These peanut butter cup cookies are everything a peanut butter lover could want in a homemade cookie. Soft, chewy, loaded with creamy peanut butter flavor, and packed with chunks of mini peanut butter cups, these cookies are impossible to resist.
These cookies deliver the perfect combination of peanut butter and chocolate in every bite. Best of all, they’re easy to make with simple pantry ingredients and come together in under 30 minutes.
If you’re a fan of easy cookie recipes like this, be sure to try our soft and chewy sugar cookies, Reese’s Pieces cookies, and oatmeal butterscotch cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Soft and chewy texture
- Loaded with peanut butter flavor
- Filled with chunks of mini peanut butter cups
- Easy recipe made with simple ingredients
- Perfect for parties, holidays, and bake sales
- Ready in less than 30 minutes
- Great for freezing
Key Ingredients
See the recipe card at the end of the post for a full list of ingredients and their exact amounts.
- Chunky Peanut Butter: Delivers that rich peanut butter flavor in every bite and adds a little extra texture from the peanut pieces.
- Mini Peanut Butter Cups: These take the cookies over the top by adding pockets of melty chocolate and peanut butter throughout.
- Corn Syrup: A small but important ingredient that helps keep the cookies soft and chewy for longer.
Variations
- Extra Chocolaty: Add cocoa to make a peanut butter chocolate cookie version.
- Peanut Butter Lovers: Stir in peanut butter chips along with the chopped peanut butter cups.
- More Traditional: Use smooth peanut butter for a traditional peanut butter cookie base.
- Holiday Cookies: Add festive sprinkles for holiday gatherings and cookie exchanges.
How to Make Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
1: Whisk the dry ingredients and set aside.
2: Combine the wet ingredients, adding the eggs, vanilla, and corn syrup at the end.
3: Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Then, fold in the chopped mini peanut butter cups.
4: Use a 1 ½-inch cookie scoop to add dough balls to an ungreased cookie sheet.
5: Bake until the edges are just golden. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for several minutes on the cookie sheet.
6: Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
Expert Tips
- The cookies may look slightly underdone in the center when removed from the oven. They’ll continue cooking as they cool, staying soft and chewy.
- Room-temperature butter and eggs mix more easily and create smoother cookie dough.
- Too much flour can make cookies dry. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off for the most accurate measurement.
- Mix the batter until just combined. Overmixing creates tough cookies.
- Chill your chopped peanut butter cups for a few minutes before adding them to the cookie dough to keep them from melting too much as the cookies bake.
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies FAQs
The combination of peanut butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup helps create a soft texture while keeping the cookies moist and chewy for days.
Yes. Creamy peanut butter works perfectly in this recipe and creates a smoother cookie texture. Chunky peanut butter adds a little extra crunch.
Corn syrup helps keep the cookies soft, chewy, and fresh longer. It also contributes to a tender texture.
The edges should be lightly golden while the centers still look slightly soft. They will continue to set as they cool on the baking sheet.
Yes. Scoop the dough into cookie portions, freeze until solid, then transfer to a freezer-safe bag. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw before baking or bake them from frozen, adding 1-2 extra minutes of baking time.
Store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You can also freeze them for up to 3 months in an airtight, freezer-safe container.
Too much flour or overbaking are the most common causes. Be sure to measure flour correctly and remove the cookies when the centers are still slightly soft.
These Cookies are a Great Dessert With:
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Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Ingredients
- 2¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup chunky peanut butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon corn syrup
- 1 cup mini peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat butter, sugars, and peanut butter until creamy.
- Add eggs, vanilla, and corn syrup. Mix until incorporated.
- Add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
- Stir in coarsely chopped peanut butter cups into the cookie batter until combined.
- Using a 1½-inch cookie scoop, add each scoop to an ungreased baking sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven, let cookies sit on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes then remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- The cookies may look slightly underdone in the center when removed from the oven. They’ll continue cooking as they cool, staying soft and chewy.
- Room-temperature butter and eggs mix more easily and create smoother cookie dough.
- Too much flour can make cookies dry. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off for the most accurate measurement.
- Mix the batter until just combined. Overmixing creates tough cookies.
- Chill your chopped peanut butter cups for a few minutes before adding them to the cookie dough to keep them from melting too much as the cookies bake.
These are next-level peanut butter cookies. Those chunks of peanut butter cups are so good!
Om nom nom. Those chunks of Peanut Butter cups were amazing. I’m adding more next time. And there will be a next time.
Made these for my classmates and they inhaled these cookies. They loved the peanut butter cookies and want more next week!
If you love the peanut butter and chocolate combo, you have to try these. I made a batch over the weekend, and they are dangerously good. They didn’t last 24 hours at my house!
These peanut butter cup cookies came out soft, chewy, and packed with peanut butter flavor. The mini peanut butter cups made every bite extra rich and delicious.
These cookies have that perfect peanut butter bakery-style feel. Soft centers, chewy edges, and little peanut butter cup pieces tucked into every bite.
I made these cookies this afternoon and they were gone before they fully cooled. The peanut butter and chocolate combination never disappoints!
These turned out perfect! Perfect bit of crunch to them and I just adore anything with peanut butter and chocolate!