Recipe: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Walking out of the hospital post-call is one of the most glorious feelings. If I were a Sim my "room" bar would jump from full red to full green, particularly on this beautifully sunny morning. My hunger, hygiene, energy, and fun bars though...they'd be lost causes. (Did anyone else spend far too many hours of their childhood on a '90s PC playing the Sims or is this all crazy talk to ya?)

(http://www.macobserver.com/columns/nameofthegame/2000/20001003.shtml)

I always feel that post-call days have so much potential -- there's no way I want to waste them sleeping. Today I envisioned stopping by the outlet shops, picking up groceries, making chilli, and studying a little. Of course, "I'll just rest my eyes for a minute" (combined with comfortable couch + warm, sun-filled living room) ended with me waking up a full five hours later, at 4 pm :(

I did accomplish one thing today -- making some seriously delicious peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookies! I don't know how, as a peanut butter fiend, chocolate lover, and oatmeal devotee, I've never noticed this recipe on any of my all-too-frequent AllRecipes.com procrastination research sessions. I guess that just means I'll have to bake (and eat) lots of these cookies, to make up for lost time :) Here's the recipe, Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies by Joan, from AllRecipes.com:

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup chocolate chips

I started by stirring together the wet ingredients: margarine (microwaved briefly to soften), white sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, vanilla, and egg.

I mixed the flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl, before stirring them into the wet ingredients.

I stirred in the oats and chocolate chips.

I formed the dough into balls (ending up with 26), placed them on two ungreased baking sheets, and baked them at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.

The cookies will be very soft when they come out of the oven, so make sure you let them cool on the baking sheets to harden them up! It's important not to over-bake them to ensure that they stay soft and chewy, rather than turn into teeth-threatening pucks (been there, done that).

I definitely snuck a couple of these cookies off the trays at the falling-apart-soft stage. They were warm, delicious, and everything I'd been hoping for in the recipe. However, it wasn't until I had another cookie (or three) later on in the day that I realized that fully cooled, these cookies are even better than they are fresh from the oven. The reason is that when eaten cooled, the true texture of the cookie can be appreciated, and let me tell you, it is the most perfect cookie texture I've ever encountered. They're the perfect chewiness and melt in your mouth without being overly buttery.

Peanut butter, chocolate, oatmeal -- this recipe combines my three favourite types of cookies into one. Let's talk about the peanut butter. While I was worried that it would make the cookies greasy, it really doesn't. With only half a cup of peanut butter, the taste is subtle, but definitely noticeable. The classic texture of peanut butter cookies emerges in the slightly crispy crust of the cookie, but the interior of the cookie remains deliciously chewy (which I'd take any day over powdery dry classic PB cookie texture). As for the chocolate, we know that chocolate + PB = deliciousness (simple math). And the oatmeal -- it adds another component to the texture and bulks up the cookie.

Finally, these cookies hold their form while baking, leading to a thick and substantial cookie (how all cookies should be in my opinion!).

I hope you try making these cookies (and love them as much as I do!).