Whole Grain Peanut Butter Oatmeal (Chocolate Chip) Cookies

Awhile back I ran across a recipe for whole grain pb choco chip cookies.  It looked very familiar - it was like the classic choco chip cookie recipe you find everywhere, except with some peanut butter, oats, and millet added - but the amount of sugar had been doubled!  "Pshaw," I thought, "this will be fine with the regular amount of sugar in it."  And it is.  I dropped the millet, too.  It was weird (yes, I tried it once).

These cookies are soft and chewy, so if you want to use regular whole wheat flour (made from hard red winter wheat), you could probably do so.  I'm going to make a batch of them with creamy peanut butter, no nuts, and chocolate ganache on top instead of chips inside, for Granddad.

These cookies have so much protein and fiber in them, they're more like real food than dessert.  I've eaten them for breakfast or lunch a number of times while on the road.  Very filling!  I'm also experimenting with replacing some of the flour with whey protein powder (had some sitting around in the pantry for a muffin recipe I've lost track of).  So far I've done a batch where I swapped 1/4 of a cup, and the taste and texture were fine.

I told Kira I'd get her this recipe after she visited back in the spring.  I'm not sure I've got her email address, so I figure this will make its way to her somehow or another.

Whole Grain Peanut Butter Oatmeal (Chocolate Chip) Cookies:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar or evaporated cane juice
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup rolled oats
2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (King Arthur)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
3 eggs
1 cup (6 oz) chocolate chips (mini-morsels are good for this) (optional)
1 cup nuts, chopped (optional)

Directions:

1)  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, or lightly grease.
2)  In a large bowl beat sugars with softened butter for 3 minutes. Beat in eggs and peanut butter.
3)  Stir in oats, chocolate chips, and nuts. 

4)  Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to wet stuff and stir until combined.
5)  Scoop dough into ~ 1-1 1/4" balls. Flatten with a fork dipped in sugar, or your thumb to make PB thumbprint cookies, or the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar - they will not spread or flatten on their own and will be underdone in the middle if left spherical.

6)  Bake for 10 minutes exactly if dough is at or near room temperature. With white whole wheat flour, the darker cookies will not noticeably brown at all when done - just the bare edges of the ones in the back.

7) Allow cookies to cool for three minutes before removing them from the baking sheet to a wire rack.  They can be eaten as soon as they're cool enough to hold!

Yields about 4 dozen. You can scoop the dough into balls and freeze them on a cookie sheet, then transfer to freezer ziploc once frozen. You can also make 1" thick slabs of dough, wrap in 2 or 3 layers of plastic wrap, and place in a freezer ziplock.  Allow dough balls to thaw, and flatten them before baking.