Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip-Oatmeal Cookies

I was visiting my sister-in-law and spied some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on her stove and my jaw dropped. They were the most beautifully shaped cookie I have ever seen from a homemaker's kitchen. I thought it was the recipe, but in fact it was her technique. Ah-ha, so....I bought a new stone for cookie baking and I love it!

My cookies are baking up as beautiful as can be and now look as good as they taste. I couldn't be happier or more excited. So now I am taking all my old cookie recipes and re-making them to bake on the stone just for fun. I no longer have the spreading issue I had with baking cookies in the past. It seemed that no matter what I tried, whether I chilled the dough or even froze the dough in cute little balls, they would consistently spread and flatten. I tried measuring my flour from every measuring cup I own using both the scoop and sweep method vs. spooning my flour into my cup and sweeping. I switched to weighing flour thinking that might fix the problem since my measuring was in-consistent. I bought new baking powders and sodas thinking mine were just too old. I tried baking on every cookie sheet imaginable including a silpat to no avail. I was so discouraged with cookie baking I turned to other baking. How can somebody who manages to make some pretty fun things not be able to bake a cookie! To think my problem resolved around a baking stone and a lower temp. So far all the cookies on my new stone are baking up 25-30 minutes in a 300 degree oven using a #30 scoop. I get these plump little beauties that I can proudly call my own....not just a relief, but how fun is that!

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip-Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup (1/2 lb.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips (12 oz.)
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 cup unsalted roasted peanuts, chopped

Instructions

1. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and peanut butter until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
2. In another bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir or beat into butter mixture until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips, oats, and peanuts.
3. Drop dough in rounded 2-tablespoon portions, 3 inches apart, onto buttered or cooking parchment-lined 12- by 15-inch baking sheets. With a lightly floured fork, flatten slightly into 2 1/2-inch rounds about 1/2 inch thick.
4. Bake in a 350° oven until cookies are golden and tops feel set when lightly pressed, 12 to 14 minutes (they will feel underdone but will firm up as they cool); if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking.
5. Let stand 5 minutes on sheets, then, with a wide spatula, transfer cookies to racks to cool. If hot cookies start to break, slide a thin spatula under them to release; let stand on pan to firm up, 2 to 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Marlene Sorosky Gray, Sunset NOVEMBER 2003