Double Oat and Peanut Butter Cookies

I know we just made a batch of peanut butter cookies a few weeks ago, but we quickly demolished those and since I couldn't help myself this morning, I made more cookies with peanut butter. Besides the size between the two, there are quite a few differences between those cookies and the Double Oat and Peanut Butter Cookies I prepared today!

With butter and creamy peanut butter being whipped together for a perfect marriage, we sweetened the combo with an even ratio of granulated sugar and brown sugar - this gave us a level playing field for texture, playing between crispiness from the granulated and moist chewiness from the molasses-backed brown sugar. Egg, water and a generous splash of vanilla later, the mixture was ready for the dry ingredients - all-purpose flour, old-fashioned rolled oats and a little baking soda for spread.

Check one for oats, but where does the "double" come in? From toasted oat rounds, of course (yeah, I just used Cheerios!). A handful of golden raisins followed the cereal, along with a half cup of peanut butter chips to echo the peanut butter already in the dough. You can play around with that if you like - use dark raisins and chocolate chips, or just entirely raisins or chips if you like. Just try and keep the total to around a cup.

Not only are they big because they are stuffed with add-ins, but I also dropped the dough onto the baking sheets using a quarter cup scoop! A couple tips here - these do need some help to bake, so you'll want to level them by flattening the dough balls with moisten palms (this will keep it from sticking). Also, give the cookies plenty of room between them - I spaced them roughly 3" per apart.

Even though they are of decent size, it won't take them long to bake - you'll want to whisk them out of the oven when the edges have taken on a light golden hue. However, don't try and move them right away - leave the thick cookies on the baking sheet to set and cool for a few minutes first. Besides adding a great chunky texture, the cereal stretched the dough out to give you hearty cookies that are fairly large, but not necessarily too heavy in the calorie department.

Recipes
Double Oat and Peanut Butter Cookies