Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

As is common knowledge, I have quite the soft spot for cookies; it doesn't matter if they are the most traditional of traditional, the same chocolate chip cookies that have been made since the dawn of Hershey's, or if they are strange, adventurous recipes that mix unlikely partners in a surprisingly tasty and offbeat snack.

Peanut Butter cookies are on my list of classic cookies that adorn every bakery case, and I've never found the need to experiment much with them – some chocolate chips or cocoa powder here and there, perhaps. But when I found this recipe for peanut butter cookies, I was amazed at the different, and altogether wholesome, ingredient list: oats, wheat bran, whole wheat flour. I knew I had to try these cookies, and add my own twists. I replaced applesauce for the butter, used raw sugar instead of granulated, and reduced the overall amount of sugar (only slightly with the brown sugar).

The original recipe also made no mention of chocolate chips, and I figured that must have been a printing error of some sort; the chocolate only enhances the peanut butter flavor, and it provides a good, sweet balance to the bran and the oats.
The cookies, then, turned out not only delicious, but nourishing (at least partly so, or as much as a cookie can nourish). At the very least, my spirit was heartily stimulated after eating a couple of these Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Yield: About 4 dozen

Ingredients:

½ cup applesauce
¾ cup raw sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour
¾ cup rolled oats
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup wheat bran
2 tsp. baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat together applesauce, sugars, vanilla, peanut butter, and eggs. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, bran, oats, and baking soda. Slowly stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until smooth. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto an ungreased baking sheet.
3. Bake 15-17 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Back to School with Peanut Butter Cookies

I may be slightly tardy on the whole “back to school” thing (it’s been a few years now since I’ve been “back to school”), but I don’t think it matters how long you have been out of the classroom. When September comes around, the blustery days arrive, and shiny red apples are numerously displayed on every grocery cart, and that feeling of a new start comes rushing back. There is some seriousness to it: as in, what a fun summer, now back to the “real” work. However, what I enjoy is the sensation of change, of starting anew. Of course that comes with the springtime, as well, and a bit more logically, but even still. To me, autumn is another turn in the cycle, and I like to welcome it now with the same traditions that I’ve carried from my grade school days.
Nothing engulfs me with a wave of nostalgia like food does. That’s why it’s around September when I like to pull out the apples, the peanut butter, the oats, the caramel, the macaroni & cheese … all of these foods remind me of the first days returning to school, and I’m pleased that these memories are not ones of terror. Perhaps the food aided as a comfort when returning to a routine after the laziness of summer, but if that’s the case, then it seems even more necessary to utilize their characteristics to help usher in the surprisingly chilly and overcast Fall that we’ve already begun to experience in New York.
So when I found a recipe that combined both peanut butter and oats (two lunchbox cookie staples), I decided to play around with some of the ingredients and came up with the super simple recipe below.

The cookies come out of the oven crisp and flavorful, tasting strongly of peanut butter. The oatmeal gives a unique texture to the cookies, and the wheat bran adds some healthfulness without detracting from the overall taste.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Yield: About 4 dozen

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup peanut butter

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup wheat bran

3/4 cup rolled oats

2 tsp.baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar,vanilla, peanut butter and eggs. In a separate bowl, mix the flour,bran, oats, and baking soda. Slowly stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until smooth. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto an ungreasedcookie sheet.

3. Bake for 14 to 17 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool.