Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies are new favorites of mine.

They actually combine elements from my favorite types of cookies:

Part Chocolate Chip Cookies: Check

Part Oatmeal Cookies: Check

Part Peanut Butter Cookies: Check

And the recipe is adapted from and very similar to the Peanut Butter Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookie recipe

So really, if you like Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, or Oatmeal cookies, I’ve got you covered.

Really, if you like cookies at all, I’m sure you’ll like these.

Grab your one mixing bowl, and your one spoon, and these gems can be in your mouth within the next half hour.

Sound okay by you?

The flavor is pretty traditional in the sense of them being mostly a chocolate chip cookie.

But there is a touch of peanut butter flavor, but not too much.  You could enhance this by adding peanut butter chips in addition to or instead of the chocolate chips.  As it stands, the peanut butter flavor in these is very subtle and really the peanut butter simply helps to keep these cookies extra moist.

As was the case with the Peanut Butter Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies, you really can’t taste the oatmeal very much, either.  It’s more for texture, chewiness, and moisture rather than actual taste.  So even if you’re not an oatmeal cookie fan, that’s okay because these are much more chocolate chip cookie than oatmeal cookie.

They are very soft and very chewy which is a result of a higher ratio of brown to white sugar and also a higher ratio of egg yolk to egg white.  Yes, I like to geek out with food science.

I did not use the melted butter technique that I used here or here; instead I used softened, room temperature butter that I creamed with the sugars (by hand with a spoon).  It was Kerrygold butter,  and I have to say, this was some of the best raw cookie dough, ever.  Yes, I ate raw dough.

And yes, I’ve been in cookie-eating heaven.

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Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies (adapted from my Peanut Butter Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe)

1/2 c butter, softened to room temperature

1 1/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1/3 c peanut butter

1 egg + 1 yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1 c old fashioned whole oats

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 c chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

Optional: add 1/2 c peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, toffee bits, raisins, nuts, seeds, etc.

Directions:

Combine room-temperature softened butter with the sugars and stir.  I did this by hand but you could cream them using a mixer if desired.

Then stir in the peanut butter.

Add the egg + yolk and vanilla extract, and stir.

Then add the oats, baking soda, and flour (slowly) and stir.  You should have cookie dough consistency dough and if you don’t, either add a touch more flour if it’s too wet or a touch more peanut butter (I used Jif) if it’s too dry.

Finally, add the chocolate chips and any optional chips you’re using and stir in.

Scoop golf ball sized balls onto a cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.  They spread but not much (a tip to reduce spreading is to refrigerate and chill the dough prior to baking)

Bake at 325F for approximately 10-12 minutes.  (I like very underdone and soft cookies so I baked mine for 10 minutes)  The cookies will look pretty raw even at 12 minutes and that’s ok.  Take them out and let the sit and cool well before eating.

Yields: 2 dozen medium/larger cookies or 3 dozen smaller cookies.  (You can halve the recipe if desired.  However, extras can be stored long-term in the freezer)

To make vegan: use margarine, and use 2 flax or chia ‘eggs’ or other egg replacer

To make GF: use GF flour and take note of trace gluten in the other ingredients

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One thing I used when making these cookies was my new $3.99 cookie scoop from Bed Bath & Beyond. I love this thing.

I have had more expensive and fancy metal cookie scoops in the past but the dough always got caught in the “releasing” mechanism or would not release, making more of a mess and causing more trouble than benefit.   But this new scoop is changing all that because te plastic is very non-stick and you just push the big button to release the dough.

It helped me make the most uniform cookies I’ve ever been able to muster.  For some of you pros, you’ve had this nailed ages ago but I am a little late to the pretty cookie party.

But really, it doesn’t matter if they look pretty or not.

It’s how they taste.

The family approved.  We started out with three dozen and in 36 hours were down to less than a dozen.

3 people, 3 dozen cookies.  Hmmm, let’s do the math.  Ok let’s not.

Just chomp instead.

Edited to add the following related cookie recipes – November 2012 

Chocolate Chip and Chunk Cookies – This is my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe for straight up chocolate chip cookies, without oats or peanut butter added. They are soft, chewy, tender, moist, a snap to make, and have two kinds of chocolate in every bite. They are my new go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies (from Jacques Torres) – I learned many valuable lessons when making these cookies, from loving bread flour in cookies to detesting cake flour in them; to baking cookies bigger to stuffing in extra chocolate. The cookies are very good, and I loved them on the first day, and I wrote extensively about my thoughts overall on them

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Skillet Cookie – This cookie combines three of my favorite cookies into one – chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal. The edges bake up crispy and chewy, and sweetened condensed milk is baked into the cookie, keeping the interior a literal hot, sweet, and gooey mess

What’s your favorite kind of cookie? 

As I said, favorites of mine include chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal.

But really, I am not picky as long as it’s not dry or over-baked.  No baking rules violations, please.

Do you use a cookie scoop?

If you don’t, I cannot say enough good things about them.  I am a believer now.

And I also love my Silpat.  It’s been another huge help in baking.  Between my Silpat and my Flexipat and a cookie scoop, I feel like I have a new lease on cookie baking.

Do you have a favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies?

Everyone has their favorite.  And there a zillion favorite recipes out there.

Melted or creamed butter, the amount of flour, baking soda and baking powder; the sugar types and ratios, the eggs and ratios; so many things can vary.

Or adding peanut butter and oatmeal.  Or not.

I know some people like the Nestle Tollhouse recipe, other people swear by the Cooks Illustrated recipe, or the New York Times recipe.

Most people love their grandmother’s recipe for chocolate chip cookies and no matter how hard you try, you’re likely never going to be able to reproduce her results because that’s just one of life’s mysteries.  Grandmas make cookies better than anyone and you can never truly reproduce what they did.

If you have a recipe you love and want to share, I’m all ears.