Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies will satisfy your Reese’s craving
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These peanut butter brownie cookies are made with crackle topped fudgy brownies loaded with Reese’s peanut butter cups and topped with a simple peanut butter filling and more Reese’s.
If you love peanut butter cups, or it’s the day after Halloween and you have a million and a half Reese’s, make these now.
It took me a couple more cracks at this recipe before I was happy with the look and the taste. I wanted a peanut butter swirl, but the peanut butter kept baking up weird. I went back and treated the peanut butter like the jam in a jam thumbprint cookie. All my family and my kind friends, who are my taste testers agreed this was the way to go.
What you get here is the perfect peanut butter brownie in cookie form. I would be so happy to pick these up in a bakery, but thankfully I can make them myself for less, and you can too. Start unwrapping, it’s peanut butter brownie cookies time!
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bakingwithtradition.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for websites to earn advertising revenues by advertising and linking to recommended products. Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies


Why you’ll love these cookies


- Like brownies but less messy: Baking up brownies like cookies is kind of genius. They don’t fall apart as much and you get more shiny top crackle business. They’re just so pretty. If you’re someone who only eats the middle brownies in a pan, check my notes for options on baking them as regular peanut butter brownies.
- Double the chocolate, double the peanut butter: With cocoa and melted chocolate chips, Reese’s and an extra peanut butter filling, you get twice the peanut butter chocolate richness. It’s so nice I said it twice.
- They’re so pretty: Cookies that you can make look amazing before they go in the oven is winning all around. These are dramatic looking gems that didn’t take any extra decoration afterwards, so they’re actually pretty quick to make.
Ingredients for Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies


Brownie Batter
- Butter
- Chocolate chips: adds more chocolate richness
- Powdered sugar: helps get shiny tops
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
- vanilla paste or vanilla extract: for flavor
- Dutch process cocoa: such as Hershey’s Special Dark or Droste
- Flour: all-purpose
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: I’m using minis unwrapped, but miniature cups are good too
Peanut butter filling
- Peanut butter: I’m using Skippy; don’t use natural style peanut butter as it doesn’t have the right texture for this recipe.
- Powdered sugar
- Butter: at room temp
For decoration
- More Reese’s
Tips for the best Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies





- Use the double boiler: I love doing this on brownies and blondies like my Brown Butter Blondies. Whisking the eggs with the sugars over a double boiler makes sure that the sugars get dissolved well into the batter. This in turn makes for shiny topped brownies that are oh so pretty.
- Space your cookies well: 6 to a sheet gives enough space for the cookies to spread without touching their neighbors. We’re not overbaking these, so you won’t need to worry about dry edges.
- Cool the cookies completely: Because these are a fudgy cookie, it takes a while for them to solidify. Cool them completely on the sheets they’re baking on. This will help them soak up all the residual heat of the pan and let them cool undisturbed. If you try to move them before they’re completely cool, they will fall apart, making you think that you underbaked them. Nope, they will be perfect, but you need to let them sit for at least 20 minutes.
- You can get cute with the piping, but know that it won’t look as good after baking: I love piping on brownies and blondies (see my strawberry white chocolate blondies for evidence). You can certainly pipe lines of the peanut butter filling and swirl them with a toothpick. It’s fun, though you’ll lose a lot of the definition as they bake with this particular mixture and the cookies won’t be as shiny. I’m guessing that’s because the fat in the peanut butter melts on top, obscuring the sugar crystals in brownie batter that melt to make the shiny top. I did not take a picture of the final result because they were not up to my standards, still it was fun to try.

Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies
- Total Time: 35
- Yield: 18 cookies
Description
The perfect fudgy brownie cookie filled with peanut butter and loaded with Reese’s peanut butter cups. If you love peanut butter cups, these are calling your name.
Ingredients
Brownie Batter
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (112 g)
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar (40 g)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar (66 g)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa such as Hershey’s Special Dark or Droste (40 g)
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (98 g)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup Reese’s minis unwrapped or 15 Reese’s miniature cups, chopped (132 g), for divided use
Peanut Butter Filling
- 4 Tablespoons peanut butter (not natural style), (64 g)
- 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar (15 g)
- 2 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature (28 g)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
- Line 2 sheet trays with parchment paper.
- Melt the butter over low heat in a small pan.
- Pour the chocolate chips and cocoa into the butter, making sure they’re submerged in the warm butter. Stir it occasionally as the chocolate melts.
- Once the chocolate is melted completely, scrape the butter into a mixing bowl to cool.
- Fill the bottom of a double boiler with about 1″ of water, then bring it to a boil.
- Use a whisk to mix the powdered and granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, and eggs in the top of a double boiler.
- Lower the water to simmer, then set the top pot over the water, stirring constantly for about 4 minutes. In this time, the mixture will get thinner, paler, and all of the sugar will dissolve.
- Scrape out the egg/sugar mixture into the mixing bowl. Whisk to mix this into the butter along with the vanilla. Set this aside to cool for 5-10 minutes. You’ll know it’s ready when the bottom of the bowl is no longer warm to the touch.
- Measure the flour and ½ cup of the Reese’s into the mixing bowl (You’ll use the rest of the Reese’s to decorate the cookies). Fold everything together with a spatula just until combined.
- Smoosh together the peanut butter filling ingredients in a small cup.
- Fill a disposable pastry bag or a Ziploc with the filling. Cut the tip off about 3/4” from the end.
- Drop scoops of batter onto one of the prepared sheets. A 1 oz. scoop is ideal here (you can use a spoon too), and you should be able to fit 6 cookies on a sheet without them baking together. Load up the second sheet tray the same way.
- Press down on each cookie to flatten it slightly, then use a spoon to press a small well in the center of each cookie.
- Fill the center of each cookie with a bit of the peanut butter filling. Top each cookie with one of the Reese’s a little off center.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, rotating the sheet trays 180 degrees and switching them from top to bottom halfway through baking for even baking.
- Scoop out the rest of the batter onto another piece of parchment. If you have a third sheet tray, load it up. Otherwise, you’ll need to wait for the sheet tray to cool before baking the last batch.
- Cool the cookies completely on the hot sheet tray before attempting to move them.
- Store the cookies at room temp in an airtight container for up to 3 days. These cookies can also be frozen in Ziplocs for up to 3 months.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 20
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 205
- Sugar: 15
- Sodium: 125
- Fat: 13
- Saturated Fat: 7
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 13
- Fiber: 1
- Protein: 3
- Cholesterol: 39
How much do you love peanut butter and chocolate?
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