peanuts: These mix-ins take the cookies to the next level!
How to Make Thick Peanut Butter Cookies
- Cream: Cream the butter, peanut butter, and both kinds of sugar in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer.
- Mix: Add the eggs, vanilla, milk, baking soda, and salt and mix until well combined. Slowly add the flour and mix just until the dough comes together.
- Additions: Stir in the peanut butter chips and peanuts.
- Scoop: To make the cookie dough balls, scoop a ¼ cup of dough and place them on prepared baking sheets. Then, press each one down with a fork to create the criss-cross mark on each cookie.
- Bake: Bake the cookies for 15 to 18 minutes at 350°F or until the bottoms are lightly golden and the cookies are no longer glossy. Cool them for about five minutes on the pan before removing them.
Tips for Easy Big Peanut Butter Cookies
- Not into thick peanut butter cookies? You can make these smaller! Just scoop one or two tablespoons of dough and bake them for about seven to ten minutes.
- If you opt for smaller cookies, you can cut the recipe in half, so you don’t get as many. Or, feel free to double the recipe if you want more.
- Because they don’t spread much, it’s important to use a fork to press them down before you bake them.
- For the best cookies, don’t overbake them. Once they have lost the glossy sheen, take them out of the oven.
- Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They will keep for up to three days. Or you can freeze them for up to a month.
- Feel like dressing them up? Feel free to add some chocolate chips or different kinds of nuts.
FAQ
For this recipe, I use more brown sugar than granulated sugar, which helps make them nice and thick. They’re also made with double the amount of dough. Usually, I scoop one to two tablespoons of dough to make cookies – for large, thick peanut butter cookies, I use ¼ cup of dough for each one.
For this thick peanut butter cookie recipe, you don’t!
Use the tines of a fork and press down on the dough. Then, turn the fork to create marks going the other way, so it looks like a hash mark.
Bake large peanut butter cookies for 15 to 18 minutes. They are done when they lose the glossy sheen on top.
Store them in an airtight container for up to three days at room temperature.
Yes, the baked cookies freeze great. Once they are cooled, store them in a freezer bag, and they will keep well in the freezer for a month.
These are the perfect cookies for the peanut butter fans in your life! Make a batch of these Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Cookies, and you’ll see – everyone will beg you for the recipe. Enjoy!
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XL Bakery Style Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 ½ cups (401g) peanut butter
- 1 ½ cups (300g) packed brown sugar
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons (27ml) milk
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 ½ cups (434g) all purpose flour
- 1 package (about 1 ⅔ cups) Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips
- 1 ½ cups chopped peanuts , optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or a silpat baking mats.
- Cream butter, peanut butter, and both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, about 2-3 minutes. Add eggs, vanilla, milk, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined. Slowly add flour and mix until dough just comes together. Stir in Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips and nuts.
- Scoop ¼ cupfuls of dough and place on a cookies sheet at least 4-inches apart. Use a fork to press the cookies down with a criss-cross pattern.
- Bake 15-18 minutes until the bottoms start to become light golden and the cookies are no longer glossy in the center.. Cool about 5 minutes and then remove from cookie sheets.
- You can make these smaller (1 or 2 tablespoon size) and baking time will be less, about 7-10 minutes. Recipe can also be cut in half for fewer cookies, or doubled for more.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to one month.
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Recipe Notes
Recipe Nutrition
Thick Peanut Butter Cookies! Bakery Style XL cookies full of peanut butter chips and peanuts – these are a peanut butter lovers dream cookie and so easy!
Last Updated on August 30, 2021
Thinking about doing brittle instead of peanut butter cups…thoughts? Would you adjust the recipe any way?
If I don’t do brittle and just don’t want peanut butter cups would you adjust the recipe any way?
Thank you 🥜
There aren’t peanut butter cups in this recipe. Do you mean adding brittle? I’m not sure, but I think that would work if you chop it small, like toffee bits.
The cookie dough sticks to my fork when I try to press them. What am I doing wrong??
That happens sometimes – it depends on how soft your butter was. You can dip the fork in sugar or wet it a bit and it’ll not stick.
Hi there,
This recipe looks amazing – I cannot wait to try making these! I was wondering though, what kind of milk would you say is best? 2%, 3%, skim?
Thanks so much!
I’ve used all and it doesn’t really matter – just use what you have no need to buy anything special.
Hi! These live in my all time favorite cookies list! My god, are they delicious and they always get absolutely rave reviews. Always my ace in the hole! Thank you so much for sharing this. I made the dough today ahead of needing it for next week, but realized that I forgot the milk. And I already balled all the cookies up in the fridge. 🙁 A couple questions: do you think the missing milk will cause any disasters? Also, do these need to be set out to come to room temperature before baking? Thank you so much! -Sally
Excellent recipe. I’ve been a peanut butter fanatic since I was four years old, many decades ago. I’m very picky about everything peanut butter and have been frustrated with recipes since I got more serious about baking somewhat recently. This recipe is perfection, which is the first one of any cookie I’ve thought so. I like to make a recipe my own but can’t think of anything to change.
I was going to cut it in half to try it, but liked your chocolate chip recipe, so I just did a full one and it was well worth it.
As an aside, I like the little time saver of adding the baking powder and salt to the wet ingredients instead of whisking them with flour first. Tricky.
Thank you.
These are the best peanut butter cookies I have ever had! They turned out perfectly!
Why not use natural peanut butter? Is it too oily? I bought material hoping the pb taste was stronger than what we use for toast,?
Baking with natural peanut butter can affect the outcome of the recipe. It might work, but it might not – I have not tested the recipe with natural peanut butter.
I have used natural peanut butter for this recipe, and it works just fine as long as you stir the peanut butter well like if you were about to put it on a sandwich. The oil that is at the top of natural peanut butter is what separates from the pureed portions of the nut which is why the bottom of a jar of natural peanut but can seem more clumpy/dry since it has separated from the oil which settles at the top. Anyway, this is the best peanut butter cookie recipe I’ve ever made! It’s exactly like I cookie that I had as a child and have been searching for a similar recipe for a decade.
What brand of peanutbuttwr works best?
Any regular peanut butter – not a no-stir (natural) one. I use Skippy
Hi has this receipt changed in the last couple years? I used to make these all the time – but I swear the recipe was different and definitely called for chilling the dough. Can you tell me what changed in it? I want to make sure they are as good as I used to make them – everyone loved them!
It’s the same, just upadated. No need to chill the dough – I did some testing and it works without!
Hi. I would like to know what can i substitute for peanut butter chips because in my location i cannot find nor they are selling peanut butter chips.
Please help me on this coz i want to make it for my family this Father’s day.
You could add really anything you like – even chopped Reese’s or peanut butter M&Ms in it’s place!
These Cookies are BADASS!!!!! This is my PB cookie recipe for LIFE
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