These Reese's Pieces peanut butter cookies are soft, thick, and full of rich peanut butter flavour! They're made with plenty of dark chocolate chunks and Reese's Pieces candy.
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I turned one of my favourite childhood peanut butter chocolate candies into cookies that taste just as good. These Reese's Pieces peanut butter cookies are a dream for peanut butter and chocolate lovers alike. I hope you love them as much as I do!
Why you'll love this recipe
- These Reese's Pieces cookies take everything you love about the candy and put it into a cookie. They're full of chocolate and peanut butter goodness!
- These cookies are soft, thick, and gooey fresh out of the oven.
- This is a fun cookie recipe to make around Halloween or to use up some Halloween candy.
- There's no chilling time required! You can bake these cookies right after mixing the dough and they're done in less than 1 hour.
Tools
- Electric hand mixer - A hand mixer is essential for creaming the butter and sugar together for the cookie dough. They're pretty affordable nowadays - you can pick one up for less than $80. I would recommend picking one up if you bake often! You can still make this cookie recipe without just a spatula - your butter just needs to be very soft.
- 4-tablespoon cookie scooper - Use the biggest cookie scooper you can find. I love using a 4-tablespoon scooper and I wouldn't go any smaller than a 3-tablespoon scooper. Using a bigger scooper means more cookie dough which means there's more dough to spread to make nice, big, bakery-style cookies.
- Baking tray - You probably already have one at home. Any large flat baking tray with or without a rim (baking sheet) works.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Unsalted butter -ย Take your butter out of the fridge an hour or two ahead of time. It needs to be softened to room temperature in order to cream it together with the sugar easily.
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar
- Egg -ย This should also be at room temperature so that it doesn't make the butter solidify on contact.
- Peanut butter - I used creamy natural peanut butter (the kind that's made with only peanuts). You could probably use conventional peanut butter but note that they usually have added sugar in them already so your cookies may be sweeter.
- Vanilla extract
- Reese's Pieces candy -ย These are small chocolate candies with a peanut butter filling. They're the miniature version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! I used a newer version that also has milk chocolate inside them so they were bigger candies than usual. I roughly chopped them up but you don't have to if you don't want to. You'll also want an extra handful for pressing on top of the cookies to make them look nice.
- Dark chocolate -ย Use dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate. I like using 70% dark chocolate since the cookie and Reese's Pieces are already sweet. Roughly chop them into chunks of various sizes. You'll also want an extra handful for topping the cookies if you want pools of chocolate on the surface of your cookies.
How to make Reese's Pieces peanut butter cookies
Prep -ย Preheat oven to 350ยฐF. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
Mix dry ingredients -ย In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Cream butter and sugars -ย In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat softened butter until it becomes very creamy. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and cream together until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
Mix in wet ingredients -ย Add the egg and mix until combined. Finally, add the peanut butter and vanilla extract and mix again until combined.
Add dry to wet mixture -ย Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until it's almost combined but with some flour patches left.
Fold in chocolate -ย Add the Reese's Pieces and chocolate chunks. Switch to a spatula to fold it all together and finish mixing the dough without overmixing.
Scoop cookie dough -ย Use a 4-tablespoon scooper to scoop out the cookie dough and release it onto your lined baking sheet, leaving about 2" in between each cookie to allow for spreading.
Bake -ย Bake cookies for about 10 minutes. Take them out of the oven and bang the tray against a wire rack a few times to help them spread and flatten. Press a few extra Reese's pieces and chocolate chunks on top of each cookie. Return them to the oven to bake for another 1-2 minutes.
Enjoy warm -ย Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely or enjoy them warm!
Storage
These Reese's Pieces peanut butter cookies can be stored in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Enjoy the cookies at room temperature or heat them up in the microwave for an even better experience.
Freezing
Both the cookie dough and the baked cookies freeze well.
To freeze cookie dough - Scoop the cookie dough out into balls on a lined baking sheet or cutting board. Put the entire tray in the freezer for 15-30 minutes until the dough is firm to the touch. Transfer them to a freezer bag or airtight container. Freeze them for up to 1 month.
Thaw them at room temperature for several hours before baking. Baking cookie dough directly from the freezer or the fridge results in cookies that don't spread as much and you want these to spread!
To freeze baked cookies - Let cookies cool completely before transferring them to an airtight container or freezer bag. Freeze for up to 1 month.
Thaw the cookies at room temperature for several hours or reheat in the microwave before serving.
Tips for success
- Use room temperature ingredients. Your butter and eggs should be at room temperature. The butter in particular needs to be softened so that it can be creamed with the sugars. Room temperature ingredients mix seamlessly without curdling. It's one easy thing you can do to make sure your baked goods turn out better.
- Bang the tray on a wire rack to help the cookies spread and flatten. Peanut butter is a dense ingredient so peanut butter cookies tend not to spread as much as regular chocolate chip cookies. To help with that, I recommend lifting the dropping or banging the tray against a wire rack during baking, inspired by Sarah Kieffer's pan-banging cookie method. You can do it at the 8-minute mark, again at 10 minutes, and again when the cookies are finished baking at 12 minutes. I only did it twice with good results.
- Leave out the Reese's Pieces for delicious peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies. Maybe it's past Halloween or you just want to change up this versatile recipe. Increase the amount of chocolate chunks to 100g. They're just as good, not as sweet, and taste just like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
- Enjoy the cookies warm. Try a cookie while it's still warm from the oven or microwave a cookie for about 15 seconds. Warm cookies taste even better!
Frequently asked questions
Peanut butter is a dense ingredient so cookies made with it won't spread as much. You can help them spread more by banging the pan against the oven rack or a wire rack a few times every few minutes or adding 1-2 teaspoons of water to your cookie dough to make a looser dough.
You can, but chocolate chips usually have a coating on them that prevents them from melting. If you want puddles of chocolate in and on top of your cookies, use a chocolate bar or baking chocolate and chop it up.
More cookie recipes to try
- Miso Caramel Stuffed Cookies
- Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Matcha White Chocolate Cookies
- Biscoff Stuffed Cookies
- Ube Cookies
Recipe
Reese's Pieces Peanut Butter Cookies
Equipment
Ingredientsย ย
- 200 g all-purpose flour
- ยฝ teaspoon baking powder
- ยฝ teaspoon baking soda
- ยฝ teaspoon salt
- 115 g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 50 g brown sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 100 g natural creamy peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 75 g Reese's Pieces candy, roughly chopped, plus an extra handful for topping
- 50 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped, plus an extra handful for topping
Instructionsย
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350ยฐF. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
- Mix dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Cream butter and sugars: In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat softened butter until it becomes very creamy. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and cream together until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
- Mix in wet ingredients: Add the egg and mix until combined. Finally, add the peanut butter and vanilla extract and mix again until combined.
- Add dry to wet mixture: Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until it's almost combined but with some flour patches left.
- Fold in chocolate: Add the Reese's Pieces and chocolate chunks. Switch to a spatula to fold it all together and finish mixing the dough without overmixing.
- Scoop cookie dough: Use a 4-tablespoon scooper to scoop out the cookie dough and release it onto your lined baking sheet, leaving about 2" in between each cookie to allow for spreading.
- Bake: Bake cookies for about 10 minutes. Take them out of the oven and bang the tray against a wire rack a few times to help them spread and flatten. Press a few extra Reese's Pieces and chocolate chunks on top of each cookie. Return them to the oven to bake for another 1-2 minutes, for a total of about 12 minutes.
- Enjoy warm: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely or enjoy them warm!
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