Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies or my first run at gluten-free and dairy-free cookies

As I was getting everything packed and planned for the long weekend at our family cottage, I made myself remember to ship Matt a Father's Day box.

I am HORRIBLE at mailing him packages.  I always plan on getting to it.  On having the kids make stuff for him or whatever, and then we Skype or he tells me he doesn't really need anything anyway.  But with Father's Day coming up (June 16th), I wanted to make sure we at least sent some cards, letters/drawings and a batch of homemade cookies.

I have tried to mail Matt cookies overseas exactly one other time.  I made pumpkin cookies (his favorite) and they were moldy by the time they arrived.  He said it was the worst form of torture because the whole box smelled like pumpkin spices but he couldn't eat any of it.  So on that note, I decided to try a new recipe and alter it to be as mold-resistant as possible, hopefully anyway.

And thus was born:

The peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookie

I started with this recipe and made a couple alterations hoping that by taking out the egg, it would make it less moist and less likely to mold in the desert heat.

My recipe goes like this:

2/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons chia seed meal rehydrated with 6 tablespoons water (check it out)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla
2/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl with an electric mixer or by hand and stir for three minutes or until thoroughly mixed.

Spoon cookie batter into your hand and roll into a ball and press gently against a greased cookie sheet.  Once they are all rolled out, bake for 8-10 minutes.  I suggest letting them cool on the tray before trying to take them off so they don't crumble.

Made approximately 2 1/2 dozen tablespoon sized balls of cookie dough.

The finished product!

I ended up adding an extra 1/3 cup peanut butter from the original recipe because I found it wasn't sticky enough of a batter to even hold the ingredients together.  If you didn't want to add the extra peanut butter, you could substitute in applesauce or a half of a mashed up banana.  The same goes for the 2/3 cup brown sugar.  When I make them next time just for us here, I will probably substitute honey or maple syrup and applesauce for the sugar.  

This is the first time I used all oats instead of flour as the base for the cookie and I really loved how they turned out.  I was a little worried they might end up too crunchy since the bake time isn't very long, but the chia seeds and peanut butter softened them up nicely and it tasted exactly like a regular oatmeal cookie that has flour in it.  This is also the first time I used chia seed meal as an egg replacement in cookies and was surprised how much the cookies rose, just like with regular eggs.

I definitely plan on making this cookie again and several variations with applesauce and maple syrup.

Try it out and let me know what you think!!
I will update you with the (hopefully) mold free results!
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