Secret Recipe Club: Peanut butter, almond and raisin cookies

My last Secret Recipe Club (SRC) post was back in November 2012 as we had a break for December and I had a break for January. I first joined the SRC back in Nov 2011 so this is officially my first post in my second year of SRC. For my first assignment I made peanut butter chip pillows and coincidentally I've used peanut butter chips again! You can tell I love my peanut butter :) 

Secret Recipe Club was founded by Amanda from Amanda's Cookin and is now run by April from Angels Homestead. Each month, we are assigned a secret blog where we choose a recipe to make and everyone posts on the same day of the month. This month, I was assigned Finding Joy in My Kitchen. It's run by SnoWhite who picked up cooking as a hobby at graduate school, looking to cook healthy, easy meals on a budget whilst managing her nut allergy. She started her blog during her first year of marriage for her mom. It was a place to document their cooking journey and now serves to be an inspiration to others. 

I had a great time browsing through her recipes - there are a lot of easy, simple meals and as usual it was hard to make a choice. The desserts & treats category was further subdivided into ice cream & cool treats; cookies & bars; cakes; special cakes, frosting & filling; cobbler, crisps & pies; other yummy desserts & treats. I felt like a kid in a candy store - what should I make? I narrowed it down to lemon raspberry cake, mint chocolate crinkles, zucchini cookies and frozen lemon tart.  In the end I decided on these oatmeal raisin cookies mainly because it said 'our favs' next to it. It's her husband's excellent cookie recipe and the best thing is that you can add any extras to the cookie that you like. 

I unpacked a few boxes and used what I had to hand which ended up being peanut butter chips, flaked almonds and raisins. I wasn't sure if it would work but it did. The cookies were really addictive and I was not surprised that the whole batch disappeared in no time! I'll definitely be making these again with different add ins. 

 what I found in my box

 amazing, crisp, addictive cookies

Recipe adapted slightly from Joy in My Kitchen

225g butter

175g brown sugar

180g caster sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

330g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

135g rolled oats

2 cups add ins (choc chips, raisins, cranberry etc) - I used 1 cup of peanut butter chips, 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup flaked almonds

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Grease and line a baking tray with parchment paper. 
• Cream butter and sugars until smooth.
• Add in eggs and vanilla extract.
• Sift flour, baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda and mix in.
• Stir in oats and other add ins.
• Use a small ice cream scoop to place scoops of cookie dough spaced apart on a baking tray.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
• Allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.