recipe: peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with sea salt

I made these cookies a few weekends ago for a bunch of middle school girls. We went up to a cabin and spent the night, followed by a day of shopping and this was a midnight snack (literally! I was baking these around 11:30 at night :). My rule of thumb is to try a recipe before making it for the actual event and I failed to do this - and should have. I'll share my mistakes with you so you can avoid them. First, I forgot the chocolate chips so I made peanut butter oatmeal with sea salt cookies :) They turned out rather well but the chocolate was going to be my biggest selling point with the girls. Some of them were hesitant when they heard the sea salt part but I think most of them at least tried a cookie. These also served as breakfast the next morning :) The recipe says it yields about 4 dozen. However, I think I made right at 2 dozen. I think I ended up making mine bigger than I should have. One thing that I was happy with was the decision to buy disposable pans. They were bubbled in the center and the cookies came right off after they cooled. Sometimes I have an issue with them sticking to the aluminum foil (even if I spray with cooking spray) but these pans were a big time saver and I could just toss them when done. So, here's the recipe and you can go to Recipe Girl's site to look at the picture by picture instructions.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter (or crunchy if you want crunch)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup quick cooking oats (see *Tips below)
One 12-ounce package chocolate chips (I prefer milk chocolate)
sea salt, for sprinkling on top

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray baking sheets with nonstick spray (or line with parchment or silpat mats).

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer at medium speed to combine the butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in the eggs one at a time until they are incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and beat until combined.

4. Stir in the oats and the chocolate chips.

5. Drop the cookies in rounded tablespoonfuls onto the cookie sheet, 3 inches apart. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, or until cookies are set and cooked through to the middle. Timing will probably be about 12 minutes, but check first batch at 10, and then keep checking at 1 minute intervals until they are looking perfect. Then you can set timing for the remaining batches.