Peanut butter chocolate chip bars are thick, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie bars made with creamy peanut butter. These peanut butter cookie bars are easy to make in in one bowl. Top with a scoop of cold ice cream for a decadent dessert everyone will love.
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Why Should You Make This Recipe
Cookie bar recipes are one of my favorite ways to make cookies. My Toll House Cookie Bars, Snickerdoodle Bars and Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Bars are just a few of my favorites from the blog. It’s so easy to make the cookie dough, press it into a pan, bake, slice and enjoy. I know you’ll love these chocolate chip peanut butter cookie bars as much as I do because.
- Simple pantry ingredients: You only need a handful of basic ingredients to make a batch of quick, simple, soft and chewy peanut butter dessert with chocolate chips.
- You love easy desserts that feed a crowd: If being super quick and easy to make wasn’t reason enough, these chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie bars make the perfect dessert to feed a lot of people.
Ingredients
Make sure you have these simple ingredients ready to go before making this thick and chewy peanut butter and chocolate chip bars.
- Dry Ingredients: Gather your all purpose flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Wet ingredients: Gather your melted butter, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, creamy peanut butter, eggs and vanilla extract and chocolate chips.
Substitutions
Here are my recommended substitutions to make these chocolate chip peanut butter bar cookies recipe if you need them.
- All purpose flour: To make these peanut butter bars gluten free, use a good 1-1 gluten free flour or oat flour. Replace the amount of flour based on weight (240 g) rather than cups.
- Baking Soda: This provides leavening and chewiness for the bar cookies. If needed, replace the baking soda with 1 tablespoon double acting baking powder. The texture of the cookies will be more cake like and less chewy, but will still taste delicious.
- Butter: I like to use unsalted “sweet cream” butter in almost all my baking recipes. This is the most common and widely available butter in the US. If needed, use salted butter (omit the added salt) or a diary free butter you like.
- Granulated Sugar and Light Brown Sugar: This peanut butter chocolate chip bars recipe calls for both granulated sugar and light brown sugar, but maple sugar would also work well to make these cookie bars refined sugar free.
- Creamy Peanut Butter: Feel free to use any creamy peanut butter (no stir) you like. Natural peanut butter (the kind you have to stir) can also work as long as the peanut butter is every thoroughly mixed.
- Eggs: This recipe hasn’t been tested without eggs.
- Vanilla Extract: This provides a lovely background flavor for these chewy cookie bars.
- Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips: Feel free to use any chocolate chips or chunks of chocolate you like. Milk chocolate and dark chocolate would work really well.
Variations
- Optional Mix - Ins: Decrease the amount of chocolate chips by ½ - 1 cup and add ½ - 1 cup of crushed pretzels, mini chocolate chips, m&m’s, mini peanut butter cups or peanut butter chips.
- 8 x 8: To make these chocolate peanut butter bars in a smaller pan, simply cut the recipe ingredients by half and follow the baking directions as written.
- Nut Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars: For a peanut butter taste without peanut butter, sunflower butter is a great nut free substitute for peanut butter.
How To Make
Learn how to make peanut butter chocolate chip bars in a few easy steps.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C). Lightly grease and line the bottom and two long sides of a 13 x 9 pan. In a small bowl, melt the butter and cool to room temperature for a few minutes. In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together until well combined.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk in the cooled melted butter with the light brown and granulated sugars and creamy peanut butter until smooth and well combined. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract until smooth and well combined. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. I like to do this about ½ of the dry ingredients at a time. Fold in most of the chocolate chips. Reserve about ½ cup for topping the cookie bars.
3. Press the cookie dough into the prepared pan. Use a flexible spatula to smooth the chocolate chip cookie dough evenly across the pan. Top with the reserved chocolate chips. Bake for about 22 - 27 minutes or until the edges of bars are a light golden brown, slightly puffed up and the edges are slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan. Cool the peanut butter chocolate chip bar cookies in the hot pan for 25 - 30 minutes. When the cookies have cooled long enough to transfer out of the pan without breaking, use the excess parchment paper on the long sides of the pan and gently lift the cookie bars out of the pan and to cool on a cooling rack. Slice and enjoy!
How To Make Ahead, Store, Freeze and Thaw
- Make Ahead: Prepare the cookie dough, but rather than baking, wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap. Store in the fridge for 2 - 3 days. Bring to room temperature before baking. For longer storage, transfer the plastic wrapped cookie dough to an airtight and freezer proof container to store in the freezer for up to 2 months. Bring to room temperature before baking.
- Store: Place the chocolate chip peanut butter bar cookies in an airtight container. Store at room temperature for up to 5 days. If you would like to store the chewy peanut butter chip bars for longer, I recommend freezing them.
- Freeze: Make sure the chewy cookie bars are completely cooled to room temperature. Place the cookie squares in a ziplock bag. Store in the freezer for up to 2 months.
- Thaw: The easiest and tastiest way to thaw the peanut butter bar cookies is to let them sit out at room temperature until thawed. Heat in the microwave for 20 - 30 seconds to get that “fresh from the oven” taste.
M’s Expert Tips
- Bring cold ingredients to room temperature: This allows the ingredients to mix together more evenly which requires less mixing, resulting in deliciously chewy cookie bars.
- Use a metal pan. This recipe was made in a 9 x 13 aluminum pan. To make this in a glass pan, decrease the oven temperature to 325 F (160 C) and bake for 5 - 10 minutes longer.
- Look for the signs the peanut butter bars with chocolate chips are done. Use the baking time as a guide rather than a strict rule. Signs a these thick and chewy cookie bars are finished baking is a light golden brown color and baked edges that have slightly pulled away from the edge of the pan.
- Reserve some chocolate chips: There are 2 cups of chocolate chips in this peanut butter bars recipe. I like to reserve some for topping just to make sure every cookie square has lots of chocolate chips.
- Sprinkle a bit of flaky salt on top. Just a pinch of flaky salt, like Maldon salt enhances the flavor of the cookie bars.
FAQs
Lining the aluminum pan with parchment paper ensures the bars will not stick to the pan. If you prefer not to line the pan, lightly grease the pan with butter.
The edges of the cookie bars should be puffed up, the center should be set, the top of the cookie bars should be golden brown and the cookies will be very fragrant.
Other Peanut Butter Recipes to Try
Other Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipes to Try
If you try this Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars recipe please rate the recipe and leave a comment below. Doing so helps other readers decide if this is a great recipe to bake. Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram using @olivesnthyme so I can see what you’re baking! - M
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
Equipment
- 1 9 x 13 inch (23 x 33 cm) baking pan
- 1 sheet parchment paper optional
- 1 - 2 mixing bowls
- 1 whisk and flexible spatula or spoon
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter
- 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (256 g) creamy peanut butter
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract
- 2 cups (340 g) semi sweet chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C). Lightly grease and line the bottom and two long sides of a 13 x 9 pan.
- In a small bowl, melt the butter and cool in the fridge for 10 minutes.¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together until well combined.2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk in the cooled melted butter with the light brown and granulated sugars and creamy peanut butter until smooth and well combined. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract until smooth and well combined.1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar, ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar, 1 cup (256 g) creamy peanut butter, 2 large eggs, room temperature, 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract
- Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. I like to do this about ½ of the dry ingredients at a time. Fold in most of the chocolate chips. Reserve about ½ cup for topping the cookie bars.2 cups (340 g) semi sweet chocolate chips, divided
- Press the cookie dough into the prepared pan. Use a flexible spatula to smooth the chocolate chip cookie dough evenly across the pan. Top with the reserved chocolate chips. Bake for about 22 - 27 minutes or until the edges of bars are a light golden brown, slightly puffed up and the edges are slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan.
- Cool the peanut butter chocolate chip bar cookies in the hot pan for 25 - 30 minutes. When the cookies have cooled long enough to transfer out of the pan without breaking, use the excess parchment paper on the long sides of the pan and gently lift the cookie bars out of the pan and to cool on a cooling rack. Slice and enjoy!
Gina says
Delicious bars! These are so easy and quick to whip together. I added in some butterscotch chips and they were a yummy addition!