Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

These Reese’s Pieces peanut butter chip cookies are the ultimate cookie! This gooey cookie has a delicious buttery base that is loaded full of Reese’s Pieces, peanut butter chips, and peanut butter cup pieces. This is the perfect dessert for any time of the year and is especially delicious for peanut butter lovers!

 

Why We Love Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

• Packed Full Of Reese’s Pieces– Reese’s Pieces and peanut butter chips are both in the cookie dough, yum! The peanut butter candies give the cookies a little extra crunch.
• Topped With More Peanut Butter– Peanut butter cups and more Reese’s pieces pressed into tops of the cookies give these cookies a super tasty and fun look without serious decorating skills.
• Salt And Sweet Combination– The delicious salty and sweet combo makes the best cookies, but is still balanced in flavor. Excellent cookie for dipping in a glass of milk!
• Crowd Favorite- Reese’s continue to be a crowd favorite with that ultimate irresistible combo of peanut butter and chocolate, and adding them to gooey baked cookies just makes them even better! Make them at Christmas time for your cookie exchanges and watch them disappear.

Ingredients For Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

• butter – Softened, unsalted
• white sugar
• brown sugar
• peanut butter– I used creamy, but crunchy can also work. I don’t recommend natural peanut butter where the oil separated for this recipe
• egg – Large
• vanilla extract
• cup flour – all purpose flour
• baking soda
• salt
• peanut butter chips– You can use Reese’s peanut butter chips or another brand. You could also use chocolate chips for a slightly less peanut butter flavor.
• Reese’s Pieces candy Divided, we will use some in the dough and some to decorate the cookies.
• Mini Reese’s peanut butter cups Unwrapped and chopped, see notes in the recipe card at the bottom of the page for other sizes of peanut butter cups.

How To Make Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Cream together softened butter, white sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl.
3. Add peanut butter, egg, and vanilla to the butter mixture. Mix until all the wet ingredients are combined.

4. In a seperate bowl mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
5. Fold in all of the peanut butter chips and 1/4 cup Reese’s Pieces.

6. Using a cookie scoop, make cookie dough balls with about two tablespoons of dough per cookie. Place the cookies with at least two inches of space between the cookies on the baking sheet.

7. Chop up the Reese’s Peanut Butter cups into pieces while the cookies bake. In the image below I chopped the peanut butter cups up with a spoon to break them up a little bit before adding them to the cookie dough.

8. Bake the pan of cookies for 9-11. The edges of the cookies will just start to brown but the inside of the cookie will still be a little gooey when you remove them but not raw.
9. While cookies are still hot on the pan, press extra Reese’s Pieces and chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups into the top of the cookie.

10. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the pan before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy at least one as a fresh cookie from the oven!

Variation Ideas And Swaps

• Swap the peanut butter cups– You can use other brands of peanut butter cups in this recipe of course. You could also use white chocolate peanut butter cups or the orange or green peanut butter cups for other variations. Almond butter cups could also be delicious in this recipe.
• Try other kinds of chips– Peanut butter chips are delicious, but semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks can also easily be swapped into this recipe for a little less peanut butter flavor.
• Swap the Reeses Pieces– While Reese’s Pieces are part of the name, other colorful chocolates like M&M’s or even Peanut Butter M&M’s could be swapped in this cookie recipe to make your perfect cookie.

How Long Do These Reese’s Pieces Cookies Last?

Store these cookies in an airtight container like a cookie jar or a bowl with a lid. These cookies could last for 3-5 days stored at room temperature this way, though I’ve never had them around that long!

I like to place pieces of wax paper or parchment paper in between the layers of cookies to keep them from sticking (or smooshing) the cookies below them.

These cookies will also last for about three months in the freezer in a freezer bag to still taste like fresh.

Why Do Reeses And Chocolate Peanut Butter Taste So Good?

Ever thought you were going to eat just one Reese’s candy and before you knew it you had eaten more then you expected? There is science behind it.

According to food science Gregory Ziegler via Mic it has to do with the contrasting flavors and textures in chocolate and peanut butter.

Peanut butter has a saltiness to it and even smooth peanut butter has a crunch or a thicker texture when you bite into it. This is the complete opposite of chocolate, which is sweet and creamy.

This mixture basically causes a sensory explosion that taste buds love, pretty nifty. I’ll remember that when I’m snagging a peanut butter cup (or three) from the cookie dough ingredients!