These chocolate peanut butter cookies are a combination of two delicious doughs swirled into one mega chewy cookie!
Sometimes inspiration comes from a very subtle and surprising spot. And sometimes it whacks you across the face as “this needs to happen!” The idea for these chocolate peanut butter cookies was definitely the latter version.
A friend supplied a box of chocolate cookies and a box of peanut butter cookies at a party. We couldn’t decide which to have, so we just plopped one on top of the other and created a double decker option and it was like a lightbulb went off.
Ding – I need this cookie! So I took the original concept, and give it a little more panache, and created a single, chocolate peanut butter marble cookie!
You’ll find a lot of chocolate and peanut butter combinations on this site like these chocolate peanut butter shortbread cookies and peanut butter cup blondies. And no shortage of chocolate cookies, like these chocolate crinkle cookies.
The Doughs
These cookies are really two basic cookie doughs smooshed together. There’s no fancy trickery here. I adjusted the recipes so the textures would be the same and the final result would feel like one cookie instead of a “brookie” or something along those lines, but the rest is simple from here!
Tip: use a “regular” peanut butter like Jif or Skippy. Avoid the all-natural or organic versions this time.
First, make your peanut butter dough. Starting with room temperature butter (and peanut butter if you’re a peanut butter in the fridge type of person) and the sugars, whip on a nice high speed until the mixture is nice and fluffy. Mix in your eggs and vanilla, then add your whisked together dry ingredients.
Dough 1 is done!
Transfer to a bowl, wipe out the mixing bowl, and proceed on to the chocolate cookies. If you start with the chocolate, you might darken the peanut butter dough, but going in this order eliminates the need to clean the bowl in between. Anytime I can skip washing a bowl is a win in my book.
The chocolate dough follows the exact same process. Whip the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, then your dry ingredients.
Dough 2 is done!
Creating the Marbled Design
Next, it’s on to the marbling of the chocolate peanut butter marble cookie – it’s right in the name! This is the only time we deviate from a standard cookie dough. Typically, we would chill the bowl of cookie dough before we scoop. Instead, we are going to scoop then chill. The reason is simple, cold butter is harder to smoosh!
The first step is to scoop out the peanut butter dough on a sheet pan. Next, using the same size scoop, place a scoop of the chocolate dough on top.
Now, the slightly messy part. Roll the two doughs together into a ball shape. The quicker you work, the less sticky your hands will be, but truly the messier and squishier the dough is, the better the final marbling will be!
You can absolutely stop there, and you will have a bit of a yin and yang design, which is perfectly wonderful. For the images you see here, I went a step further. To get a more mixed together swirl of the doughs, I pinched off a little bit of one side of the cookie and moved it to the other side.
So I ended up with chocolate – peanut butter – chocolate when looking at the dough. It’s an extra step purely for aesthetics. I know sometimes I’m in the mood for an aesthetic vibe, and sometimes I just want a cookie, so it’s up to your mood that day!
Now, it’s time to chill your cookie dough. Warm dough will spread more in the oven, and the flavors will not have time to develop as deeply. It’s like that old adage that soup is better the next day – cookie dough is the same.
Wrap your cookie sheet with your marbled dough balls in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but overnight is better.
Now, if you’ve done the math, you’ll realize these cookies are double the size of a standard cookie. They are a big ol’ chonky cookie of goodness. So they’ll take just a few extra minutes in the oven over your standard cookie recipe.
Don’t want a big ol’ cookie? You can absolutely use a smaller scoop and decrease the baking time accordingly.
Helpful Tools for Chocolate Peanut Butter Marble Cookies
- A Cookie Scoop makes for quick, consistent cookie sizes
- Quality Sheet Pans stops your cookies from overbrowning or burning on the bottom.
Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
- 150 g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 114 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 105 g brown sugar packed
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 100 g creamy peanut butter not organic or natural
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Cookie Dough
- 120 g all-purpose flour
- 55 g cocoa powder natural and unsweetened
- 1 teaspoon baking power
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 114 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 160 g brown sugar packed
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Peanut Butter Cookie Dough:Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.150 g all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Place butter and both sugars, in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or large mixing bowl. Mix on medium-high until butter is light and fluffy, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed with a rubber spatula.114 g unsalted butter, 105 g brown sugar, 50 g granulated sugar
- Add peanut butter, mix until incorporated.100 g creamy peanut butter
- Add egg and vanilla, mixing thoroughly.1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Slowly add dry ingredients, mix on low until just combined. Set dough aside while making chocolate cookie dough.
- Chocolate Cookie Dough:Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.120 g all-purpose flour, 55 g cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon baking power, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Place butter and both sugars, in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or large mixing bowl. Mix on medium-high until butter is light and fluffy, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed with a rubber spatula.114 g unsalted butter, 160 g brown sugar, 50 g granulated sugar
- Add egg and vanilla, mixing thoroughly.1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Slowly add dry ingredients, mix on low until just combined.
- Shaping & Baking:Using a standard cookie scoop, scoop 18 servings of the peanut butter cookie dough onto a sheet tray lined with parchment. Using the same scoop, scoop 18 servings of the chocolate dough on top of the peanut butter.
- Using your hands, roll the two doughs together into one ball.
- Wrap sheet pan in plastic, and chill for at least 2 hours, overnight preferably.
- Once ready to bake, preheat oven to 350ºF. Separate cookies onto 2 sheet trays, nine on each sheet – these cookies are quite large!
- Bake 18-20 minutes, until the edges are beginning to brown. Rotate trays halfway if they are baking unevenly.
Notes
Disclaimer: We test all recipes using the metric weights shown, we cannot guarantee outcomes when switching to US measurements.
Why didn’t I think of this 🙂