Ingredients

1/3 cup cocoa

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cups oatmeal

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Combine cocoa, sugar, milk & butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

Once the mixture comes to a boil, time it for one minute, then remove from heat and add the peanut butter.

Stir until smooth,  then add the vanilla and oatmeal.

Stir until thoroughly coated.  Working quickly, drop by tablespoonfuls (or bigger) onto parchment or waxed paper.  Let cool and harden.

Watch disappear.

Notes

You can make them any size you want.  We usually make ours pretty big.  Because eating one cookie is always healthier than eating two.  Right?  Right.

It’s best to work quickly when dropping the cookies onto the parchment paper…they will look more uniform because the consistency will change as they begin to cool.

You can add peanuts to this recipe, which adds to the crunch and flavor.  Sometimes we do, but mostly we stick to this version.

My brother-in-law Charles is an engineer, and he was smart enough to figure out that just spooning the warm cookies straight from the pan into a bowl and eating it with a spoon is probably the best decision you’ll make in any given week.  I like to learn from smart people.  And this is amazing.