These peanut butter and chocolate cookies are soft chocolate cake mix cookies filled with melt-in-your-mouth gooey peanut butter cups. They’re the easiest cookies I’ve made in a long time, with only 4 ingredients!
Why I Love These Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies
These peanut butter and chocolate cookies turn an iconic flavor combination into what might be the easiest cake mix cookies ever! Rich, fudgy, and packed with peanut butter flavor, they’re everything I could want in a cookie and more. This recipe is:
- Soft and chewy. These chocolate cookies are soft and fudgy in the middle with chewy-crisp edges, filled with gooey melted peanut butter candy.
- Super easy. These cookies need only 4 ingredients, starting with a box of chocolate cake mix. They satisfy a chocolate and peanut butter craving without the time commitment of a from-scratch recipe.
- Filled with peanut butter cups. Possibly my favorite ingredient of all time. You might be able to tell from my swirled peanut butter cup cookies, or most of my peanut butter desserts. Reese’s Cups are kinda a big deal around here, and these peanut butter chocolate cookies are bursting with them!
What You’ll Need
I love making cookies from cake mix because it cuts down on a lot of cupboard raiding! I make these easy peanut butter chocolate cookies with just 4 ingredients. You’ll find some notes below. Scroll to the recipe card after the post for a printable list of ingredients with the amounts.
- Chocolate Cake Mix – Choose your favorite brand and flavor of chocolate mix. Technically, you could make these cookies with any cake mix you’d like, even vanilla or yellow cake.
- Eggs – You can bring these to room temperature if you’d like.
- Oil – I recommend vegetable oil since it has a neutral flavor that won’t overpower the cookies.
- Peanut Butter Cups – I use Reese’s Minis but feel free to use store-brand and/or full-size peanut butter cups (in this case, chop them into halves or quarters).
Can I Substitute Butter for Oil in These Cookies?
I almost always make these peanut butter chocolate cookies with oil, since the cake mix calls for it, and because it keeps the cookies extra soft and moist. However, if you’d prefer to make these with butter, they’ll still turn out great. You’ll want to melt the butter and let it cool a little before using it in the recipe in place of oil.
How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies From Cake Mix
These cookies are super simple, and one of my favorite last-minute desserts. Serve these with a glass of milk on any occasion. Parties, holidays, cookie exchanges… I bet Santa wouldn’t say no to a plate of these at Christmas! Here’s how to make them in 3 short steps:
- Mix the cookie batter. Starting with your chocolate cake mix, mix in the oil and eggs. Next, fold in the peanut butter cups. I dump in the whole bag of Reese’s Minis, but you can use your discretion.
- Scoop the cookies. Portion the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and set them on a lined baking sheet. These cookies spread a bit, so leave a couple of inches in between.
- Bake. Bake your cookies at 350ºF for 8-9 minutes.
Tips and Variations
- Keep the peanut butter cups intact. If you use your mixer to beat in the peanut butter cups, they tend to break apart. This is fine, just be careful that you don’t overdo it! You want the chocolate to break apart a little but still have some chunks remaining. In a pinch, fold in the candy by hand.
- Don’t overbake. The trick to keeping these cake mix cookies tender and chewy is to leave them slightly underbaked. Take them out when they’re just set at the edges, and soft (but not shiny or wet) in the center.
- Rest on the baking sheet. Let the freshly baked cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before you move them to a wire rack. This way they can set a bit before you lift them.
- Use brownie mix instead. Make a variation of brownie mix cookies packed with peanut butter cups.
How to Store
- Room temperature. These cookies can be stored in an airtight container and kept at room temperature for up to 4-5 days.
- Freeze. You can freeze your peanut butter cup cookies in a freezer-safe container or freezer bag for up to 2 months. Thaw the cookies at room temperature before serving.
More Chocolate Cookie Recipes
- Dark Chocolate Cookies
- Hot Chocolate Cookies
- Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Fudgy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Chocolate Crunch Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 8 min
- Total Time: 23 min
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These peanut butter and chocolate cookies are fudgy chocolate cake mix cookies bursting with gooey, melty peanut butter cups. Easy to make with only 4 ingredients, and even easier to enjoy with a glass of milk!
Ingredients
- 1 (18.25- ounce) box chocolate cake mix
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 (8- ounce) bag Reese’s Minis
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the cake mix, oil and eggs until combined.
- Pour in entire bag of Reese’s Minis and mix on low until Reese’s are evenly incorporated.
- Roll the dough into tablespoon sized balls and place on the prepared baking sheet about 2- inches apart. Cookies will spread.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes.
Notes
- The Reese’s Cups will break apart when you beat them into the cookie batter with the mixer. Try to keep as many large chunks as possible. You can also fold them in by hand.
- Store airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days for best freshness.
- Freeze baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 170
- Sugar: 13.9 g
- Sodium: 184.5 mg
- Fat: 8.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 22.8 g
- Protein: 2.3 g
- Cholesterol: 16.1 mg
Made these cookies last night. I’m not such a big chocolate fan though. I made a peanut butter glaze to drizzle on the top after they finished baking so they’d be more peanut-buttery (that’s a word, right?). Yum! They are delicious – thanks for sharing the recipe!
OMG box cake mix! That’s horrible, awful, I can’t believe you make that stuff! I just happen to have some (for research purposes) and some Trader Joe’s mini peanut butter cups. I’ll be making these cookies tonight (again, for research purposes only). I’m sure they’ll be so horribly unhealthy that my DH will snorfle them down the second he gets home from the gym, and subsequently ask me to make them for him at least twice a week.
And “shortening is the devil’s foot cream” – that had me laughing all day…
Pinned! Yep..I will be making these soon! I am so not a cake mix snob!
Made these last night and my husband loved them! So easy to throw together too! I was a bit worried when I first took them out of the oven at how “puffy” they looked since we don’t care for cake -like cookies but they “fell” – making them nice and flat! This is a keeper!!! Thanks for sharing
loved the post! And I have been known to use shortening for multiple uses, including slathering it on my baby’s dry back! lol Just printed out your recipe – can’t wait to try them out! Thank you for sharing! I always love reading your post. 🙂
How could anyone get angry at such fun COOKIES??!! Love ’em. ~xo
Cake Mix Cookies are the best! I loved the ones I made before. Perfect little cookies. And yes, perfectly fine “once in a while” 😉
Thanks for sharing!
I love using cake mix for cookies! Keep the recipes coming! One of my favorites is a lemon cake mix cookie.
Cake mixes are cool with me and these look awesome!
Oh no, I’m definitely not offended by your use of cake mixes. Cake mixes are great in a pinch and frankly, I haven’t come across a homemade Funfetti cake that can rival the boxed stuff. Just sayin’
Anyways, these look fabulous! Anything with chocolate and peanut butter has got to be good!