Peanut Butter Cookies with White Chocolate
I’m particular about my peanut butter cookies — and because I think of you as a cyber-version of me, I imagine that you like a soft, chewy peanut butter cookie that’s loaded with chunky bits. That’s what these peanut butter cookies are. Soft and chewy with a blend of chopped dry roasted peanuts and white chocolate chips. They are sweet and salty and ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. Seriously. This batch of peanut butter white chocolate chips cookies didn’t last 2 days in my house. I bet they won’t in yours either.
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I’ve waited 20+ years to make Chunky Peanut Butter Cookies. You see, my daughter, Emily is allergic… that is highly allergic to peanuts. We discovered this when she was just a toddler. We were having dinner at my grandmother’s house and Madou had purchased some bakery cookies, including some peanut butter cookies, especially for Emily. What munchkin says “no” to a cookie?
Two bites in and she started getting red blotches all over her face.. Her eyes got wide and she looked at me and said, “Mommy, I feel funny“. She was having trouble breathing. There was no Benadryl in the house. We jumped in the car to race to the Emergency Room and before we could even get down the block, she threw up… and went right back to normal. The blotches disappeared, her breathing eased. Her little system was apparently highly efficient at getting rid of what shouldn’t be there. Subsequent allergy tests confirmed her sensitivity and just like that peanuts were OUT.
So, now that my daughter is grown and out of the house, I’m making up for lost time with these peanut butter white chocolate chip cookies.
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When my husband saw them his eyes gleamed and without a word spoken between us we “Hoovered” through this batch with the efficiency of a Roomba on steroids.
Not just because of the drought… but because they’re so good! Just salty enough. Not overly sweet. Dry roasted peanuts make a difference too — we like Emerald Roasted and Salted Virginia Peanuts — look for ’em. When Scott discovered the white chocolate chips he was 100% smitten. You will be too!
Cookie Ingredients
- Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Butter
- Peanut Butter (smooth or chunky)
- Honey
- Egg
- Vanilla
- All Purpose Flour
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- White Chocolate Chips
- Dry Roasted Peanuts
- Sparkling Sugar
I played around a bit with the best way to form these cookies. Normally, I would just scoop them with a tablespoon onto the cookie sheet and use a fork to cross-hatch those familiar lines on the top. That works, ok, however, because these cookies have peanuts and chocolate chips, the edges tended to be more ragged once I pressed them down. Here’s the best way I found to form them.
- Measure the chunky peanut butter cookie dough with a cookie scoop
- Roll them into smooth balls.
- Drop them on the cookie sheet about 2-3 inches apart.
- Make the cross hatch with a fork, pressing down so the dough is about 1/2″ thick.
- Finish with sparkling sugar.
This gave me more even edges without any over or under cooking.
I have 3 cookie scoops. One that only holds 1¼ teaspoons of dough. Another that holds 1½ tablespoons and a third that holds a quarter cup. You can use any scoop you wish, so long as you leave ample space between the chunky peanut butter cookies cookies on the sheet pan for the eventual spread — and take note of different baking times.
- 1¼ teaspoons only takes about 6-7 minutes to cook.
- 1½ tablespoons took 10-11 minutes.
- I didn’t make any gigantor 1/4 cup cookies, but I can imagine they would take upwards of 20 minutes, if not a little longer.
The key to soft, chewy cookies is removing them a minute or so before they’re totally baked and letting the cookies rest for 5-10 minutes on the baking pan before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. They should firm up on the pan and transfer easily with a spatula.
He said/she said
My favorite were the small 2-3 bite 1¼ teaspoon cookies — to me, they’d be the perfect size for a quick snack without feeling like you’d over-indulged. Scott liked the larger ones – because, you know… MAN-SIZED. I think it’s a guy/girl thing, but let’s be honest, we both had more than our share of each size.
More Cookie Recipes:
- Chocolate Mocha Pecan Chunk Cookies
- Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pecan Sandies
- Key Lime Cookies
- Ritz Fluffernutter Cookies
More Peanut Butter Recipes:
- Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream
- Peanut Butter Magic Shell
- Fluffer Nutter Brownies
- Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
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Chunky Peanut Butter Cookies with White Chocolate Chips
INGREDIENTS:
- ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick, room temperature
- ½ cup chunky peanut butter
- ½ cup light brown sugar firmly packed
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips or chocolate chips or peanut butter chips
- ½ cup peanuts coarsely chopped
- sparkling sugar for sprinkling
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Combine in a large bowl the butter, peanut butter, and sugars. With a hand mixer on medium speed, cream the butter mixture together. Add the egg and vanilla and mix to combine.
- Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, slowly, until just combined and being sure not to overwork the dough.
- Scoop the dough into rounded tablespoons and deposit 3 inches apart on the baking sheet. Create a hashtag # with a fork and sprinkle the tops of the cookies with a little sugar and chopped peanuts.
- Bake for 5 minutes, then shift the baking sheet 180 degrees and bake for another 5-7 until browned and crisp. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring cookies to a rack to finish cooling. Keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
NUTRITION:
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Can these be made with smooth peanut butter and without the chopped peanuts?
Sure. Whatever your preference is.
Yum! These look amazing. Now I have to go shopping and make these peanut buttter chip cookies today!
I love peanut butter cookies, but I have never added white chocolate chips before. This is genius!!
These cookies are the best of both worlds – chocolate and peanut butter. I made them and they only lasted a day in my house! My kids went crazy for them!
Love peanut butter cookies bt the white choclate chisp is heaven I didn’tknow existed!
These cookies are loaded with peanut butter goodness. The addition of the white chocolate is a great addition.
I absolutely love the chunky bits of white chocolate and salty peanuts in these cookies.
Peanut allergy can be so tough. These cookies look like they were worth the 21 year wait.
And they didn’t last long, Christie!
I had a friend in high school who was allergic to peanuts, and when he studied abroad for a semester, the first thing his family did was run to the grocery store and load up on peanut butter! So sorry your daughter is allergic, but these cookies do look delicious!
It just shows how much we really care — that we would DENY ourselves peanut butter…
Those cookies look amazing! I love peanut cookies. We have a few family members whose kids have peanut allergies. I don’t use peanut butter often, but when they are visiting it always makes me realize how prevalent peanuts are.
I know, it can be pretty scary, right?
You can make up for all those lost years! It’s like finding a long, lost classic. They look great by the way.
Thanks, Mark! It’s been fun getting to know peanuts again!