These Halloween Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are sure to be a hit at your spooky bash! A yummy, soft chocolate chip cookie with a hint of peanut butter, topped with a Halloween Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup! These will become a beloved fall tradition!
My kids are gearing up to go to the pumpkin patch next weekend. It’s something we always look forward to in October. Our local pumpkin patch is absolutely fabulous. They have so many fun family activities and add new things to do each year. The kids love to pick out a pumpkin, come up with a design, and carve it a few days before Halloween. Even though we don’t get trick or treaters at our house (because we live in a remote area), we love to dress up and celebrate Halloween to the fullest, heading out together as a family trick or treating.
The kids and their dad will be hitting up the haunted corn maze shortly and are ecstatic! I, on the other hand, will be happily hanging out at home watching a chick flick. These sorts of scary activities are certainly not for me. 🙂
I always love to make special refreshments throughout the month of October to help us commemorate Halloween time. Some of our favorites include these Graveyard Dirt Cups, these Frosted Halloween Brownies, these Pumpkin Krispies Treats, these Halloween Oreo Brownie Bars and this Worm-Infested Goblin’s Blood Drink.
I love a good peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, don’t you? These are soft and so delicious! I like that the peanut butter in the cookie is definitely there, but it’s not overpowering, because you get a tasty dose of peanut butter in the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup on top. And how cute are the Reese’s peanut butter ghosts, pumpkins and bats? I wish their shape was a little more defined (they all look about the same to me), but I think they’re still very cute and extra adorable with the candy eyes.
And, while we’re on the topic of Halloween cookies, after you make these ones, you definitely need to hit the kitchen and bake up these Halloween Sprinkle Cake Mix Cookies and these Witch’s Cauldron Cookies. They’re so festive and tasty! This is the time of year when there are just so many sweet treats around to choose from, and I love it!
You all know how much of a cookie monster I am. Chances are, if I’m making a dessert, it’s cookies. Chocolate Chip Cookies are my number one, but add peanut butter to them, and I will never say no. The trick with any cookie, in order for it to taste amazing, is to not over bake. You’ve got to find the sweet spot where they’ve just barely turned a golden brown on the bottom, but they’re not browning on top. Then they’ll be super soft and delicious!
Just a few tips and tricks for making these Halloween Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and ensuring that they are divine:
- You’ll want to refrigerate your peanut butter cups, so they don’t instantly melt and get misshapen when you press them into the warm cookies.
- Next, make sure that you get the cookies into the fridge briefly right after you add the peanut butter cups so the chocolate will stop melting.
- Add a tiny bit of peanut butter to the back of the candy eyes to “glue” them on. Works like a charm and tastes amazing with this cookie! I spread the peanut butter on the backs of the candy eyes with a toothpick.
- If you won’t be eating them immediately, allow them to cool completely, then store them in an airtight container so they stay nice and soft and fresh and don’t dry out.
Halloween Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 c. salted butter softened
- 1 c. light brown sugar packed
- 3/4 c. granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 c. smooth and creamy peanut butter
- 3 1/8 c. all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 c. chocolate chips semi-sweet or milk chocolate, I used semi-sweet
- Candy Eyes
- Reese's Halloween Peanut Butter Cups with bats, pumpkins and ghost shapes, 2 bags (refrigerate)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Prepare cookie sheets by greasing them or lining them with nonstick baking liners.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the softened butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla and creamy peanut butter. Scrape down the sides with a spatula in between and make sure it's mixed completely.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix just until combined.
- Stir in 1 c. chocolate chips.
- Scoop into 1 1/2" rounded balls and place at least 2" apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
- Press each dough ball down with the palm of your hand before baking to flatten.
- Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or just until set. You'll want the bottoms to just barely be golden brown, but the tops and sides should not be brown.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheets for just a few minutes, then press the refrigerated, unwrapped Reese's peanut butter candies into the warm (but not too hot) cookies. Add a tiny bit of peanut butter to the back of each candy eye (I used a toothpick to do this) and press two eyes on each peanut butter cup. Immediately refrigerate the cookies to stop the peanut butter cups from melting.
- Once the peanut butter cups have stopped melting, remove the cookies from the fridge and store them in an airtight container, as long as they are all the way cool.
Happy Halloween and happy fall baking! Enjoy!
