Chunky peanut butter and oatmeal chocolate chipsters

My husband's birthday and Father's Day are today, so I thought I'd let him choose a few recipes to get geared up for the two joyous occasions. He was flipping through my copy of Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours and stopped on page 73. Without me seeing what recipe he had stumbled upon, I guessed that it included peanut butter. And I was right! He paused on the page that included these chunky peanut butter and oatmeal chocolate chipsters. 

This cookie was actually pretty fun to make, even though I'm not a fan of peanut butter. I creamed together the butter and sugar like a normal cookie recipe and then had a blast dropping peanut butter into the mixture. I always add a little extra to make my husband happy, and he always appreciates it!

The dry ingredients smelled amazing. I like that the cookies contained both nutmeg and cinnamon.  It almost smelled like an autumn day in this house! The wet and dry ingredients were mixed together and finally married with some chocolate chips.

While I did not taste these cookies, they certainly looked and smelled appetizing. My husband said that it tastes like a chocolate chip cookie, only with peanut butter. He said that it could have used more peanut butter because the taste was too subtle for him. Otherwise, he happily ate his cookie in about 0.2 seconds.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, especially to mine. And Happy birthday (and Happy Father's Day) to my husband!

Ingredients

• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I used regular ground nutmeg)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (8 TBSP) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup peanut butter - chunky or smooth (NOT natural; I used Peter Pan creamy)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, or 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or chunks (I used semisweet chocolate chips)

Directions

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. 

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

Working with a stand mixer, preferably 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. Mix in the chips. If you have the time, cover and chill the dough for about 2 hours or up to 1 day.

If the dough is not chilled, drop rounded tablespoons 2 inches apart onto the baking sheets.  If the dough is chilled, scoop up rounded tablespoons, roll the balls between the palms of your hands 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 will firm as they cool.

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

Yield: About 60 cookies (I halved the recipe and got about 25 cookies using a medium cookie scoop)

Source: Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 73