What Are Peanut butter chips and How Can I Use Them?
Wondering what to do with peanut butter chips? This guide covers how to pick them, cook them, store them, and swap them, plus 53 recipes to put them to work.
Key Points
- Sweet, peanut-flavored baking morsels that hold their shape in the oven; softer and sweeter than chocolate chips.
- Fold them into cookies, bars, and brownies, or melt them for no-bake treats and drizzles.
- They seize easily, so melt gently at half power and keep every drop of water away.
- Pair them with chocolate; swap with butterscotch or white chocolate chips, losing the peanut taste.
- Store cool and dry below 80°F (27°C); seal tightly once opened to keep them from clumping.
What are peanut butter chips?
Peanut butter chips are small, teardrop-shaped baking morsels made from peanut butter, sugar, milk, and a vegetable fat that lets them hold their shape. They are sweeter and softer than chocolate chips, with a roasted peanut flavor and a fudgy, almost waxy bite.
They are a baking add-in, not a snack, designed to be folded into doughs and batters or melted into coatings. Out of the bag they taste like a firm peanut butter candy.
Most cooks use them where a swirl of peanut butter would be messy. The chips give you peanut flavor in a clean, measurable form that survives the oven.
How to Use Peanut Butter Chips
Cookies and bars are their natural home. Fold a cup into cookie dough or brownie batter, often alongside chocolate chips so the two flavors trade off bite for bite. Blondies like Sugar Free Blond Brownies use them this way.
They are a favorite in no-bake treats. Melted with chocolate they bind No-Bake Butterscotch Haystacks and the candy-bar copycat Cuban Lunch, setting firm as they cool. Cat Poop Cookies and other stovetop drop cookies use the same melt-and-mix method.
You can also melt them for a drizzle or a quick frosting, or scatter them over a cake before baking for pockets of melted peanut flavor. Peanut Butter Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting shows off that route.
To melt them, go low and slow. Use a double boiler or short microwave bursts at half power, stirring often, because they scorch and stiffen faster than chocolate.
Pairing and Common Mistakes
Peanut butter chips and chocolate are the classic pair, the basis of countless cookies and candy bars. They also work with butterscotch, oats, banana, honey, and anything caramel or salty-sweet.
The mistake almost everyone makes is overheating them.
These chips seize and turn grainy if they get too hot or catch a drop of water, even faster than chocolate does. Melt gently, keep all moisture out of the bowl, and stop heating while a few lumps remain, then stir them smooth off the heat.
The second issue is treating them as interchangeable with peanut butter. They are much sweeter and set firm, so they cannot replace creamy peanut butter in a sauce or filling that needs to stay soft.
Substitutes
In a baked dough, the easiest swap is butterscotch chips or white chocolate chips for a similar sweetness and melt, though you lose the peanut flavor. Chopped peanut butter cups bring it back while adding chocolate.
To mimic the peanut taste, fold chopped roasted peanuts into the batter and add a couple tablespoons of peanut butter to the wet ingredients; the texture differs but the flavor lands. For melting jobs, this trick does not set as firm, so expect a softer result.
There is no clean one-for-one stand-in. The chips are sweet, firm, and peanut-flavored at once, so match whichever of those traits matters most to your recipe.
Buying and Storing
Find them in the baking aisle near the chocolate chips, usually in 10 to 12 ounce bags. Brands vary in sweetness and peanut intensity, so the bag you like for cookies may differ from a generic.
Store unopened bags in a cool, dry cupboard, where they keep well past the printed date. Heat is the enemy: above about 80°F (27°C) the chips soften and may bloom a pale film, which is harmless but ugly.
Once opened, press the air out and seal the bag tightly, or transfer to an airtight container; they last several months this way. You can refrigerate or freeze them to extend that, but let them return to room temperature before melting so condensation does not seize them.
Quick facts
Where to find peanut butter chips: Peanut butter chips are usually found in the baking supplies section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.
- In Chinese
- 花生酱芯片
- British (UK) term
- Peanut butter chips
- en français
- pépites de beurre d'arachide
- en español
- chips de mantequilla de maní
Recipes using peanut butter chips
There are 53 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Peanut Butter Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting
Peanut Butter Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting recipe
Peanut Butter Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting
Peanut Butter Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting recipe
Best Peanut Butter Chip Brownies
Lighter peanut butter chip brownies use prune puree instead of butter for moisture, with egg whites for structure. Fudgy chocolate brownies studded with peanut butter chips, no oil required.
Brownies with Peanut Butter Topping
Brownies with peanut butter topping take fudgy cocoa squares and crown them with melted peanut butter chips spread into a silky icing. Brown sugar deepens the cocoa, peanut butter chips melt right in the pan. A two-layer treat from one bowl.
Mary's Most Loved Brownies
Mary's most loved brownies are a one-bowl, melted-butter-style fudgy brownie recipe with cocoa powder, four eggs for chewy lift, and optional walnuts or peanut butter chips. Mix, pour, bake. No mixer, no chopping chocolate.
Double Chip Cookies
Double chip cookies pack peanut butter chips and chocolate chips into one buttery dough. A classic drop cookie that yields five dozen of the chewiest, most addictive bake-sale staples around.
Fudgey Peanut Butter Chip Muffins
Fudgy peanut butter chip muffins blend cocoa, oats, and applesauce for a tender chocolate crumb loaded with peanut butter chips. A bake-sale favorite that doubles as breakfast.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopies
Chocolate whoopie pies sandwiched with a fluffy peanut butter filling made the classic cooked-flour-and-milk way, for that bakery-style, marshmallow-soft texture.
Litterbox Cookies
Halloween gag cookies rolled in Grape-Nuts and served from a clean litter box with a scoop. Chocolate and gingerbread dough logs shaped like, well, you know. Harmless fun.
Cookie Brownies
Fudgy cocoa brownies piled high with marshmallows, peanut butter chips, and crushed cookies, then topped with a thick chocolate peanut icing. A bake sale showstopper.
Sugar Doodles
Sugar Doodles are chewy triple-chip cookies loaded with butterscotch, chocolate, and peanut butter chips, then rolled in sparkly rainbow sugar. A fun, easy cookie recipe kids love to help make!
Favourite No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
No-bake peanut butter cookies set with quick oats, flaked coconut, chopped peanuts, and melted peanut butter chips. Stovetop drop cookies that chill into chewy mounds in 30 minutes.
Chewy Chocolate Peanut Chip Cookies
Chewy chocolate peanut butter chip cookies bake up soft in the center with deep cocoa flavor and a full bag of peanut butter chips folded through the dough. A drop-and-bake batch cookie ready in 30 minutes.
Chocolate Surprise Cookies
Chocolate surprise cookies hiding peanut butter chips and walnuts inside a cocoa-based drop cookie dough. The chocolate-peanut butter combo bakes up in just 8-10 minutes.
Peanut Butter Chip Custard Pie with Chocolate Peanuts
Peanut Butter Chip Custard Pie with Chocolate Peanuts recipe
Salted Peanut Chews
Salted peanut chews with a brown sugar shortbread crust, gooey marshmallow layer, and a crunchy peanut butter chip topping loaded with crisp rice cereal and salted peanuts.
Chocolate Pb/Jeebies
Chocolate PB jeebies, intensely fudgy chocolate cookies loaded with chocolate and peanut butter chips, served with a warm chocolate ganache for dunking. A double-chocolate-peanut-butter treat made for dipping.
Frozen Cookie-Wiches
Frozen cookie sandwiches with chocolate chip cookies, whipped topping, mini marshmallows, and peanut butter chips. Easy no-churn summer treat using refrigerated cookie dough.
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chippers
Peanut butter oatmeal chippers fold quick oats, peanut butter chips, and chopped pecans into a cinnamon-nutmeg cookie dough. A spice-warmed twist on the classic oatmeal cookie.
Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookie Sandwich Cookies
Peanut butter and chocolate sandwich cookies built from one clever dough split two ways, baked, then sandwiched around a soft marshmallow. A fun two-tone treat with the classic chocolate-PB combo.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Cake
Peanut butter chocolate fudge bundt cake with chocolate and peanut butter chips baked in, topped with a double glaze. Rich, dense, and over-the-top.
Frozen Heath Bar Ice Cream Pie with Hot Fudge
Layers of chocolate and vanilla ice cream studded with crunchy Heath bar pieces rest in a chocolate wafer crust, then get crowned with homemade hot fudge sauce. Each frozen slice delivers the perfect contrast of cold, creamy ice cream and warm, silky chocolate.
Peanut Butter - Fudge Marble Cake
Peanut butter fudge marble cake made from a cake mix with melted peanut butter chips swirled through chocolate batter. A semi-homemade layer cake that combines two favorite flavors.
Peanut Butter Mousse Cake
Chocolate cake layered with peanut butter chip mousse and dripping chocolate ganache glaze, topped with mini peanut butter cups. A three-component showstopper.
Fry's P'Nutty Chocolate Cookies
Chocolate peanut butter cookies loaded with peanut butter chips and chopped peanuts. A fudgy cocoa dough with a double dose of peanut crunch in every bite, baked in under 10 minutes.
Peanut Butter Cookie Brownies
Peanut butter cookie brownie bars with a fudgy brownie base, peanut butter cookie dough chunks, coconut, and a double hit of chocolate and peanut butter chips. The dessert mashup that wins every bake sale.
Chewy Peanut Butter Chip Bars
Chewy peanut butter chip bars with deep cocoa brownie batter and pockets of peanut butter chips. A jelly-roll pan recipe that yields four dozen fudgy chocolate bars.
Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies
Chewy chocolate cookies loaded with Reese's peanut butter chips. Rich cocoa dough, soft and puffy from the oven, they flatten into fudgy discs as they cool.
Sundae Brownie Pie
Sundae brownie pie bakes a fudgy brownie batter loaded with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and nuts right into a pie crust. Served warm with ice cream, it's a scoopable sundae in pie form.
Peanut Butter Cup Muffins
Peanut butter cup muffins with chocolate cocoa batter and pockets of melty peanut butter chips. A bakery-style breakfast or after-school muffin that tastes like a candy bar.
Peanut Butter Crunch Cake
Moist yellow cake swirled with chunky peanut butter, chocolate chips, and crunchy peanuts. This easy sheet cake starts with a mix and bakes up with a crumbly peanut butter topping that melts into pure indulgence.
Dairyland Whippersmackers
Loaded drop cookies with cream cheese, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, walnuts, raisins and coconut. Rich dairy base creates ultra-soft centers with chewy edges in just 12 minutes.
Seven Layers of Heaven
No-mix seven layer bars with graham cracker crust, coconut, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, walnuts, and sweetened condensed milk. Just layer, bake, and slice into gooey, crunchy bars.
Peanut Butter-Granola Cookies
Peanut butter granola cookies with brown sugar, peanut butter morsels, and crunchy granola cereal. Chewy, nutty drop cookies that bake in under 10 minutes.
Reese's Cookies
Reese's cookies loaded with peanut butter chips and milk chocolate chips in a soft, chewy drop cookie. That classic peanut butter-chocolate combo in every bite.
Salted Nut Squares
These tasty treats made from peanut butter chips and peanuts are great for a light snack after lunch.
Chocolate-Peanut No-Bake Cookies
Crunchy no-bake cookies with melted chocolate and peanut butter chips coating crushed corn flakes and raisins. 5 ingredients, microwave method, kid-approved.
Chocolate Cloud Clusters
No-bake milk chocolate clusters loaded with pecans, raisins, mini marshmallows, crispy rice cereal, and peanut butter chips. Melt, stir, drop, and chill. Kid-friendly candy making at its easiest.
Mom's Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge
Easy two-layer peanut butter and chocolate fudge with sweetened condensed milk. No candy thermometer, no boiling sugar. Five ingredients, ready in three hours.
Cuban Lunch
No-bake chocolate peanut butter cups with crushed potato chips and peanuts. A sweet-salty Canadian prairie candy that makes 75 bite-sized treats for holiday platters.
Chewy Peanut Butter Bars
Chewy peanut butter bars stacked in three layers: a buttery cookie base, a gooey marshmallow middle, and a crunchy peanut butter, rice cereal, and peanut topping. A potluck and bake-sale crowd-pleaser.
No-Bake Cereal Bars
No-bake cereal bars with corn flakes, peanut butter chips, and brown sugar, topped with melted chocolate and peanut butter. Crunchy, chewy, and ready without turning on the oven.
Cat Poop Cookies
Whole wheat cookies shaped like cat poop, rolled in Grape-Nuts, and served in a litter box. Two dough options: chocolate or gingerbread. The ultimate gross-out Halloween party hit!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
It's hard to not indulge into this cheesecake that's made with cream cheese, peanut butter, chocolate and sour cream.
Double Delicious Halloween Bars
Layers of graham cracker crumbs, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips melt together into gooey Halloween bars. These no-fuss treats need just 5 ingredients and one pan.
Take-Me-To-A-Picnic Cake
A rich, fudgy chocolate sheet cake with sour cream baked in a jelly roll pan and slathered with a creamy peanut butter chip frosting. Feeds a crowd and travels like a dream.
No-Bake Butterscotch Haystacks
No-bake butterscotch haystacks with peanut butter chips and chow mein noodles. A four-ingredient candy that melts in the microwave and sets on the counter.
Sugar Free Blond Brownies
Sugar-free blond brownies built on a no-sugar white cake mix with mint chocolate chips and peanut butter chips folded in. A diabetic-friendly dessert with classic blondie texture and chocolate-mint surprise.
