Sweet Tooth Saturday - Peanut Butter Oatmeal Triple Chip Cookies

For some reason, I’ve been feeling nostalgic for my college dining hall lately. I know it probably sounds weird to say that, but we actually had pretty decent food at Macalester, and I especially loved having a huge selection of desserts from which to chose at every meal.  There was one dessert that Cesar and I both loved, so last weekend, I decided I would make it for him.  I had already started creaming butter and sugar together when I discovered that I was missing a key component. I was lazy & stubborn and refused to make a trip to the store or take any more butter out of the fridge, so I started combing through my bookmarked recipes to find something else that required the exact same amount of butter and sugar I already had in the mixer.  These cookies from Pinch of Yum were the first things I stumbled upon, and since peanut butter and chocolate is the single best flavor combination ever, I decided they were a good choice.

I made a couple of very minor modifications to the original recipe; I used three kinds of baking chips, added some peanut butter extract, and I refrigerated the dough for a few hours prior to baking.  I usually chill my cookie dough because I like a thicker cookie, and I also think it lets the oats soak up a bit of moisture.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Triple Chip Cookies
Minimally adapted from Pinch of Yum’s Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup unpacked brown sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp peanut butter extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter chips
• 1/2 cup Hershey’s Mini Milk Chocolate baking chips

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars until smooth. Add the peanut butter, vanilla extract, peanut butter extract, and egg and mix until well blended. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the bowl of the mixer and mix until just moistened. By hand, stir in the oats and baking chips until evenly distributed.
2. Refrigerate the dough for at least three hours; if you have extraordinary patience, even longer is better.
3. When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto a cookie sheet lined with a silicone mat.
5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges just start to brown. If you bake the cookies too long, they won’t remain soft.
6. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes; transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Cesar liked these cookies, but he didn’t love them.  He preferred the bites with mini Hershey’s chips to the the dark chocolate chips because the Hershey’s chips remained solid while the dark chocolate chips were melted.  He also said they could have had more peanut butter; however, keep in mind this is a guy who regularly does battle with family sized jars of peanut butter with a spoon as his only weapon and wins.  Even with all of these recommendations for improvement, I did notice that six cookies were missing from the cooling rack before I managed to get them put away.  Me thinks someone fancies himself quite the food critic.  But I guess that’s what I pay him for, right??