Peanut Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These soft, thick, and chewy Peanut Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookies are loaded with peanut butter flavor, chunks of white chocolate chips, and sprinkled with a little holiday cheer making the perfect treat for any holiday occasion.

There’s nothing like a warm cookie and a glass of milk during the Christmas season. There are so many options and varieties to make everyone happy! Bring in the cheer with some other delicious recipe cookies like these Christmas Pinwheel Cookies, Chocolate Thumbprint Turtle Cookies, or these Oatmeal Rolled Sugar Cookies.

White Chocolate peanut butter cookies dipped in white chocolate with holiday sprinkles

Have you ever been to a Christmas cookie exchange party? I love them! Everybody brings a few dozen of their favorite holiday cookie and then you trade so you can go home with an assortment each time. You can even do judging and prizes for the most popular cookies, if you want.

The white chocolate peanut butter cookies would be an EXCELLENT cookie exchange party choice as they are 1. super simple to make, but 2. have that attention-grabbing quality of being dipped in white chocolate with a few festive sprinkles.

And of course the most important factor is that peanut butter white chocolate chip cookies are just as delicious to eat as they are to look at! The heavenly combination of white chocolate and peanut butter is heavily underrated. The sweet white chocolate chips are a perfect match for the nutty, roasted flavor of peanut butter and the thick, puffy texture is just the BEST.

These are a great idea to take to a holiday party or just enjoy with your own family while watching a Christmas movie. Any peanut butter lover will enjoy this tasty sweet treat!

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies on a cooling rack on a red dish towel

Ingredient Notes

Peanut butter: I tested this recipe with regular creamy peanut butter and chunky peanut butter, but not natural peanut butter (the kind that separates a bit in the cupboard). So if you are having troubles and using natural peanut butter, that could be the culprit.
White chocolate chips: My favorite brand of white chocolate chips is definitely Ghiradelli. They are so creamy and have the best flavor. You’ll need some for both adding to the cookie dough itself, but also for melting and dipping. You can always use white chocolate melting wafers or even almond bark for dipping if that’s easier for you than melting white chocolate chips.
Sprinkles: These are totally optional but they make these peanut butter white chocolate chip cookies super fun and festive! Sprinkles are a quick and easy way to achieve a holiday look just by switching out colors for the season. Use pink, red & white for Valentine’s Day or pastel colors for Easter!

Flour, peanut butter, white chocolate chips, salt, butter, egg, and sugar in individual bowls for making peanut butter white chocolate cookie dough.

How to Make This Recipe

Combine peanut butter and butter. Mix peanut butter and softened butter until combined.
Add sugar and mix until smooth.
Add the egg and beat to combine.

Add flour, baking soda, and salt, then mix again, pulsing until combined and scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed. We measured the flour using the scoop and level approach, which is how we always measure for cookies.
Add the white chocolate. Stir in ¾ cups of white chocolate chips.

Place cookie dough on baking sheet. Use a 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop balls of the cookie dough onto the baking sheets, spacing them a couple inches apart so they can spread a bit without touching each other.
Bake for 12-14 minutes until set around the edges. Cool completely.

Prepare the melted white chocolate. Melt the remaining 1 cup of white chocolate chips in the microwave using short bursts of heat until smooth. Many microwaves have a “melt” setting for chocolate that moderates the power, but I recommend only doing 20 second bursts of heat at a time and stirring between each burst. You could also use the Ghiradelli white chocolate melting wafers instead of white chocolate chips for even easier melting.

Decorate and enjoy! Dip half of each cookie into the melted white chocolate, then lay the cookies onto clean parchment paper and sprinkle with your favorite holiday sprinkles before the chocolate has a chance to set up. Let the chocolate firm up before transferring the cookies to a serving plate or boxing them up to gift to neighbors or friends.

cookies dipped in melted white chocolate with Christmas sprinkles on top

Recipe FAQ’s

Can the cookie dough be made ahead of time?

Yes! You can roll the dough into balls and place in a ziplock bag and either store in the fridge for 3-4 days or freeze them for up to 2 months. You don’t even have to thaw the cookies before baking. Instead, bake them straight from frozen and just add an extra minute or two to the baking time.

I’m having a hard time melting white chocolate! What’s going wrong?

If you struggle melting white chocolate, first make sure you are using good quality chocolate, not store brand chips which don’t always melt as well. Also, white chocolate has a tendency to seize if it gets too hot or if water gets into it, so make sure not to microwave the chocolate for a full minute before stirring and continue to stir even if it doesn’t look like the chips are melting at first. 15 to 20 second bursts of heat is all you want to use.

Recipe Tips

Storage: Cookies can be kept in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
Freezing: Once the white chocolate is completely set, the cookies can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Peanut butter lovers version: If you can’t get enough peanut butter, consider swapping out the white chocolate chips in these peanut butter cookies for the same amount of Reese’s peanut butter chips for even more of a peanut butter experience.
Milk or dark chocolate variation: You can always change out the white chocolate chips if you aren’t a huge white chocolate fan and use milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips instead.
Change up the sprinkles! These are great cookies for Christmas, but they can actually be used for a variety of occasions. Just switch up the decorations and add in fall sprinkles for Thanksgiving, birthday sprinkles for a birthday party, or green for St. Patrick’s Day. Have fun and make them your own!

A plate of White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies on a white table with Christmas Decorations

Did you make this recipe?

Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.