As I’ve said before, when I get bored, I bake. Since it’s usually a spur of the moment thing and all I really want is a sweet diversion, I try to take it as an opportunity to test out a new recipe, rather than just make the same old chocolate chip cookies. This time, I decided to try to COMBINE two of my favorite types of cookies, oatmeal raisin and peanut butter, into a beautiful marriage that would taste something like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. These would be great with raisins or other dried fruit instead of cranberries, but don’t skip the peanuts – they really give that crunchy peanut butter taste! Also, a note about the instruction to hit the pan on the counter halfway through baking: I didn’t make this up but I hoped it would help with chewiness. To hear about the origins, see this New York Times Cooking article.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
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• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup roasted unsalted peanuts

1. Preheat the oven to 300ºF.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening, peanut butter, and sugars.
3. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
4. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. Beat the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
6. Fold in the oats, cranberries, and peanuts. It will be very stiff.
7. Roll the dough into 1” balls and roll in more granulated sugar or freeze on a baking sheet.
8. Place balls 2 in apart on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake 7 min.
9. Remove the baking sheet and give a whack on the stove or countertop to deflate the cookies.
10. Return to the oven and bake 7-10 more minutes until browned but still soft in the middle.

Rating:

4/5 stars.

These are pretty good! I definitely like the flavor combinations, although I would probably reduce the peanuts and oats by half next time to make the dough easier to work with. As with all my cookie recipes, I have real trouble getting these to be my preferred cookie texture – crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. Cooking them at such a low temperature helps with this, but I might replace some more of the granulated sugar with brown sugar in the future as that is supposed to help with chewiness.