Episode Companion: Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe came into my home several years ago at the holidays. I usually face the coworker holiday cookie box with a bit of skepticism, but this was different. This cookie was sweet, a little salty, and completely addictive. AND it came with a recipe! I have thanked the heavens for the lovely Annie Hunt and her delicious oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chips cookies many times. I'm quite sure you will, too.

• The butter softening via mallet is one of the best tricks I know. Plus it's fun! Enjoy.
• Be sure to check your baking powder's expiration date. Unless you're a super baker (I most certainly am not) it's unlikely that you'll get through the whole can before it goes kaput. Here's a nifty link to the Home Baking Association page describing how to check your baking ingredients for freshness.
• I had already pounded the butter into oblivion when we did the ingredient roll call, so I needed a substitute. I thought a tomato would be funny. I was wrong.
• I realize now that "half a bag" is the sort of measurement that drives me crazy. What I mean is half a 12 oz bag, which is about 3/4 cup.
• I put in too much vanilla! The half tablespoon measuring spoon I had wasn't me making do; it was the perfect amount.
  
• If you find my eyeball and dollop method for measuring sticky things too imprecise, spray your measuring cups with Pam to ease clean up. You can also get one of these plunger measuring cup thingies, which are handy but annoying to clean.
• Please do not use a fork to level off your dry ingredients. It won't work well. A finger, however, works fine and is the f-word I meant to say.
• "For the love of Mike" is a phrase I learned from a play I did in college called Machinal. It amuses me, as does "a fistful of oats," which I made up.
• A loyal fan recently asked me why the dough must be chilled, which is a somewhat odd thing to do with a drop cookie (as opposed to a cut out one). I think the answer is that the dough is really sticky and tough to work with fresh out of the mixer. Also, soft butter = spready cookies, so the refrigeration likely also helps preserve the cookies' structural integrity.