Hearty Oatmeal Cookies

After my last simple oatmeal cookie recipe, I felt this was a great contrast.  This cookie has a little bit of everything: whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, peanut butter, molasses, chocolate chips, pecans, toffee bits and coconut.  These cookies are not for wimps!  They are delicious and full of goodies.

I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and added a few other ingredients.  They are called ‘winter energy cookies’ on the site.  I left out the wheat germ and the raisins since I didn’t want to go buy anything to complete the recipe.  I used half butter and half shortening.  I was so happy to be able to add what was left in my bags of toffee, pecans and coconut.  It feels good to empty those bags and throw them away.  I hate to have those mostly empty bags taking up precious space in my cabinets!  Our kitchen in not exactly what you could call “spacious”.  I do love my kitchen though.  It requires almost no movement to move from fridge to counter to oven!  A little kitchen has its perks.

I liked these cookies quite a bit, and I think you could add or take away based on your personal preferences.  Dried cranberries and white chocolate chips with pecans and coconut might be my next trial.

Hearty Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients
  • ½  cup unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ cup shortening
  • 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup molasses
  • 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup pecans, chopped
  • ¾ cup shredded coconut
  • ½ – ¾ cup toffee pieces
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. Cream the butter, shortening, sugar, molasses, and peanut butter in a large bowl. Blend in the eggs and vanilla.
  3. Mix the both flours, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, until evenly blended.
  4. Stir in the oats, chocolate chips, etc.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
  5. Shape dough into balls, about golf ball size. Place on greased cookie sheets, and flatten slightly with your palm.
  6. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes. When done, the tops will still be soft to the touch. Cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.