TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters (say that 3 times fast)

For your consideration: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 73, featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorrie.

Hmm. Oatmeal. Cookies. Like oatmeal. Like cookies. No like oatmeal cookies. (Won't touch or even think about oatmeal raisin cookies). Gotta take one for the team though, so off we go. I have my fingers crossed that maybe my tastebuds have changed or maybe this is one great cookie that will turn the beat around.

Mise en place

Gotta love the sideswipe blade!

Alrighty then. All is beaten, combined and blended. Raw batter is pretty good. Things are looking up. I decided to let the batter sit and (wooooh) meld/become one with the universe per the optional instruction from Dorrie and as I had read about recently regarding one of the “secrets” of the NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies. I let the batter sit for almost 24 hours. Off came the plastic wrap, in went my scooper and crrrrrunch went the scooper. The dough was so solid and so concrete-like that it caused the little gears on my scoop go out of line and the blade thingy to stay poked out. I hope DH can fix it. (footnote: DH came thru and got it popped back in. Thanks, honey).

I forged ahead. Using the remains of the scoop, I doled out the dough, rolling and pressing as prescribed. I am not having very benevolent feelings toward these cookies so far.

After the bake cycle, out they came. They looked pretty good, but man these suckers don't spead at all. In fact they looked exactly the same as when I put them in. Taste-test when they came out of the oven: (drum roll please) .... eh. Dry, somewhat crumbly, overwhelming oatmeal taste. Others felt the cinnamon or the peanut butter; all I tasted was oatmeal slivers. Sorry, I'm just not an oatmeal cookie fan. I did have somewhere to take these to though as I personally wouldn't be eating my weight in these. The next day there was a function at school – they love treats at school – and I brought them in, even though I hate to bring in stuff I don't like because I'm afraid everyone will think they suck too. They were a huge hit! (Really??) I had to double check for myself, and surprisingly, they tasted much better the day after. Although these definitely haven’t converted me, I might make them again (without resting the dough just to see if that was it) for a bake sale or other event that demanded an oatmealy submission.

Thanks to Stefany of Proceed with Caution for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with these chipsters, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making the Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters for yourself, you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.