Chunky Salted Peanut Cookies

Chunky peanut cookie topped with peanuts and flaky salt.

This is the cookie for peanut butter lovers! Thick, soft cookies packed with salted peanuts and peanut butter chips, filled with a creamy peanut butter-honey center. A sprinkle of flaky sea salt brings everything together for the perfect sweet-and-salty cookie.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 12

Chill time: 1

Total Time 1 37

Servings large cookies

Calories 326kcal

Author Allison Mattina

Ingredients

Cookies:

3 cups plus 2-tablespoons (400g) all purpose flour spooned and leveled or weighed
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon fine table salt see note
¾ cup (170g) salted butter room temperature
⅔ cup (150g) light brown sugar
⅔ cup (134g) granulated sugar
3 tablespoons honey
2 large eggs
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1½ cups (212g) roasted salted peanuts coarsely chopped, if desired
1½ cups (240g) peanut butter chips

Filling:

⅓ cup (84g) creamy peanut butter
1½ tablespoons honey
flaky sea salt optional for topping

Instructions

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter, both sugars, and honey for two minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined, scraping the bowl and beaters as needed.
Add the flour mixture, beating until combined. Add peanuts and peanut butter chips. You can stir them in by hand with a silicone spatula, or you can incorporate them with the mixer which will break down the nuts/chips a bit, the dough will be fairly thick. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for one hour.
Preheat oven to 350°F with racks near the center of the oven. Give your oven plenty of time to heat up. I usually wait until 10 minutes after it beeps that it is preheated before adding the cookies. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Stir together peanut butter and honey for the filling. Scoop 2½ oz portions of dough (just shy of 3 tablespoons). Flatten the dough in the palm of your hand and add a teaspoon (I eyeball it) of peanut butter-honey into the center.
Fold the dough up and over the filling and form into a lumpy mound, sealing them closed. Making the dough mounds lumpy, instead of rolled smooth, helps add texture to the baked cookies.
Place the filled dough mounds on prepared baking sheets, allowing room to spread. Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes, until the cookies have spread, are browning around the edges, and the very center is still slightly underdone. If necessary, rotate the baking sheets halfway through cooking time, so that the cookies brown evenly. Make sure not to over-bake, they will firm up as they cool.
Place the baking sheets on wire racks to cool completely. If desired, you can top with flaky sea salt when they come out of the oven. Also, if you'd like to shape the cookies a bit, use the back of a spoon to press the edges inward when they are fresh out of the oven and still hot.

Notes

Salt: These cookies have a noticeable salty-sweet balance. I like fine table salt for this recipe because I find that it adds the best flavor. If using kosher flake salt double the added salt in the dough. Be sure to also use salted butter and salted peanuts.

Peanut butter: A conventional emulsified peanut butter works best here.

Mix-ins: I know this is a lot of peanuts and peanut butter chips (yum!). Don't reduce them, they add tons of flavor and texture to these chunky cookies.

Bake time: Adjust bake time if you portion your dough larger or smaller than 2.5oz. If you are only baking one tray of cookies at a time, store unbaked dough balls in the fridge and wait for the baking sheet to cool completely between batches.

Inspired by Cecilia Tolone

Nutrition