PB&J Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies

I found this recipe on Weelicious last night and made them after Ben went to bed (it seems I do most of my baking at night when Nick is at school... I wonder if that will change when school is out) and MY OH MY were these so good!!!

Nick walked in the back door, stopped and said "you baked!" He then proceeded into the kitchen where he stopped again and said "peanut butter cookies!!!" Then he continued talking to me, noticed the cookies again and interrupted himself mid sentence to say "peanut butter thumb print cookies?!?!?"

:) I think that was a nice treat for him after a really long and hard day (I could take total credit and say I made these just for that occasion - but the fact is that I wanted cookies & I wanted to make some that I could share with Ben without too much guilt).

As usual, I'll share the original recipe first and then share how I changed mine just slightly below.

PB&J Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies (Makes about 60 cookies)

1/2 Cup Butter (1 Stick), softened
1/2 Cup Agave Nectar OR 1/2 Cup Honey

1 Large Egg
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Peanut Butter
1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour 

1 Cup Old Fashioned Oats

1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
Jam, Jelly or Preserves

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place the butter and agave (or honey) in a bowl or standing mixer and beat for 1 minute.
3. Add the egg, vanilla and peanut butter and beat another minute on medium speed or until smooth.

4. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix to combine.

5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix to incorporate.
6. Drop 1 tbsp of the cookie dough onto a silpat or parchment-lined cookie sheet and using your thumb (or index finger if you prefer), make an indentation in the center of each cookie.
7. Fill the indentation of each cookie with about 1/2 teaspoon of jam.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
9. Cool and serve.

Here's how mine were different:

1. I had some agave left from when I made Ben's birthday cake, but not enough. I used as much agave as I had and filled up the rest with honey (probably about a 1/4 cup each).
2. I've been doing this for awhile now with all cookie recipes that want you to put your wet ingredients in one bowl and your dry ingredients in another, and then mix the two: I've always felt it was really stupid to dirty another bowl for dry ingredients, so this is what I do and I haven't noticed a taste difference at all: mix together all the "wet" ingredients as directed. Then mix in the smaller of the dry ingredients (usually the salt, baking powder, etc) with a hand mixer and then slowly stir in the flour.
3. I'm not lucky enough to have a stand mixer, so I mixed all mine with a regular ol' hand mixer.
4. I don't have a Silpat mat or even parchment paper, so my cookies just went on a plain old cookie sheet - didn't seem to bake any differently...
5. There's no way you'll get 60 cookies if you follow the instructions. She says to drop by tablespoon full, which is what I did. I got closer to 45ish cookies (which is plenty).

In any case - these are freaking delicious!!! A bit time consuming but so worth the effort! I'll definitely make these again :)