peanut butter oatmeal and white chocolate cookies.

This week has been my final week of freedom before semester two starts up for uni, so I have made sure that it has been a nice and relaxing one. In between shifts at work, I have been doing some of my favourite things…sewing, baking, watching tv shows and movies, and of course spending time browsing around pinterest!

While scrolling through the home page of pinterest the other day (this is my favourite way to browse, because I come across so many different things!), I came across a recipe for Peanut Butter Oatmeal and White Chocolate Cookies by Averie Cooks, and instantly pinned it to my ‘make and bake’ board for safe keeping. Over the next couple of days, while continuing to look through all of the wonderful pins, I kept looking back at the cookies (they just look so pretty and yummy!) and knew that I could wait no longer to make them. I just HAD to see if they tasted as good as they looked.

Luckily, we had everything that I needed in the pantry (thank you Mum for making sure we have a constant supply of white chocolate melts!), so I was more than happy to spend part of my afternoon engaging in some impromptu baking.

Now, to be completely honest with you, I was a little worried that this dough was never going to grow up and make it into being a cookie. I made the mistake (well, not really a mistake at all, I would do it again!) of tasting the cookie dough before I started rolling it into balls. Oh my goodness. So good. Almost too good to cook! But I was busting to see what they would taste like in cookie form.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal and White Chocolate Cookies
Recipe adapted from Averie Cooks

120g unsalted butter
1/3 C smooth peanut butter
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1 egg + 1 yolk
3 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/4 C plain flour
1 C whole oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 C white chocolate melts, roughly chopped

1. In a medium-sized microwave safe bowl, melt the butter and peanut butter together.
2. Add the brown and white sugar to the melted butter and peanut butter and stir. Set this in the freezer for a couple of minutes or just wait for it to return the room temperature (when adding the eggs, we don’t want to scramble them!).
3. Add the egg and egg yolk, vanilla extract and stir.
4. Add the flour, oats, baking soda and stir. It should be cookie dough consistency, but if you don’t, add a little more flour if it is too wet, or a little bit of peanut butter if it is too dry.
5. Add the white chocolate pieces and stir.
6. Roll out teaspoon sized balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper about 2 inches apart. Slightly flatten the cookie dough balls with your fingers.
7. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for approximately 10-12 minutes. At about 12 minutes, the cookies may still look a little raw, but we want them to be nice and chewy! Remove the cookies from the oven and let sit for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Recipe yields approximately 34 – 36 cookies.

So, what’s the verdict? I LOVE these cookies! They have the perfect amount of peanut butter in them, and they are oh so chewy. Just how I like my cookies. And the post containing this recipe actually taught me a little bit about the science behind cookie making. It has really made me think differently about making cookies, and I can’t wait to experiment with some of my favourite recipes! I can’t believe that I didn’t already know this, so I just had to share it with you too…

- By having a higher proportion of brown sugar to white sugar, you will get a chewier cookie.
- By melting the butter, rather than creaming it, you get a chewier cookie, less of a cakey cookie, and enhanced flavour.
- Reducing egg whites increases chewiness and reduces dryness.

Hmm…maybe I need to learn more about food sciences. If it results in more baking, why not?!

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