These cookies are semi-healthy, made with whole wheat pastry flour, wholegrain oats, natural peanut butter, and dark chocolate chips. I used Ener-G egg replacer instead of a egg, but I’m quite sure a flax or chia egg would work perfectly, too. Lastly, butter could be replaced with Earth Balance to make this recipe completely vegan.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from here)

• 1/2 cup butter (or EB), softened
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• egg replacer for one egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 3/4 cups rolled oats
• 3 heaping tablespoons natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg replacer and vanilla until smooth. Sift in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt . Add the peanut butter. Lastly, stir in the oats and chocolate.

Scoop dough onto a parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheet (I used a small ice cream scoop for evenly sized cookies.) The cookies should be two inches apart. Press down with a wet fork. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes, taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

I love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter and after seeing chef Michael Smith of the food network make these, I could not resist! I made mine in teeny tiny mini muffin cups, but you could follow Michael Smith and use large ones, which I think would be delightful, but I knew that if I only made 4 big ones, I would have eaten them before anyone else got a taste…

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

This is a vegan recipe courtesy of Dreena Burton’s Eat, Drink, Be Vegan cookbook. I absolutely love this book for it’s healthy and delicious recipes. Dreena manages to make all of the food taste rich- as if eggs or dairy products were used! This was my first time trying these peanut butter- chocolate cookies and as usual, “Eat, Drink, Be Vegan” didn’t disappoint. Those of you with wheat allergies will be happy to know that these cookies are wheat free (if you use spelt or barley flour)!

“Who Put Chocolate In My Peanut Butter” Cookies

• 1/4 cup unrefined sugar
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup + 1 tbsp barley or spelt flour (or 1 cup all purpose)
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 – 2 1/2 tbsp agave syrup (or more maple syrup)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup natural peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a bowl, combine sugar, chocolate chips, and salt. Sift in flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and stir until well combined. In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, agave nectar, vanilla, and oil until well mixed. Add wet mixture to dry and stir until just well combined (do not overmix). With a knife, cut in peanut butter into batter, but just a little, so peanut butter remains in chunks and swirls in the batter. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop rounded tablespoons of batter onto baking sheet evenly spaced apart. Bake for 11 minutes (no longer, or they will dry out). Remove from oven and let cool on pan for one minute (no longer), then transfer to a cooling rack.