The BEST Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips

These soft and chewy peanut butter oatmeal cookies are made with creamy peanut butter, rolled oats, and semi-sweet chocolate chips, and are great if you can't decide on just one type of cookie to make. Definitely one of my best-ever cookie creations!

They combine the best parts of oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chip cookies in one amazing cookie! The dough comes together quickly and can be baked immediately (but also stores well if you want to make it ahead).

This recipe came about because I was looking for ways to jazz up my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe, and swapping the peanut butter chips for chocolate chips just wasn't enough. Chocolate and peanut butter are such a good combo, but when I added chocolate chips to my regular peanut butter cookie dough, there was something missing. The nuttiness and texture of an oatmeal cookie were exactly what it needed.

This is a super simple oatmeal peanut butter cookie dough that comes together fast and requires zero chilling. You can go from measuring your ingredients to pulling these peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies out of the oven in less than an hour. And I've included notes below for if you want to make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze it.

I tested different sizes for these oatmeal peanut butter cookies, and the biggest cookies were by far the best for having the right amount of chewiness and chocolate chips in them! Each peanut butter oatmeal cookie is about 3 level tablespoons of cookie dough. Nice, big, and bakery-style, just how I like them!

Special Ingredient Notes

Here are the ingredients that you'll need to make my best-ever peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies recipe! Most of these you might already have in your pantry, but I want to call out a few specific ingredients in case you aren't sure if what you have will work. See recipe card (at the end of the blog post) for quantities.

Peanut Butter - This recipe works best with a creamy peanut butter, the kind that doesn't separate! Think JIF, Skippy, etc. I tested with a chunky peanut butter but that made the cookies too dry. Creamy peanut butter is best!

Quick-Cooking Rolled Oats - I use quick-cooking rolled oats as the "oatmeal" in my peanut butter oatmeal cookie recipe because they are finer and thinner than old-fashioned oats and hydrate faster. This cookie dough can be baked immediately without resting, and quick-cooking rolled oats will soften faster in the dough. If you use old-fashioned rolled oats, you may want to rest the dough for an hour before baking.

Brown and White Sugar - A combination of brown and white sugar helps make these cookies chewy and flavorful. The brown sugar has molasses in it, which adds the moisture you need to keep the oats from drying out the cookies, and the white sugar helps the cookies spread in the oven.

Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips - I tested these peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with hand-chopped chocolate and chocolate chips, and I liked the chocolate chips best. The chocolate chips give bigger puddles of chocolate in the cookies, and, because chocolate chips have a more consistent shape than chopped chocolate, they help add volume to the cookie dough so you get exactly 14 cookies when you scoop it!

Making Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie Dough

This is a very simple cookie dough that follows the creaming method of mixing. You can use a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer, and if you have all your ingredients measured, at the right temperature, and ready to go the cookie dough takes about 10 minutes to make.

Start by creaming the peanut butter, softened butter, and both sugars together on medium to medium-high speed until well combined, creamy, and fluffy looking. If you rub a bit of it between your fingers, it should feel just a little bit grainy.

It's really important that your butter is properly softened before you begin. Many peanut butter cookie recipes add the peanut butter in an extra step because if the regular butter is too cold, it will turn into butter globules encased in peanut butter instead of mixing cohesively with the peanut butter. I always try to avoid extra steps where I can, so I mix everything at once. The sugars are abrasive and break down the butter, but if you haven't softened it first, it'll take a lot longer.

Pause and scrape down the bowl at least twice during the creaming step, then scrape down the bowl again, add the egg and vanilla, and beat again on medium-high speed until the mixture looks airier and lighter in color. (When in doubt, scrape down the bowl!)

Scrape down the bowl again. Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix again on the lowest speed just until a few streaks of flour are visible.

It's important that you don't over mix the dough or your cookies will be tough! It's better to finish mixing in those last streaks of flour along with the chocolate chips.

I can usually fit 7 cookies per sheet pan, and if you scrape the cookie dough scoop flat on the rim of the bowl you'll get exactly 14 cookies. If you want to be really precise, each cookie should weigh about 68 grams.

As soon as you pull the cookies out of the oven, use a round cookie cutter (or the wide mouth of an upside-down mug, glass, or bowl) to scoot the oatmeal peanut butter cookies into perfectly round shapes. Use something that's just a little bit bigger than the cookies, but not too much bigger.

Scooting the peanut butter oatmeal cookies isn't just for aesthetics. Scooting the edges in makes the cookies evenly thick across (no thin, crispy edges!) and it collapses some of the air in the cookies, giving them that perfectly chewy oatmeal cookie texture. If you prefer crispier edges you can skip this step.

Making Ahead of Time

I tested this dough a lot of ways while I was developing the recipe and it is super reliable no matter how you want to make it. You can definitely make this peanut butter oatmeal cookie dough ahead of time and bake it when you're ready.

Just like in my chewy peanut butter cookie recipe, you can chill the dough in the fridge before or after scooping. I tested it up to 24 hours, but you could probably go longer, up to 48 hours if you wanted. More rest time before baking gives the oats more time to hydrate = chewier cookies!

You can also freeze the cookie dough balls and bake them up from frozen. Scoop the cookie dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan (no need to space them out since you aren't baking them) and freeze them for about an hour. Then place the frozen dough balls in a bag or an airtight container in the freezer. Bake according to the recipe instructions, no modifications needed!

Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

• I use a Winco #20 scoop to portion these cookies.
• Properly softened butter should be cool to the touch but soft enough that you can press a finger into it. Microwave a stick of butter for 3-4 seconds per side to soften it quickly.
• If you can't comfortably use a spatula or stir by hand to mix in the chocolate chips, use your mixer on the lowest possible speed and stop mixing as soon as the chips are incorporated.
• The oatmeal peanut butter cookies will look slightly underbaked when you pull them out of the oven, but will finish cooking as they cool on the baking sheet. The jagged edges on top might be slightly toasty brown. Use a spatula (I like a wide, flexible fish turner spatula) to transfer them to the cooling rack while they're still warm so they don't break apart.
• If you want to do the classic peanut butter cross-hatch fork marks on top, dip the fork in water before pressing it down on the dough so it doesn't stick. I like the craggly oatmeal cookie texture on these, which is why I don't roll the dough into smooth balls or cross-hatch them, but you absolutely can if you want to.

📖 Recipe