What’s your favorite Halloween candy? Mine is Reese’s. I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, it’s a decadent merriment of sweet, creamy, and nuttiness. My peanut butter chocolate chip Reese’s cookies are perfect for peanut butter lovers for the spooky season, and honestly any other time too. 

About the ingredients

Peanut butter: I use creamy peanut butter for this recipe because it blends easily into the batter, has a smooth texture, and the flavor complements the other Reese’s ingredients. You can use crunchy peanut butter to add texture and crunch to your cookies. 

Mini Reese's cups: I cut mini Reese’s cups into 4 pieces (quarters) and then I add those pieces to the warm cookies after they come out of the oven. I don’t add the candy into the batter before baking because it would just melt into a puddle. 

Reese’s pieces: To give the cookies more texture, color, and flavor, I like to add Reese’s pieces to the batter. I save a small portion of the candies (1/4 cup) on the side and press them into the formed cookies before baking so that they stand out on top of the cookie. 

Chocolate chips: Semi-sweet chocolate chips help balance out the peanut butter flavors in the cookie. You can use chips or squares. 

Brown sugar: You can use light brown sugar or dark brown. I prefer dark brown because there’s added moisture and flavor there. Plus, brown sugar is actually less sweet than granulated sugar, so it helps keep the cookie from being overpoweringly sweet. 

Eggs: This recipe calls for 2 eggs and 1 yolk. The extra yolk helps enrich the cookie with more flavor and texture. The lecithin and fat found in egg yolks evoke a chewy cookie rather than a crispy cookie. The extra yolk yields a softer and more tender crumb. Just remember, don’t throw out the egg whites because I personally hate food waste. You can use that egg white for cooking or baking. I like to use it as a binder when I make crispy tofu. 

Should you chill peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough before baking? 

Peanut butter, butter, chocolate, all these ingredients melt very well. When you make peanut butter-based cookies, it’s always a good idea to chill for at least 3 hours or overnight so that it doesn’t over-spread and melt in the oven. This batter tends to be soft and chilling it helps the structure and flavor of the cookie during the baking process. 

How to store your cookies?

I like to bake small batches of cookies because I have a small family and the cookies get eaten right away. But if you want to bake all of them at once, then you can store them in the refrigerator for 5 days. If you leave them on the counter, then I suggest eating them in 2 days or less because they become stale as they lose moisture. If you don’t want to bake all your cookies at once, you can stick your pre-formed raw cookie dough balls in the freezer. They can stay in the freezer for up to 3 months. To bake them off, you just thaw them out and bake them like you normally would, it’s that easy.

What if I bake my peanut butter cookies for too long?

This is a common mistake and it causes the cookie to be hard. That’s because cookie dough mixed with peanut butter tends to be more dense in texture. Therefore, over-baking the cookies makes them tough to eat or rock hard. If you can, lean on the side of underbaking. 

Why is chocolate and peanut butter a tasty flavor combination?

Chocolate and peanut butter are one of the most popular flavor combinations and there are a few reasons why. First, they contrast in flavors and textures. Chocolate is typically sweet and a little bitter, while peanut butter is nutty, creamy, and salty. In some ways, it has a sweet and savory flavor dynamic. Secondly, combining chocolate and peanut butter creates a Maillard reaction, which is when ingredients come together to produce a chemical reaction that creates new flavor compounds that aren’t found in either ingredient on its own. Finally, chocolate and peanut butter have been a classic pairing for more than 100 years. There’s a lot of nostalgia and novelty around the combination, and that’s why a lot of people gravitate towards treats like Reese’s and other chocolate peanut butter desserts. 

When were peanut butter cookies invented? 

Legend has it that the first documented peanut cookie recipe surfaced in Boston in 1896. But the invention of the peanut butter cookie is actually largely credited to George Washington Carver, a famous inventor and agricultural scientist who promoted the growth of peanuts instead of cotton. It’s believed that Carver invented the cookie in the 1910s, debuting a cookbook a few years later called “How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption.” In the cookbook, there was a peanut butter cookie recipe.

Recipe: Peanut butter chocolate chip Reese’s cookies 

Yields: 24 cookies 

Baking temperature: 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Cook times 

• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 8 to 10 minutes 
• Inactive time: 3 hours (chilling the dough or chill overnight) and 15 minutes of cookies resting after baking 
• Total cook time: 3 hours and 40 minutes 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup of Reese’s pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

2. In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, cream your soft, room-temperature butter and your two sugars, granulated sugar and brown sugar, until it gets nice and fluffy. You can mix with a stand mixer, hand mixer, or with a whisk.

4. Next, add your room-temperature eggs. You’re adding in two whole eggs and one yolk. Mix everything together until the batter is well combined. 

Add in your vanilla and peanut butter. Make sure the peanut butter is at room temperature as it will help make everything come together quickly. Stir until smooth. 

Sift in your all-purpose flour and other dry ingredients, then use a wooden spoon to fold the ingredients together until it turns into a malleable dough.

Once the wet and dry ingredients are combined, add in your candies and chocolate morsels. 

Fold your candies gently into the dough. Let the dough chill for at least 3 hours in the refrigerator. 

Use a cookie scope to form golf-ball-sized cookies and add them to a parchment-lined tray. 

I can usually fit 8 to 9 cookies for each tray. 

Once you add your cookies to your baking sheet, press a few Reese’s pieces to each cookie. This will also flatten the cookies slightly, and that’s OK. You want to press the cookies down a bit because peanut butter cookies tend to be stiff. 

After you adorn your cookies with the Reese's pieces candies, stick them into the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. 

As the cookies bake, unwrap 4 to 6 mini Reese’s mini cups and cut them into quarters, you should have 16 to 24 pieces, depending on how many you want to add to your cookies after they are done baking. 

You’ll know the cookies are finished baking when they spread slightly and turn a pale color. You don’t want these cookies to get brown or golden because then they will be over-baked and crumbly. 

Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes. You want to cookies to still be warm, not hot, while you stick the Reese’s cups into the baked cookies. The reason why we do this part last is because Reese’s cups melt very easily, so you need to add them to the cookie after they are done baking so that they don’t melt away in the heat. 

When you add your candy bits to the cookie, let them cool for another 10 to 20 minutes before enjoying. 

Did you make this recipe? Let me know how you liked it by commenting below.