Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

These peanut butter cookies are not messing around. The dough itself has ¾ cup of peanut butter creamed with butter and brown sugar, and then you fold in chopped peanut butter cups, milk chocolate chips, and whole peanuts. Every single bite hits you with peanut butter from at least two directions.

The batter is intentionally stiff, which is a sign you’ve done it right. All those chunky add-ins need a thick dough to hold them in place. If the dough were any thinner, the cookies would spread flat and the candy pieces would burn on the exposed edges.

Rolling into tablespoon-sized balls keeps the cookies uniform and ensures even baking. At 12 minutes, you get golden edges with a slightly soft center that firms up as they cool on the rack.

Chef Tips

• Chop the peanut butter cups into rough, uneven pieces. You want some big chunks that melt into gooey pockets and some smaller bits that blend into the dough.
• Soften the butter but don’t melt it. Melted butter makes flat, greasy cookies. Soft butter creams properly and traps air for a thicker cookie.
• Don’t overbake. Pull at 12 minutes when the edges are golden but the centers look barely set. They continue cooking on the hot sheet.
• Use regular peanut butter, not natural. Natural peanut butter has a different oil content and can make the dough too loose.

Variations

• Use dark chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate for a more intense, less sweet chocolate flavor.
• Swap peanuts for pretzels pieces for a salty-crunchy twist.
• Press a mini peanut butter cup into the top of each dough ball before baking for a visible candy crown.