Peanut Butter Oat Cookies

Can you believe it's almost 2011? I've probably told you this before but one of my favorite quotes from Toni Morrison's masterpiece, BELOVED, is when Sethe tells her daughter this: "It's so hard for me to believe in time. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay."

Gorgeous, no? Just to be able to say "I don't believe in time anymore."

Still and all, it's the time of year when we all measure time's passing. And mostly, we do it by making resolutions. (Well, that and by drinking too much champagne. A pretty gorgeous thing, too.)

If I can be so bold, I'd like to propse a resolution for us all, me included: let's all nudge ourselves one step more whole in our food choices. Which means one step browner.

In other words, let's eat more whole grains.

We don't have to go nuts and chow down on millet the first week out. I said "browner," not all the way to Birkenstocks.

It's a simple resolution. There are plenty of whole-grain recipes on this blog. And great books by the likes of Lorna Sass and Robin Asbell.

Here's what I'm talking about: a recipe that sneaks the grain in without too much trouble. It's a great treat--and with whole grains, even better. Again, browner. You don't have to give up cookies. Just make better ones. As in these from our ULTIMATE PEANUT BUTTER BOOK:

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Peanut Butter Biscotti

Have I told you this one? That earlier this year, we crossed our 10,000th recipe professionally developed? And I'm talking about the ones for pay. You get to see a lot of the ones Bruce makes up on the fly right here on this blog.

Needless to say, I can't remember them all. Sometimes, someone will say, "Oh, I made your. . . ." My eyes glaze over. Because I'm scared I won't remember. And so will look like an idiot. Instead of looking like an overworked food writer. Which is much the same thing.

But some recipes I remember well. Like these biscotti. I've been meaning to get back to this recipe for years.

When we were writing our peanut butter tome--yes, we have a whole book on peanut butter which you can see here--I wanted to come up with biscotti in which peanut butter replaces any other fat (except for the fat in the eggs). You understand, when I say "I wanted to come up with biscotti," I mean that I wanted Bruce to come up with biscotti. Hey, somebody has to be the idea man. It's a tough job. Especially for an overworked food writer who often looks like an idiot.

This recipe is the result. I finally got back to it a couple of weeks ago to take to a dinner party as a house gift--and it was like meeting an old friend. Peanut butter, dried fruit (like the jelly in a PB&J), lots and lots of crunch. I DID have a pretty good idea. You might like these, too, especially for the holidays.

So let's get to it.

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Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

OK, now it gets serious. Really serious. Because I love peanut butter. I think that may have had something to do with writing the darn peanut butter book. I could live on the stuff. Have, in fact. When I was a kid, I wanted PB&J at every turn. My mother insisted on olive loaf and white bread. Of course, she was trying desperately to keep me straight.

We made these little cookies from said peanut butter book the other night--but then gave them a twist with the filling. More on that in a minute. First, the cookies.

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Cold Peanut Noodles

When we wrote The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book, I was for a time in heaven. Peanut butter is just one of those things: comforting, deep-tasting, salty, sweet. That the French hate it so much is a mystery to me. I consider it the foie gras of America. (Well, OK, almost.)

The great thing about cooking with peanut butter--particularly savory cooking--is that you're starting with an already developed sauce, as it were. There are so many deep, caramelized flavors going on in peanut butter that you're miles ahead of the sauce-making game from the get-go.

So this easy side dish--or main course for a light lunch--is a wonderful thing on a summer day. (I wouldn't know--it's raining and cold here in the Berkshires. But I have a pretty vivid imagination.)

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