With the girls becoming more independent each passing day, I am hyper-sensitive and aware that their little brother will be following in their footsteps soon enough. With only a few months remaining in his preschool year, I’ve been very intentional to spend as much quality time with Eli during the day. Some days we go to the YMCA to chase each other in the pool. He wears a floatie, I hold on to a noodle, and we play noodle monster as we take turns being “it.” It is one of our most favorite ways to spend time together, not to mention my way of sneaking in exercise.
Since the time he was about 18 months, we’ve also made it a point to bake together weekly. He’s so good at it now that he intuitively knows when to increase or decrease the speed when creaming the sugar and butter together. One of these days I have a feeling he will have earned a reputation for being the cookie master among his peers, and rightly so.
Last month I felt a bit sad when I had to fill out his Kindergarten registration form. I felt as though an unofficial countdown had begun. My long days with him where it’s just him and I are going to be gone next Fall. It is so very sad.
Last week when Eli asked if we could make cookies, I could not help but think we don’t have many of these kinds of days left. He asked to make chocolate chip, his favorite, and I asked if we could add peanut butter and oatmeal. A delicious compromise we both could agree on.
With the flavor similar to the famed Girl Scouts Do-Si-Do cookies, these cookies are not as sweet but none the less super good. I call these the humble-but-not-so-humble cookies because they look rather plain yet when you bite into one, they taste like a cookie someone put a lot of love and heart into.
I think I will call these Eli’s Cookies, so that way he will always think of me, his mom, when he’s long gone living independently from his parents. I know I am years away from that actually happening, but if experience has taught me anything with Abigail, time flies by so fast. Even with her, I have about 6 years until she leaves the nest. Counting down those days too because when she starts Jr. High in the Fall, I pretty much expect her to pull away from us into her own social life and interests at a rapid rate.
A mother’s work is never done, is it?
If you’re in the mood for a really good cookie that will bring you a little bit of joy today, stop what you’re doing and get baking. Maybe even inviting someone to bake with you to share the love with. Enjoy!
- 1¼ cups raw (turbinado) sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup chunky peanut butter *do not use natural oily peanut butter. JIF or Skippy is good
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup old fashion oats
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Using an electric hand or stand mixer, cream the sugar, butter, peanut butter, egg, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- Add the oats, flour, chocolate chips, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- Mix all the ingredients until the chocolate chips are evenly distributed throughout the dough and the dough has pulled together. You should not see any visible flour.
- Using a medium (approx. 1½ tablespoons) cookie scoop, scoop mounds of cookie dough 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
- Using the bottom of a flat cup or your hand, gently flatten each mound so the cookies are approximately ¾-inch tall.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes until the cookies are golden brown on top and center is somewhat firm to the touch. Remove the cookies from the oven and set them on a heat safe counter or on top of the oven burners.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before removing.
perhaps you should consider homeschooling, then your time with them can last till adulthood 🙂 I made this choice ten years ago and have never regretted it, in fact, each year i see more and more reason to continue, even though half my kids are technically public schooled, they spend a few hours a day online with a real teacher, in classes where they can ask and answer questions, but the rest of the time its me that helps them with their work and i can work education into things like.. well, baking these cookies will be a wonderful example 🙂 They look delicious, and ive always said oatmeal cookies should be paired with chocolate, and chocolate with peanutbutter.. much better than raisins.
What a great recipe, delicious.
Wow, another delicious cookie added to the list to make. Absolutely love your blog Alice, my son is almost turning 2 but I am already secretly fearing the day he leaves the nest too. Thank you for reminding me to cherish all these sweet little moments we have with our little ones while we can:)
Glad you found a peanut butter you like. The key is not to use the natural oily peanut butter. Right now I personally love the Smart Balance or Marantha PB.
I made these cookies this week and we loved them! We don’t eat products with hydrogenated oils (like Skippy/Jif) so I used an organic creamy peanut butter that we like and they came out perfect. So delicious. We will be making more for lunch boxes. Thank you.
The way you spend quality time with Eli, I think it is very sweet. I’m sure you two will find lots of quality time even when he’ll start schooling. Thanks for delicious and simple recipe.
What a lovely combination. I never tried this. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Everything about these looks delicious. Eli sounds like a special kid! Thanks for sharing.
All my favorite cookies in one! I also prefer when they’re small and tall like that because a) i can eat more than one without feeling too bad b) i like them soft and chewy in the middle.
Peanut butter and chocolate chips. Always a nice combination. Can’t wait to try it.
These sound amazing and look super delicious! My hubby LOVES oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. He loves peanut butter as well, so I’m sure the combo would make him a very happy man. I’ll just have to wait until he really deserves it, ha, ha! 🙂
Master Eli is adorable – it will be the end of a treasured era when he goes to kindergarten. These cookies look gorgeous. Is it possible to make them without using an electric mixer? How would they change if the butter was melted?
I’ve been thinking about combining peanut butter and oatmeal in a cookie for a while now… happy to see it’s a successful mixture! I can’t wait to play with this recipe.
These sound lovely!
Oh my gosh! I need a few with a glass of milk. Not sure why I’ve never baked PB & chocolate chip cookies before. Shocking.
These look so good! I told you on insta we had cookies on the brain, looks like we’re on the same page 😉
Like Bacon…. Peanutbutter makes everything better!
my kids are off to kindergarten and middle school in the fall too! time flies. putting these cookies on the list.