Delicious Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

One night I (E) was tired of studying and was looking for something to do. I had just recently bought a large bag of old-fashioned oats to make the Stawberry Rhubarb Crisp found here - which was amazing by the way - and was looking for a way to put them to good use.

I found a great recipe for Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies. I didn't have any chocolate, and as it was 10pm on a weeknight (and nothing was open at that time), I omitted the chocolate, but I used everything else that the recipe called for.

Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters
Dorie Greenspan: Baking, From My Home to Yours

3 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup peanut butter--chunky or smooth (but not natural) - I used chunky
1 cup sugar
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, or 1 1/2 cups store-bought chocolate chips or chunks (I omitted)

Divide the oven racks into thirds and preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (about 180 degrees Celsius). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, spices and salt.

Using a hand mixer (or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment), beat the butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar on medium speed until smooth and creamy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients, beating only until blended. If you are using chocolate chips, blend them in at this point.

The recipe says that you can cover and refrigerate the dough for 2 hours or up to one day. This will give more evenly shaped cookies. I was too excited to eat freshly baked cookies, so I skipped this step, but if you're more patient than I am it can't hurt to refrigerate the dough a little!

If the dough is not chilled, drop rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto the baking sheets. If the dough is chilled, scoop up rounded tablespoons, roll the balls between your palms 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 to 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 - they'll firm as they cool.

Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.


I used Friend B's foil-based lighting contraption to take photos of the finished product.




These cookies were deliciously chewy! However, they come with a warning: they make about 40 large cookies, the size of which you can see in the above photograph. I'm not complaining, but if a gigantic amount of cookies is not what you're aiming for, you might want to halve the recipe.

Enjoy!