Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters -- Tuesdays with Dorie


Time for Tuesdays with Dorie! This week Stefany of Proceed with Caution chose Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters from Dorie's oh-so-fabulous book, Baking From My Home To Yours. There is not too much to say about this recipe, other than it was great! I followed the recipe pretty closely, instead of two sticks of butter I used one butter and one margarine. Why would I do this? I love butter, but once I was making cookies that used one cup of butter and I only had one stick and one stick of margarine, which was strange because I don't even know why I would have purchased stick margarine since I am a 'friend of butter' but anyway, I loved the end result. Something about the oil or whatever it is in margarine that makes the cookies spread less and puff up more, and stay just a touch softer. I like my cookies soft. But I would never use all margarine, just half and half. If a recipe says "butter, no margarine" I usually follow, but if it just says "butter" I take liberties and do halfsies with Blue Bonnet.



Whew, felt like confession, glad I got that out of the way. Now on to my other teensy weensy change, I had a bag of Nestle Toll House Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirled morsels, just chillin' in my pantry for a while. The bag was 10 ounces. Dorie's recipe called for 9 ounces. A fine trade.

I loved the nutmeg and cinnamon and vanilla, those alone would make almost any cookie delicious, add in some peanut butter, and oatmeal, and chocolate chips, yum!




The bad news is that my husband, the main cookie monster of our house (I would prefer cake or bread to cookies, although I do love cookies), did not like them. At all. And there are no scary ingredients like, gasp, coconut, or, shudder, cashews (just for clarification I love both), or something he can't stand. He liked all of the ingredients, but he said these cookies were too dry and too oatmeal-y. He had one bite. Can you believe he only took one bite of a cookie?!? He did not give these little gems the common courtesey of a second bite, maybe a sip of milk inbetween, no, just put it down with one sad little bite mark. Poor cookie. On the other hand I liked them, and the kids loved them, yay! And I got to use up some oatmeal, score!


My one little problem, or maybe footnote, for these cookies is that they look underdone when they are done. If you read my baby nina loafies post you might remember that I am crazy and love it ooey gooey almost underdone but not, well I was a little afraid I would take these out too early and they would completely fall apart because of the oatmeal -- which I have had happen, so I waited until I was 'sure' they were done. And I really should have taken them out at the earliest time mentioned in the recipe and not second guessed, pulled the sheet out, the popped it back in the 'make sure' they were done. Oh-well.


15 comments:

Peggy said...

Your pictures are beautiful!

Cathy said...

Oh, they look amazing! I am glad that you feel comfortable enough with us to share the bit about the margarine -- LOL!! It looks like it worked like a charm; look at your pretty, puffy cookies!! I used all butter and got thin, crispy flat things. I am loving the peanut butter/chocolate swirl chips addition -- I keep wondering where I went wrong with mine. Maybe I just needed more interesting chips. Great job, and great pictures!

CB said...

Oh man. Those chocolate/pb chips look good! I bet they were great in your cookie.
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

Flourchild said...

I love your pictures and your cookies look tasty. My kids loved them and so did my husband. I thought they were good, but a tad bit to sweet.

Nancy/n.o.e said...

I'm with you. Even on the FIFTH sheet I was putting them back in just to be sure they were done. Your chips look fabulous, what a great idea! My husband wasn't a huge fan but he did finish a few.
Nancy

MacDuff said...

These look great!

Rebecca of "Ezra Pound Cake" said...

Swirled morsels! I see more of these cookies in my future ... ;)

Shelby said...

I love those swirled chips!

Prudy said...

What a great idea to use the swirly chips. They look wonderful and thanks for braving the margarine truth.:)

Teanna DiMicco said...

Sorry they weren't a favorite! I would have eaten them right up with those peanut butter and chocolate swilrd chips!

Anonymous said...

Ooh, these sound amazing! The pictures are fantastic, too.

Jayne said...

That threw me, too - that the cookies looked undercooked when they were done. But - lesson learned, right? I loved them, too!

Eleganza Strings/ The DeLadurantey Family said...

Who could not like these?! We thought they where really yummy!

hoagiefest 2020 said...

I wish I had used an extra ounce of chocolate! My choco was virtually nonexistant! They look great, and I forgive you for the grievous margarine confession. Er...well, I'll try to forgive you at any rate.

Bungalow Barbara said...

I've read somewhere (maybe it was Cooks' Illustrated?) that using part margarine or vegetable shortening makes cookies spread less and hold their shape more. On the other hand, if you really want thin, crispy cookies, go for all butter.

Good for you for figuring this out on your own!

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