Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies! They combine all my favorite cookie element into one amazing cookie. They're pretty filling thanks to the oats and peanut butter. And they're less unhealthy than a lot of cookies out there--sweetened with maple syrup instead of refined sugar, full of oaty goodness, gluten-free if you care about that, and using dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet.

I may or may not eat these for breakfast sometimes. Because oatmeal and maple syrup are breakfast food, right? Please don't judge me.

And please make these cookies.

That is all.


Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted slightly from Cookie and Kate
Yield: 28 cookies (more or less depending on the size of your cookies)

Ingredients
2/3 cup natural peanut butter
2/3 cup real maple syrup
4 Tbsp. butter or coconut oil, melted
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2-3/4 cup rolled oats, divided (or use 1-1/4 cups oat flour plus 1-1/2 cups rolled oats)
1 to 1-1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
2-4 Tbsp. whole wheat flour or oat flour (optional)

Directions
To a medium-large bowl, add the peanut butter, maple syrup, butter/coconut oil, vanilla extract, and egg. Using a mixer, blend until well combined, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the salt, baking soda, and baking powder; mix again until well blended.

Measure 1-1/4 cups oats into a small food processor. Blend until the oats resemble a coarse flour. Add ground oats and remaining 1-1/2 cup rolled oats to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, stir the dough until it's mostly combined; add the dark chocolate chips; stir until well combined. If the dough seems too wet, add 2-4 Tbsp. whole wheat flour, as needed.

Move oven racks to the upper and lower thirds of your oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop cookie dough into balls/heaps (they don't have to be tidy) and arrange on baking sheets. I used a cookie scoop that's about 1-1/2 Tbsp. For a flatter cookie, smoosh each mound/ball down a bit; for taller cookies, don't smoosh them.

Bake for 12-15 minutes total, switching the upper and lower pans with each other about halfway through the baking time. They're done when they starting to brown around the edges and on the bottom, but are still pretty soft to the touch. When they're done, remove both pans from the oven and allow the cookies to cool fully on the baking sheets (they'll keep cooking while they cool, which is why it's important to pull them out of the oven while they're still pretty soft).

These cookies taste great right away while they're still warm and gooey. They also store well in Tupperware for a few days. Whatever you can't eat or share within a few days, put in a Ziploc bag and toss into the freezer; retrieve 1 or 2 whenever you need a quick cookie fix!