Homemade Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

Stuffed with chunks of Reese's peanut butter cups, these homemade peanut butter cup cookies are a twist on classic chocolate chip cookies. For best results, chill the cookie dough balls for an hour in the fridge before popping the cookies into the oven.

Hi hi! I hope things are going well! Just wanted to pop in and share this recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Cookies. I took my tried and true favourite Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and filled it with Peanut Butter Cups. As a baking blogger I love a homemade cookie recipe, and these peanut butter cup cookies are a fast and easy way to mix things up a little. If you would like to try another cookie recipe using candy, my M&M chocolate chip cookie is amazing, along with my mini egg chocolate chip cookies and my Kit Kat Cookies. These chocolate chip peanut butter cup cookies are the perfect peanut butter dessert!

These reese's peanut butter cup cookies are a super fun twist on my forever fave best chocolate chip cookie recipe. They are super easy to make and can be made ahead. I have filled them with Peanut Butter Cups, but you could fill them with any candy that you have on hand. They would be particularly good with something like a snickers! In this post I share all my tips and tricks for making perfect chocolate chip cookies:

How to make peanut butter cup cookies

These reese's cookies are super easy to make:

1. Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix to combine. This recipe uses three kinds of sugar - granulated sugar, muscovado sugar (or brown sugar), and turbinado sugar, for great texture and flavour.
2. Add in your dry ingredients - All-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda. Mix until only just combined - stop before the flour is completely incorporated in order to avoid over mixing.
3. Add in your mix ins. I filled these chocolate chip peanut butter cup cookies with reese's peanut butter cups, but here is your chance to play around with cookie mix ins as you like.
4. Scoop the dough. I like to scoop the dough and then chill it, rather than chilling first, as cold cookie dough can be hard to scoop. This makes it easy to freeze some dough for later too.
5. Chill the reese's cookie dough. Chill the dough for at least an hour, but you can do this up to overnight if needed.
6. Bake your peanut butter cup cookies, transfer to a cooling rack to cool, and enjoy!

Can you freeze cookie dough?

I love to freeze cookie dough when I bake it - it works great for my other cookie recipes, and it works perfectly for these cookies with peanut butter cookies too.

To freeze cookie dough, I scoop the dough out onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, and then lightly cover the pan with plastic wrap. Then I pop the whole thing in the freezer, and freeze until solid. Once the cookie dough is solid, I pop it into a ziploc bag or other airtight container.

To bake frozen cookie dough, you bake directly from frozen. Do not defrost. You will need to add 2-3 minutes onto the baking time to account for the frozen dough, but this is a perfect way to store dough if you don't want to make a whole batch all at once.

For all my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough and bake from frozen, check out my post: How to freeze cookie dough

The best chocolate for chocolate chip cookies

You can use whatever you like in these cookies, but I really prefer chopped chocolate over chocolate chips or chunks for a few reasons:

• Chopped Chocolate gives you variation - When you chop up chocolate you get a whole bunch of different sized and shaped pieces, giving you get a variation in chunk size.
• Chopped chocolate gives you tiny chocolate shards - Chopping chocolate means that as you chop, you get all those tiny shards of chocolate and chocolate dust on the chopping board. This means that when you add all those in to the dough along with the bigger chunks, you get shards of chocolate throughout the dough, which gives the most amazing flavour.
• Pockets of chocolate - Chopped chocolate gives you the most perfect pockets of melty chocolate throughout the cookie.
• Chocolate puddles - Chopping your chocolate means you can press additional chocolate on top of the cookie before baking. This gives you the most amazing chocolate puddles! I'll tell you more about how to get those below.

I like to use a bar of chocolate for these Peanut Butter Cup Cookies, and I usually just use a grab bag of what is in the pantry. If I'm feeling fancy i'll grab some Valrhona, otherwise the Pound Plus bars from Trader Joe's are great. I am also currently working my way through an 11lb bag which I ordered online a few months ago.

How do you get chocolate puddles on chocolate chip cookies?

There are a few different ways to get puddles on top of your peanut butter cup cookies. I find that this method is the most effective. After you have scooped out your dough, you flatten a ball in your hand. Then you press some extra chocolate onto the top side, then continue as usual and roll it into a ball. This then gives you even chocolate distribution as the cookie bakes.

This step is totally optional but I always like to chop up some extra chocolate to have on hand for this. If you are adding mix-ins like the peanut butter cups, chop up some extra ones of those too to stick on the top.

For all my other best tips and tricks on all things chocolate chip cookies, check out my post: How to make perfect chocolate chip cookies

How to store chocolate chip cookies

This recipe for peanut butter cup chocolate chip cookies makes 24 cookies, so if you are not planning on freezing your cookie dough, you can store baked cookies in an airtight container.

Cookies keep for up to a week, but I like to freeze the dough if I know I am not eating them soon after making them as they are so good from fresh!

Frequently asked questions

What if I don't have Peanut Butter Cups?
Leave them out! This recipe is legit just my Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe but made with Peanut Butter Cups, so you should make that instead!

Can I use other candy for this?
You sure can! Switch up the mix-ins. I like to use a base of some chopped dark chocolate, then supplement with candy mix ins such as the peanut butter cups. You could use M&Ms, Snickers Bars, whatever you like! Go for 250g of candy, and a little extra on the top if you would like.

What is a substitute for Muscovado sugar?
If you don't have any Muscovado sugar, you can sub it for either light or dark brown sugar if you like! Both will work fine. Muscovado gives a darker colour of dough and a slightly deeper flavour. I have made these with light, dark, and muscovado sugar, and they all work great.

How do you get cookies all the same size?
I use a cookie scoop! I have a bunch of different sizes, and they help so much to keep the cookie dough balls nice and even. If you are looking to get just one, get the one I linked, but a 1 Tbsp and a ¼ cup are great to have on hand too.

For more chocolate chip cookie recipes, check out:

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