Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

The key to a good peanut butter cookie is to make sure that it has a lot of peanut butter flavor. You can achieve this in a number of ways. One is by simply using a good, flavorful brand of peanut butter (always a good idea, actually). Another is to stuff the cookie with a peanut butter filling, or sandwich two cookies together with a smear of peanut butter. Adding peanuts will add crunch and highlight the nuttiness in the peanut butter, too. Yet another way is to use a peanut butter glaze, which is how I gave these tasty Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies a peanut buttery boost.

The cookies themselves are sweet and chewy, with a good peanut butter flavor to them. The oatmeal mixes very well with the flavor of the peanut butter. You might not know there was oatmeal in the cookies if no one mentioned it, but it does add a subtle oaty flavor that makes the cookies a little more addictive than a plainer cookie. The quick cooking oats keep the cookies tender and chewy.

But as I said before, the icing on the cookie is what takes these from good to great – for fans of peanut butter cookies, anyway! It’s a simple glaze of peanut butter mixed with a little bit of milk to make it drizzle-able. It couldn’t be any easier to make. Once it’s on, it is like doubling the peanut butter flavor in every bite. I used a plastic bag with the corner snipped off to pipe on my peanut butter glaze, but you could also just drizzle it on with the tines of a fork after dipping them in a small bowl of the glaze.

Don’t forget to serve these cookies with a big glass of milk.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats (regular or quick-cooking)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup peanut butter (crunchy or regular)

Peanut Butter Glaze
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light. Beat in egg and vanilla extract until smooth, then beat in the peanut butter. Blend in the flour mixture until the dough comes together and no streaks of flour remain.
Drop dough in 1-inch balls on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 11-13 minutes, until cookies are golden brown around the edges.
Allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.

For the glaze, whisk together peanut butter and milk in small bowl. Scrap into a plastic bag and snip the corner off of the bag, then pipe a swirl of glaze onto each cookie. Allow the glaze to set up before storing.

Makes about 30 cookies