Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These. are. amazing.

I mean, this hits three of my favorite types of cookies, all at the same time. How could you NOT want to eat this cookie? Or...all three dozen you made... I mean, what? I didn't do that.

I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com...here. I didn't change much, really. I added a teensy bit more peanut butter...cause I like more peanut butter. And I'm pretty sure the size of my cookies might have been a little bit bigger than the recipe called for. But really, I essentially followed the recipe. I'm a nervous baker. I follow baking recipes to a T most of the time, cause I'm scared of what will happen if I don't. Unless it involves chocolate chips...then I might add a few more than necessary. I apologize for the lack of process pictures...I got too busy thinking about how much I wanted to eat the cookies NOW and forgot to take pics except for at the very end. Woops. Next time I make them, I'll take pictures and add them. :)


Ingredients:
-3/4 cup butter
-1/2 cup white sugar
-1 cup packed brown sugar
-2 eggs
-1/3 cup peanut butter
-1/4 cup water
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-2 cups rolled oats
-1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For this next part, I use my handy dandy stand mixer, but you don't have to. A handheld is fine. Let me take just a moment to say that I set out my ingredients early whenever possible, so that everything is room temperature when I start. Trying to mix together cold ingredients doesn't often bode well for me. That is especially true with butter. Cold butter is only good for pie crust. Haha. Ok, moving on.

Cream the butter and sugar together. When I say cream, I mean cream. NO LUMPS people! Butter and sugar should be ONE! Next, beat in the eggs, one at a time. Then comes the peanut butter. Oh, gooey goodness, yes please. Add the water and vanilla, and make sure everything is combined well, but don't overmix it or it will make a tough cookie. Haha...a tough cookie. I've been called that a time or two. Ok, moving on. Combine the flour and baking soda, and add it to the party. As an aside, if you're mixing this with an electric mixer, go slow with the flour. Flour+high speed=disaster. White will cover everything. So go slow until it's mostly mixed in. This next part, I do by hand, without the mixer. It's just easier. Stir in the oats, then the chocolate chips. Try to resist the urge to eat the dough. It will be tempting. I failed. (I know, I know, raw eggs in the dough=bad idea to eat it raw. I couldn't help myself, and they were fresh eggs!)

The recipe calls for dropping teaspoons of dough onto the baking sheet...what is that? I did rounded tablespoons, at least. Haha. Anyway, scoop the dough in equal portions onto the baking sheet, and bake for anywhere from 8-12 minutes. Mine take 12 cause they're big. The edges should be firm and starting to brown up when they're done. I let them cool just a minute or two on the baking sheet to firm up, then transfer them to a cooling rack to finish cooling. And usually, one cookie ends up disappearing before it reaches the cooling rack. I'm just saying. Someone has to do quality control testing...

These don't last long at my house, between me and my hubby. Mmm. Hope you enjoy too.