In the past few weeks, I’ve made these cookies twice for different gatherings. The recipe is  a twist on traditional peanut butter cookies, is adapted from one published by Relish Magazine a couple years ago. The cookies contain generous amounts of almond butter and almonds, which are good sources of calcium. And oatmeal, even in a cookie, provides plenty of fiber.

Sometimes ingredient list convinces me that cookies are actually healthy, which might be true if I ate only one or two. But these puppies are addicting, and I can’t stop eating them. My solution is to send the extras with Hiram to put in the staff room at work. He and his co-workers would be happy to take any extras you might have, too!

Almond-Butter Oatmeal Cookies

10 tablespoons butter

½ cup almond butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ¾ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

2 ½ cups quick-cooking oatmeal

¾ cup coarsely chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and almond butter until light in color. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in oats and almonds. Drop batter by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake 10 – 15 minutes.

Baking Tips:

1. •The more you cream the butter and almond butter together, the better your cookies will taste.
   

2. •For chewy cookies, underbake by a minute or two. For crispier ones, bake a minute longer than suggested.
   

3. •For more fiber, used old-fashioned rolled oats instead of quick-cooking oatmeal.
   

4. •The original recipe called for cashews instead of almonds. Experiment with different kinds of nuts until you find your favorite flavor combination.