Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Drizzle

These easy peanut butter cookies are drizzled with a bit of melted chocolate (which hardens as it cools) for a beautiful, elegant dessert that's perfect for holiday baking!

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A rich, chewy peanut butter cookie on its own is pretty much perfect. But add a lil' chocolate drizzle on top, and you have a next-level dessert that's perfect at holidays (looking at you, Christmas!) or any time you're just craving something sweet and cozy (see also: our favorite brown sugar cookies).

This peanut butter cookie recipe bakes up into a thin, mostly flat, somewhat crispy cookie: all the better for displaying that gorgeous layer of chocolate!

(PS - If you're looking for thicker, chewier homemade peanut butter cookies with the traditional criss-cross pattern, or a recipe that's better suited for peanut butter blossoms with a Hershey kiss on top, check out these Soft & Thick Peanut Butter Cookies.)

A few notes on ingredients

Most of the ingredients in this recipe are pretty straightforward, but there are a few things we want to point out to help you get the best peanut butter cookies from scratch:

• If you have time, bring the egg to room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour on the counter. This will help the egg melt more smoothly into the batter for more uniform cookies!
• Use high quality chocolate. We used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips in these photos; we also recommend their baking chocolate bars. Good chocolate will melt more smoothly, and will have a nicer finish once it sets. Learn more: A Basic Guide to Tempering Chocolate.
• We like using smooth or creamy peanut butter here because it mixes more smoothly into the cookie dough, but you can use chunky peanut butter if you want some more texture! Use a national brand (like Skippy or Jif) or grab a natural peanut butter if you prefer. They'll all give you plenty of peanut butter flavor!
• Use dark or light brown sugar. They both work great here!

How to make these cookies

Make the cookie dough

Start by creaming some softened unsalted butter and peanut butter together with some granulated sugar and brown sugar. We used a large bowl and an electric hand mixer to make the cookie dough in these photos; you can also use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

Once you have a fluffy, well-incorporated sugar and butter mixture, mix in a large egg and some vanilla extract. Then stir in your dry ingredients (all purpose flour, kosher salt, and baking soda) until everything is just combined and you have a light, fluffy cookie dough.

Scoop the dough & bake

Use a cookie scoop to portion out your cookie dough (we used a 3-Tablespoon cookie scoop, which makes roughly 1-inch balls of dough) and set the cookie dough balls about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.

Pop your cookie sheet into the oven and bake until the cookies are lightly browned on the edges and cracked across the surface. Let the cookies cool completely before moving on to the chocolate drizzle step (we tend to just leave them on the cookie sheet to cool because it's less messy to add the chocolate later, but you can also transfer them to a wire rack to speed the cooling process along!)

Add the chocolate drizzle

When the cookies are cooled, it's chocolate time! We recommend using a double boiler over medium-low heat to melt your chocolate: You don't need a specialty double boiler pot to do this - just a heat-safe bowl (we use a glass or metal mixing bowl) that fits over a small saucepan!

We'll melt just half of the chocolate until it's smooth and glossy, then take it off the heat and stir in the rest of the chocolate until it's smooth and melted. (This is a very loose, very lazy chocolate tempering shortcut - but it's usually enough to help the chocolate set nicely and avoid any blooming or chalky texture once it's cooled).

When the chocolate is melted, use a spoon to drizzle it over the cookies in thin ribbons with a quick, back-and-forth, side-to-side motion. You can also dunk the cookies straight into the chocolate for chocolate dipped peanut butter cookies!

Pro tip: Use a kitchen scale

Measuring dry ingredients by volume (with cups) is notoriously unreliable: each person measures a cup of flour a little bit differently, which makes it very easy to accidentally use too much and alter the texture of your cookies. For best results - and perfect-every-time measurements! - use a kitchen scale to follow the gram measurements in the recipe below. (No kitchen scale? Measure your flour with the scoop and level method for best results!)

(If you accidentally add too much flour, don't worry - your cookies will be a little taller and thicker, but they'll still taste great!)

Riffs and Substitutions

• Add toppings! Sprinkle toppings over these cookies while the chocolate is still warm and melty for extra texture. We love adding nuts (chopped walnuts, peanuts, or pistachios are all good) or flakey sea salt. You can also add extra drizzles of dark or white chocolate to dress these cookies up a bit.
• Skip the chocolate drizzle if you're short on time and just stir the chocolate chips into the cookie dough instead for a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. You can also stir white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or chopped nuts into the cookie dough for extra texture.
• Chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes before scooping it into balls for a slightly chewier cookie with deeper, more concentrated flavor.

PS - Love this recipe? Try our fan-favorite chocolate chip cookies next →

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Cookies

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Jessie
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cooling/Setting Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 2 hours
• Yield: 14-16 large cookies 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Cuisine: American
• Diet: Vegetarian

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Description

Easy peanut butter cookies topped with chocolate drizzle!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (113 grams)
• 140 grams peanut butter (½ cup)
• 120 grams sugar (½ cup)
• 120 grams brown sugar (½ cup)
• 4 grams vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
• 1 egg
• 150 grams all-purpose flour (about 1 ¼ cups when measured correctly by scooping and leveling)
• 3 grams kosher salt (1 teaspoon)
• 3 grams baking soda (½ teaspoon)
• 1 cup chocolate chips or baking chocolate

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Instructions

Make the cookies: 

1. Heat oven to 375° Fahrenheit.
2. Use a hand mixer to cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar together in a large mixing bowl (you can also do this in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment). 
3. Add vanilla and egg and mix briefly to combine.
4. Add flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix until just combined.
5. Line a large baking sheet with a nonstick baking mat or a piece of parchment paper. Use a large cookie scoop to portion out cookie dough; place each dough ball an inch or two apart on your prepared baking sheet (you may need to use two baking sheets or work in batches).
6. Bake at 375° F for 9-12 minutes, until cookies have flattened and are lightly browned with cracks along the surface. 
7. Let cookies cool right on the baking sheet for 15-30 minutes, then prepare the melted chocolate.

Add the chocolate drizzle:

1. Melt half of the chocolate over a double boiler until it is smooth, glossy, and quite runny. Remove the bowl from the double boiler, add the rest of the chocolate, and stir constantly until all the new chocolate has melted (this is a quick, lazy version of tempering, which helps the chocolate set up better, look pretty longer, and avoid looking powdery or dry once it hardens). If the final pieces of chocolate really don’t want to melt, you can pop the bowl back on the double boiler for a few seconds to smooth it out. Note: You can melt the chocolate in 5-10 second increments in the microwave if you prefer.
2. Use a spoon to drizzle melted chocolate over cookies in a back-and-forth motion. You can also dip the cookies directly into the chocolate if you prefer!
3. Let cookies sit for an hour or two on the counter, until the chocolate has set. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container on the counter for up to 4 days.

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Notes

Additions and Substitutions. Sprinkle some chopped nuts (walnuts, pistachios, or peanuts are great here), sprinkles, or flakey sea salt over the tops of these cookies while the chocolate is still wet for extra texture. If you’re short on time, stir the chocolate chips directly into the cookie dough instead of melting and drizzling the chocolate after the cookies are baked.

Use a kitchen scale! Measuring dry ingredients by volume (with cups) is notoriously unreliable; for perfect-every-time measurements, use a kitchen scale to measure by weight and follow the gram measurements in the recipe above. If you don't have a scale, be sure to measure your flour with the scoop and level method for best results. 

Let the egg come to room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour on the counter if you have the time - it will incorporate more smoothly into the batter if it isn't right-out-of-the-fridge cold. (If you don’t have time to add this step, no worries!)

What size cookie scoop should I use? We used a 3-Tablespoon cookie scoop to portion the dough in these photos, which yields about 14 cookies, each 3" or so in diameter. We also tested this recipe with a 1-Tablespoon cookie scoop, which yields 40ish cookies each about 1.5" in diameter (for a 1T scoop, we reduced the bake time to 8 minutes). If you use a different sized cookie scoop, you'll likely need to adjust the bake time: Keep an eye on the cookies as they bake and watch for those telltale surface cracks and brown edges to form!

What type of chocolate should I use? We prefer a bittersweet, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate for this recipe. We used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips in the photos above; we also recommend their baking chocolate bars. Use a high quality chocolate if you can: it will melt more smoothly, and will have a nicer finish once it sets.

We prefer to use smooth or creamy peanut butter here because it mixes into the batter so smoothly, but you can use chunky peanut butter if you want to!

Optional: Chill the cookie dough. Mix the dough as directed, then pop it in the fridge (uncovered is fine) for 30 minutes before scooping and baking the cookies. This quick chill lets the butter set a bit so that it melts more slowly in the oven, giving you a chewier cookie with lighter color. 

This cookie recipe was developed to spread out into a relatively thin, flat cookie (as opposed to many traditional peanut butter cookies, which are quite fluffy and need to be pressed down with a fork before baking because they don’t spread very much). We did it this way to simplify the baking process and create a better canvas for the chocolate drizzle! 

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 cookie
• Calories: 270
• Sugar: 23.8 g
• Sodium: 213.7 mg
• Fat: 14.6 g
• Carbohydrates: 33 g
• Protein: 4.4 g
• Cholesterol: 26.9 mg

Keywords: cookies, dessert, christmas, holiday