Kitchen Sink Cookies

This is a great recipe that adapts well to what you have on hand. I made this for my husband's and my office when I needed to clean out my ever growing pantry. Everyone gobbled them up like there was no tomorrow.

Kitchen Sink Cookies
Yield: 50 cookies (molded with a 1/8 measuring cup)


INGREDIENTS
4.5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup crushed peanuts (unroasted, no salt)
1 3/4 cup evaporated cane sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups natural creamy peanut butter (peanuts, salt)*
*I used Maranatha Organic Creamy Peanut Butter which is the best Peanut Butter EVER. I don't think any of the other natural peanut butter's I have tried would yield the same results.



DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).


Mix together oatmeal, baking soda, chocolate chips, raisins, coconut, and peanuts. Set aside.


In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, butter, vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter. I beat for a few minutes until everything is well incorporated.


Mix together wet and dry ingredients. This is where my KitchenAid shines. The dough gets a little difficult to mix by hand (I have puny muscles). Mold the very sticky dough into a 1/8 measuring cup or whatever you have on hand and then flatten out a bit with a fork on the cookie sheet. You can always roll them into balls and flatten if you wanted to. I'm just OCD and need them all to be the same size.


Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for 12-20 minutes depending on your oven strength and how crispy you like your cookies. My oven is not that strong so after 20 minutes they are perfectly crispy and chewy!




Hope you all like them! When I can get my hands on my husband's new camera, I'll post some pictures.