My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know how I like my chocolate chip cookies - like Grandma's. Soft and chewy and chippity and perfect. But my chocolate chip cookies don't taste like Grandmas. I usually get one of two results: 1 - Doughy, cakey blobs, or 2 - completely flat crunchy cookies that I have to cut apart before removing from the sheet. Grandma must have a secret ingredient (love?).

Anyway, when I feel like making cookies I don't make chocolate chip. Until today. These cookies from Joan at Allrecipes are just the way I like them. They are not traditional chocolate chip cookies, but they are delicious and chocolatey and peanut buttery. And isn't that what everyone really wants?

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oat Cookies (or in Joan's words, Outrageous CC Cookies)

1 stick butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (use natural!)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oats
1 cup semisweets

Cream butter and sugars, add peanut butter, vanilla, and egg and mix well. Mix flour, baking soda and salt separately, then add to wet ingredients. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. A plus with these cookies is that they are quite filling due to the peanut butter and the oats. Two or three and I don't want any more (that's rare!), at least not for an hour or so.... Happy eating!

Helpful Hint: If you want cookies, but don't want to spend hours in a hot kitchen rolling cookies, you can mix up the dough, make just one sheet (or however many) and freeze the rest of the dough. Just double wrap it in Saran Wrap and it will keep for quite a while (not that it ever lasts very long in our house...). To use later, defrost in the refrigerator, or slice while frozen and cook a minute or so longer (but watch it carefully). I like doing this because I can control how many cookies are available to us at one time. And, of course, the next time I want cookies, I don't have to dirty any bowls or do any mixing!