Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

When Nikki was invited for a sleep-over party by her cousin she jumped up and down for about an hour! She was extremely excited. Her cousin, Phoebe, is two years her senior, but there is a real click with all three of the girls. Whenever they get together, they get really excited and love spending time together.

As a thank-you gift I wanted to bake something yummy for her to take along to her cousin and my sister. Unfortunately I had about two hours in which to make that thank-you gift and no time to go shop for ingredients.

And so I searched through my cabinets and assembled a variety of ingredients. I then turned to my new book: Baking, From my home to yours, and found a great easy recipe for Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, for which I had all the ingredients. I just love it when I find recipes that you can make with standard ingredients. It gives me the opportunity to whip something up on any given time!

I have to admit I had my doubts about these cookies. I have never baked with peanut butter, so I wasn't sure if it would taste good. But I am now converted. The peanut butter gives these cookies a full, rich flavour, which of course goes great with the oatmeal and the chocolate chips. I did add a little less than the recipe indicated, but it was enough. I only had smooth peanut butter, but chunky peanut butter, of even better, chopped peanuts would go great with these cookies. The cookies were crisp on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside. Just as I like them!

On more thing, the recipe said to chill the dough for two hours, which I didn't due to lack of time, but shaping the cookies went really well and they turned out very nicely shaped!

Recipe

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: about 60 cookies (recipe can be halved)

Ingredients:

3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) butter, room temperature
3/4 - 1 cup peanut butter (depends on your taste)
1 cup sugar
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks or 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F). Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix together the oats, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

Beat together the butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar on medium speed until smooth and creamy.

Add one egg at a time, beating for one minute after each addition.

Beat in the vanilla.

Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients, beating only until blended.

Mix in the chocolate.

Cover and chill the dough for about 2 hours, or for up to one day (optional, for more evenly shaped cookies).

Drop rounded tablespoons 2 inches apart onto the baking sheet, or, if the dough is chilled, scoop rounded tablespoons and roll the balls between the palms of your hands and place them 2 inches apart on the sheets. Press the chilled balls gently with the heel of your hand until they are about 1/2 inch thick.

Bake for 13-15 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back after 7 minutes.

The cookies should be golden and just firm around the edges. Lift the cookies onto cooling racks with a wide metal spatula.


Source: slightly adapted from Baking, From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan