Honey Toffee Peanut Butter Cookies

By Helen Lee — These are great cookies for when you have a little bit of everything left over in your pantry. If you are looking for a recipe that you can toss just about anything you can imagine in, then this is for you.  I first came across this recipe when I needed to use up the left over ingredients after I made my holiday cookies. I had white and dark chocolate chips, pecans, tons of brown sugar and honey to use up. I chose to omit the toffee and use the white chocolate chips instead. My family absolutely loved them! The fact that there is something in them to make everyone happy made this recipe perfect for me!  These are the cookies that you want to make for a bake sale or potluck dinner because with so many different ingredients there is sure to be something in them that will peak someone’s interest.

I also experimented with a white chocolate almond pistachio version! For this I substituted the chocolate chips with white chocolate chips, the peanut butter with almond butter and instead of toffee bits I used chopped pistachios. This version is a completely different cookie in the end, but I thought they may have actually been better than the original recipe! I love to use recipes that you can just toss a little bit of everything into because it’s a nice surprise when you try something new and it works.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 (10 ounce) bag  semi-sweet chocolate morsels
4 ounces toffee chopped pieces

Directions

In a mini food processor or blender, process 1 cup oats until ground fine.
Mix together ground oats, remaining 1/2 cup whole oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
With a mixer beat together the softened butter and both sugars and honey until light and fluffy.
Add in eggs, one at a time, the vanilla and peanut butter.
Mix well until smooth and creamy.
Mix in the flour mixture until combined.
Fold in chips and toffee bits.
Heat oven to 325°F.

*For a distinct and complex floral flavor, use raw wildflower honey

*For a stronger, pungent, molasses like earthy flavor, use raw buckwheat honey

I used raw honey over regular liquid honey because raw honey is unheated, unpasteurized, unfiltered, unprocessed, unblended and is in the same condition as it was in the hive. Heating honey (pasteurization) destroys the all of the pollen, enzymes, propolis, vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants, minerals, and aromatics found in the hive. Honey that has been heated and filtered is called liquid, regular or commercial honey.The reason some honey is heated and filtered is that the majority of Americans prefer the convenience of being able to spoon, pour or squeeze honey from a bottle onto their cereal or into their tea.In addition, liquid or regular honey is clearer, easier to measure or spread than raw honey and many people think that honey that has crystallized is spoiled so they discard it. Honey that has been heated and filtered will not crystallize as fast as raw honey.

Raw honey is also stiff in texture and unlike liquid honey it can be spooned out rather than poured which for me is better in the end since it makes clean up a little easier.  I also use raw honey as a medicinal supplement so I have in the house all the time, but if you cannot find raw honey the pasteurized liquid kind will work just fine. I also used natural creamy peanut butter so I could use the raw nuts I had in them as well. If you decide to use natural peanut butter make sure it is stirred well and has the oils evenly distributed through it so your cookies don’t come out too dry.

By Joseph Ford