Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies (PBCCBO)

Peanut butter, chocolate, banana and oatmeal - four of my favorite combinations in one big circular sweets is like heaven to me. I don't think any of my families are crazy about these combinations but I absolutely love them. Let me just tell you about peanut butter and chocolate... This is just me, but I feel like I always have a nice conversation with someone, when my starter ice-breaker conversation revolves around peanut butter and chocolate. And I think that has to do with the fact that as humans, we LOVE to talk about what we love right? And we LOVE commonalities with others - that's just human nature. Now if you're not a peanut butter lover, I'm sure this doesn't apply to you (and I respect that), but I thought I'd mention that thought as a peanut butter and chocolate advocate for this blog post (:

Servings: 28 medium sized cookies

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil 
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• 1 egg 
• 2 Tablespoon unsweetened/unsalted creamy peanut butter (I always use the one at Trader Joe's!)
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 ripe banana (use the really dark ones!) 
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used Nestle's semi-sweet) 
• 1 cup old fashioned oats 

Instructions: 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and spread parchment paper on a baking sheet. 
• In a medium bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and ground cinnamon and whisk it together. 
• In a large bowl, beat the oil, sugar until well mixed then add the egg.
• Once the egg is well-mixed in, add the vanilla extract, peanut butter, followed with mashed banana. 
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients at 4-5 increments at a time. 
• Once everything is mixed, add the oats, followed by the chocolate chips.
  (*NOTE* it might take some time for the dough to have that 'doughy' texture because of the amount of oats you're putting in, but trust me...it will become like cookie dough. You just have to continue to patiently fold it) 
• Use any type of soup spoon (about a Tablespoon) and scrape some cookie dough, roll it in a ball, press it down and place it on the baking sheet. 
• Bake fore about 10 minutes (depending on your cookie size, you may need to increase the amount of time to bake) 
• Once the bottom of the cookie turns golden brown, take them out. 
• Using the back of the spoon, press down the cookies while they're nice and hot. 

You can either enjoy it while it nice and warm (my favorite way - because it's all ooey gooey!) or you can cool them on a rack - whichever one will work (:

Cookie dough rolled up and placed on baking sheet 

PBCCBO cookies fresh out of the oven (: 

I was always worried about excluding butter when I bake cookies but I think I am finally content with this recipe. Previously, when I tried to make cookies without butter, they turned out like cake...and it just wasn't tasty (my friends who were the guinea pig would know how painful those were...) but these are soft, and gooey just like a regular cookie !

I hope you enjoy the recipe - and please let me know how the recipe goes for you! I would really love to know how it all goes (: Feel free to comment on anything - I am excited for a baking or even a foodie community to develop throughout this blog!

With that being said, thank you again for visiting.
From my kitchen to yours, Happy Baking!

Smiles, 

Mei