This recipe is originally from a reader named Bonnie who sent it to me with a note saying the cookies were her husband's favorite. An endorsement from a family member is always a good thing, but here's what I really like. These oatmeal peanut butter cookies are made with oil rather than butter. This means you don't have to pull out an electric mixer, but rather just stir everything together. That, plus you can experiment with different types of oil.
Other Healthy Ingredients
Not only did Bonnie use oil in place of butter, she used whole wheat pastry flour and lots of oats, nuts and fruit. Following Bonnie's "healthy" lead I baked my first batch using Central Market natural style peanut butter, but since then I've used different types of peanut butter including regular Jif. And instead of the walnuts and dried cranberries called for in the recipe, I've used other combinations of dried fruit and nuts. I've even used alternative sweetener in place of the sugar and have swapped out the flour for keto flour. The dough stands up to anything!
More Peanut Butter Cookies With Oil Notes
It's not a low calorie cookie recipe, but Bonnie's cookies do have some nutritional value. That, plus the recipe is a really fun one to play with. I really like this one. Maybe the next time I'll try making them with half oil and half melted or butter.
Recipe
Bonnie's Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup canola oil or your favorite vegetable oil
- ¾ cup peanut butter
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- ⅔ cup chopped cranberries or chocolate chips
- ⅔ cup chopped walnuts or any other nut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 and have ready a couple of ungreased baking sheets.
- With a mixing spoon, beat together oil & peanut butter. Add sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt & cinnamon. Beat in eggs & vanilla. Stir in flour; then stir in oats, cranberries and nuts.
- Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls' or level tablespoons onto the ungreased baking sheets and bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.
- I haven't baked all my dough yet, but the yield is probably around 36 cookies.
Karen says
A major thunderstorm came thru last night and cooled things down considerably plus we got some MUCH needed rain. I baked 2 kinds of cookies, one was your Oatmeal Gingersnaps and the other was an Oatmeal Peanutbutter recipe. (I guess I was into oatmeal.) 🙂 It wasn't Bonnie's recipe though.
Soft Peanutbutter Oatmeal Cookies and comes from Allrecipes.com.
1 cup margarine, softened (I used 1/2 c. butter, 1/2 c. shortening)
1 1/2 cup peanutbutter
1 cup each white sugar and packed brown sugar (I used light)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (I used 1/4 t.)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour OR 2 3/4 c. flour & 3/4 c. oatmeal (I used the oatmeal combination, quick oatmeal)
Combine margarine, peanutbutter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Blend together very well.
Add flour, baking soda and salt with mixer. Chill dough 15 minutes in the refrigerator. Roll into balls by hand. (I made them about walnut size.)
Place on sprayed cookie sheet (parchment paper) and bake in a preheated 350 degree F (175 degree C) oven for 7-10 minutes. (It took the entire 10 minutes plus.) Don't overcook. We store them in plastic storage containers, and they stay soft! Yield: about 6 dozen.
They are soft and roundish, did not flatten out much. Dough seemed kind of dry, but they turned out great. Still yummy the next morning! I debated if I would take out about 2 Tablespoons of flour next time. Jury is out on that one. Be good to have some one else try this recipe.
Rosalie says
I'll have to try these because I usually like the texture of cookies made with oil. I made your chocolate chip/cornflake recipe with oil and butter and everyone loved them.
Jan Harris says
How do you think they would do using non pastry flour, such as white whole wheat or just plain all purpose?
Jan Harris says
How do you think they would do using non pastry flour, such as white whole wheat or just plain all purpose?
Mackenzie@The Caramel Cookie says
These look interesting! They sure are packed with a bunch of goodies!
Rodzilla says
I ran the nutrition for the heck of it, using light brown sugar, and chocolate chips each 42g cookie is 155kcal 10gFat 14gCarb and 3gPro
I think I may give them a try using coconut oil. Thanks Beth and Anna 🙂
Cookie Sleuth says
A semi-healthy cookie is perfect for this time of year!
Therese B. says
Well, if Elvis had his way these would have bacon added to them.
Paula B. says
Oh yeah, these sound great, I'm all for the ingredients: p.b., chocolate chips and nuts, yes! Cookie exchanges coming up, will be making this week, thanks to both of you ladies.
Anna says
Adam, try them out! You can make a half batch. Plus you don't even have to pull out the electric mixer. I used a fork.
Sue, the cranberries sounded strange to me, but peanut butter goes with jelly so I figured it would go with berries. It's a good combo, but I do prefer the chocolate version.
Laura, you are right. And as much as I like butter, I don't really miss its flavor because there are so many other flavors in the cookies. The cinnamon, chocolate, peanut butter combination gives them kind of a Mexican feel.
Laura @ Laura's Sweet Spot! says
You don't see a lot of cookie recipes that use oil- what a great bump in nutrition!
Sue says
These look really good and I like the idea that they have some food value other than calories. I'm not sure what I think of the cranberry peanut butter combo, but I like the idea of the peanut butter and raisins or chocolate + nuts.
Adam says
I had been planning on doing PB cookies this weekend for a party, but I also wanted to make some oatmeal raisin cookies for myself. Now I'm conflicted. I don't want to bring untested cookies to a party, but this seems like the best of both worlds and I feel compelled to make them :).