Moody blues

I know I'm really in a grumpy mood when not even chocolate helps.  Unfortunately, I've been in this grumpy mood for the past couple of weeks.  I really need to do something to shake it.  I almost wanted to skip this post, but I haven't written about the last couple of Tuesdays with Dorie recipes (though I did bake one of them).  Yes, it's guilt that's really getting me going here, but at least something is moving me in the right direction.  You know things are really bad when not even this lovely Valentine's gift from my husband really broke through my bad mood:

That means it's time to bring out the big guns--chocolate with peanut butter.  I'm not ashamed to admit, I have a bit of a Reese's addiction. =)  (We're even coming up on my favorite time of year, when the Reese's Eggs are out!)  And I found a way to work it into my TWD assignment.  This week's recipe?  Chocolate Oatmeal Drops, picked by Caroline and Claire of Bake with Us.  That's right, no peanut butter in the original recipe.  But several of my Twitter buddies commented that they weren't that excited by these cookies.  I figured, what the heck, it can't hurt to throw in some peanut butter chips along with the oatmeal to liven things up!  

The cookie batter is pretty easy to mix up.  I just made half the recipe, since we already had lots of chocolate treats around here.  First you melt together butter, brown sugar, bittersweet chocolate and a bit of water.  (I used the microwave.)  Once all of that is melted and mixed together, you whisk in a egg.  I also added a bit of vanilla, in place of the cinnamon called for in the recipe.  (I don't care for cinnamon with chocolate.)  Next, you stir in the dry ingredients--flour, cocoa powder (I used natural), baking soda, and salt.  (I kept the full amount of salt even though I halved the recipe.)  Finally, you mix in rolled oats, and in my case, the peanut butter chips.  (85 grams, which is about half a cup.)  The batter isn't very stiff; it's more like brownie batter than most cookie batter.  I used my #40 disher to scoop it onto parchment lined baking sheets, and baked the cookies for 11 minutes.  I got 21 cookies from my half-batch.

The verdict?  I really liked these with the peanut butter chips.  The cookies are very chocolatey, and the oatmeal adds some nice chew.  They were a big hit at work.  One of my bankers said they were (the latest) best thing I've ever brought.  I think he was exaggerating because it was almost lunchtime, though. =)  Still, the compliment definitely improved my mood a bit. 

If you'd like to give these a try, you can find the recipe on Caroline's and Claire's blog.  To see what everyone else thought of these cookies, check out this week's Links.